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ZIP Magazine Volume 2 Issue 4
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| | ±±±±±±±±± ±±±±±±±±±± ±±±±±±±±± ÿ VOL 2 ISSUE 4 |
| | ±± ±± ±± ±± |ÿ JULY 1989 |
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| | NUMBER ONE CHOICE FOR HOME MS-DOS USERS | |
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| | MODIFYING A 1.44 DRIVE ......... 5 ||||||||ÃÙ |
| | TALKING ABOUT THE TOOLS ........ 6 |||||||ÃÙ |
| | TOM'S TIDBITS .................. 7 ||||||ÃÙ |
| | PUBLIC BRAND SOFTWARE .......... 11 |||||ÃÙ |
| | CURING THE 1124 PAPER PROBLEM .. 14 ||||ÃÙ |
| | M.BAT .......................... 18 |||ÃÙ |
| | OMNIHEY 102 KEY KEYBOARD ....... 28 ||ÃÙ |
| | OPTUNE ......................... 29 |ÃÙ |
| | DOUBLE DISK CONVERTER .......... 34 ÃÙ |
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| Ron Alcorn & W.H. Lambdin EDITORS |
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| TABLE OF CONTENTS |
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| VOLUME 2 ISSUE 4 |
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| EDITOR'S CORNER ................................. page 3 |
| FEEDBACK ........................................ page 4 |
| MODIFYING A 1.44 DRIVE .......................... page 5 |
| TALKING ABOUT THE TOOLS ......................... page 6 |
| TOM'S TIDBITS ................................... page 7 |
| IN OPPOSITION TO BILL S.386 ..................... page 9 |
| PUBLIC BRAND SOFTWARE ........................... page 11 |
| PUTTING 1.4 MEG ON 720K DISKETTES ............... page 13 |
| CURING THE 1124 PAPER FEED PROBLEM .............. page 14 |
| WHAT TO LOOK FOR IS COMMUNICATION SOFTWARE ...... page 15 |
| WHAT'S ZMODEM ................................... page 17 |
| M.BAT ........................................... page 18 |
| OMNIKEY 102 KEY KEYBOARD ........................ page 28 |
| OPTUNE .......................................... page 29 |
| MEMORY MATE ..................................... page 31 |
| DOUBLE DISK CONVERTER ........................... page 34 |
| NEW BBS'S ....................................... page 36 |
| QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ........................... page 36 |
| TECHNICAL DATA NEEDED ........................... page 37 |
| ZIP INFO ........................................ page 38 |
| CMW ENTERPRISES AD .............................. page 39 |
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EDITOR'S CORNER
This is our Sixth issue of ZIP magazine, and it has been a
blast bringing it to you. Hope you continue to like, and
support ZIP magazine.
ZIP has done so many things, it has blown us away. We fully
expected ZIP to go for two issues, and end with no one liking
it. We created ZIP to see what would happen.
When John Baker read it, he told us we really had something.
I didn't take him serious,but now, I see that his statement
has come true, and went on beyond it.
We were shocked by the response from just the first issue.
The day after we uploaded ZIP to Strawberry Patch BBS, there
were 10 or 15 messages to us, about ZIP. Everyone had
positive comments.
In this last year, Zip has found it's way to Canada, Greece,
Africa, and a host of BBS's around the U.S. ZIP has also been
in outer space bouncing around on Satellites, in users group
libraries, and in two schools I know of. In Laurel County
vocational school, it is required reading in the Computer
Literacy courses, and it is making the rounds in Sue Bennett
College. It is amazing that it got into two of the schools I
used to attend. ZIP has been a shocking Experience.
It has been a blast logging onto BBS's when ZIP has preceded
us. Most of the time when the sysop's have been watching,
they have validated us immediately. Just because they
recognized the name.
I recently bought a Tandy 1400 LT laptop computer, so from
now on, I plan to do most of the work on this little guy. It
doesn't have a Hard drive, It doesn't have a 286 processor,
It doesn't even have EGA graphic's. But I like it as well as
my 12 megahertz AT compatible with it's VGA capability, and
it's 64 meg hard drive. The portability of this little guy
balances out a lot of things. It's screen is the standard 80
by 25 columns of text, and 8 shades of blue. It has a peach
of a screen, It is backlit, and the blue characters, are very
easy on the eyes. It doesn't cause me to have head-aches like
a standard CRT does. It also has a good keyboard.
FEEDBACK
Congrats on the new issue of ZIP! You have a fine magazine,I
posted ZIP on my BBS the same day that I got it, and almost
all of my callers have downloaded it already! Shows they
have good taste! Catch U Later. James Pottorff
There is always something informative in ZIP. Keep up the
good work. You should be proud of ZIP. Brian Hurley
ZIP is the best computer magazine I have seen in a long time.
Sylvia Vaughn
I am leaving this message to congratulate ZIP for being the
best electronic magazine, I have ever seen. I really
appreciate Tom Croley warning people about the dangers of
using an RLL controller on an MFM drive. Tom Johnson
Editor's
I just found ZIP last night, and downloaded 4 issues. It's
the nicest publication of it's kind I have seen, and the
price is really right. Thank's for an entertaining and
informative magazine. I just wish you'd give that cable TV
stuff a rest.
Mr. Lambdin, I too bought Sprint. I wish I had had the good
sense to dump it within Borland's sixty day trial period.
It's a dog. The user interface is completely
incomprehensible, and the manuals were overwhelming.
Fortunately, I found another user who actually wanted to try
Sprint out, and I was glad to get rid of it for $45.00. Since
then, I have switched to XyWrite III+ and it has all the
features that I can possibly use, and it's fast too. I'm sold
on it.
Mr. Alcorn, I got one of the Panasonic 1124 printers, and
it's terrific! Like you, I wish you could change printer
emulations through software, but I can live with the front
panel selection. I had one minor problem with continuous
form's not feeding properly, but a call to Panasonic's
customer service took care of it quickly. I have written a
short article describing the problem, and it's solution for
possible inclusion in ZIP.
Thank's again for a fine electronic magazine.
Sincerely
David N. Hoshor
EDITOR'S NOTE: On the ZIP INFO page, we state. "We will
publish any article you submit, so that is why the Cable
articles appeared in ZIP.
MODIFYING A 1.44 DRIVE
by W.H. Lambdin
Last week my 1.44 drive locked up, and Ron and I took it
apart to see if we could find the problem. The lubrication
the company had installed on the drive shaft had attracted
dust like a magnet. We cleaned it up, and re lubricated the
drive shaft with a teflon base oil. It is supposed to be
long lasting, and not attract dust. If you want to know the
brand of oil it is, leave me a message on a BBS.
After we reassembled the drive, we noticed two places jumpers
could be installed. They were labeled as L and H. We put a
jumper on the pins next to the H.
We turned on the computer and formatted a disk. It formatted
to 1.44 meg. It did not have the hole to signify a high
density disk. We formatted another disk, as 720K. The drive
would not format. We removed the jumper, and the drive went
back to normal. Formatting 720's, and 1.44's only if they
have the hole. We tried several other attempts, but Ron got
the idea to remove the key lock connection from the mother
board, and put it on the jumper. This did not work for both
types of media.
So we cut the connection off of the keylock wires. Then we
soldered the wires to the pins. Now I can format 1.44's
without the holes, and when I need to work with 720's I only
need to turn the lock on the case. Later we intend to put a
toggle switch on the pins, and go back to using the key lock
for what it was intended for.
I hardly ever use the keylock anyway, so It can wait a while.
I only wish the drive would read and format 720's with the
jumper in place. Then I would have the best of both worlds.
I have not had any troubles with using the 1.44's. If I need
to make some 1.44's for a friend, I only have to make the
hole as described in the article "Putting 1.44 meg on 720K
diskettes"
A lot of people ask how I can tell what media the disks are
without the holes. I simply reply. "I use two 720's, and
they are both in my laptop. So it must be a 1.44"
TALKING ABOUT THE TOOLS
by Moses Harris
Reprinted with permission from 518 Connect
If carpenters spent as much time talking about hammers as
computer users spend talking about PC's we'd all be living in
lean-tos and using rocks for furniture.
Conversations between computer enthusiasts are very
predictable. We spend most of our time comparing
specifications, talking about tweaking our systems for peak
performance, and planning on buying the next, newest,
fastest, sleekest wizbang PC. You seldom hear anyone talking
about the novel they wrote with their word processor, the
budget they figured out with their spreadsheet, or the
conversation they had on a BBS. Instead it's tales of the
equipment. We are more interested in the tool than in what
can be done with it.
It's an easy trap to fall into. The technology is
fascinating, bordering on magic. It's amazing that all this
complex stuff works so smoothly together, and tempting to
spend all our time learning how it works. But like a New Age
Yuppie who's quest for Truth leaves him self centered and
empty, the computer nerd who constantly expands his knowledge
of the tool with out ever using it is wasting his time. His
life.
I bought my PC for word processing and game playing. (This
time consuming BBS habit came later.) Sure, I'd like to spend
several grand on a 25 mhz 386 with a 15 ms ESDI 110 meg hard
disk and 8 megs of RAM. A document that normally takes three
minutes to spell check could be checked it a minute or so,
which would save me a whole five or six minutes a week. I
could telecommunicate at 19,200 baud, if it weren't for the
fact that the local lines are so filthy that 2400 baud is
troublesome, and no BBS in the area has modems that fast.
And just think of the games, how smoothly they would run, as
long as the machine was slowed down first.
Will such a machine make me a better writer? Or would it
make more sense to hang on to my clunky 8086 clone and spend
some of that money on writing classes?
We like to call ourselves power users. We look down our noses
at the fools that still use CP/M Osbornes. But while we are
fiddling with the latest release of Ventura, trying to get
the fonts to mix correctly on our laser printer, they are
writing. While we are arguing the merits of Excel over
SuperCalc they are finishing their work with an old copy of
VisiCalc. While we are discussing our tools, they are
working with theirs.
Who are the real power users?
TOM'S TIDBITS
by Tom Croley
Associate Editor
This month I offer some miscellaneous notes from all over. If
you have questions or ideas that you would like to share in
my column, you can write to me at:
Tom Tidbits
Box 188
Battle Ground, WA, 98604
HUMBLE PIE
If you expect to survive as a self-proclaimed computer
expert, prepare to be humbled. A real expert gains knowledge
from whatever source it may come. On the other hand, I have
talked to many "know it all experts" who simply will not
listen to the good ideas of anyone. The other day, for
instance, I gained a new trick from the lips of a 7 year old,
game playing lad. One model computer that I sell goes
through the pre-boot ram test twice before booting up...and
it does it rather slowly. One day I was complaining about
this fact and Travis Hill, a 7 year old casual user, piped up
that I didn't have to wait. "Just press enter", he said,
"and it will take right off." I didn't believe him, but then
to my surprise, when I tried it, he was right. Humble pie! I
promptly thanked him for this bit of information and then
went home and called all of the customers that had purchased
that model from me and informed them of this good news. (They
were all complaining of slow boot time.) This trick does not
work on all computers, in fact, only on a few types, but I
bet you have never tried it. Never be so proud in your
knowledge that you fail to listen to those who seem to be
below you in expertise. Face it, no matter how much you know
about computers and their use, there will always be someone
as far above you in knowledge and skill as the stars are
above the earth. And, like me, you might learn a trick or
two from those who are just beginning whose minds are not
cluttered with the "right" procedure.
DIRECTORY TIP
Did you know that from the root directory of your hard disk,
if you type
dir *.
and press enter you will usually get a quick list of all the
sub-directories. Files that have no extension may also come
up.
PARTITION HEADACHES
Don't rush out and buy "DOS 4.1" thinking that your DOS
partition problems will be over. DOS 4.1, for example,
allows you to have a single dos partition up to 2 gigabytes
in size. Or so they say. I discovered that it will not work
with all disk drives. If your disk drive has more that 1024
cylinders you can forget it. You will still have to use more
than one partition. Usually it is better to have more than
one partition on a large disk drive anyway but if having one
large partition is what you want, first check the specs of
your disk drive before jumping into DOS 4.1. I recently
purchase a Mini-Scribe 72 megabyte drive for a customer who
had to have a large drive with a single partition. No way
could be get DOS to handle that puppy in one chunk. Even
with DOS 4.1 we had to set up two partitions. We finally
settled for two partitions... Drive C with 1 Meg and Drive D
with 71 Meg.
EXTRA MILEAGE
If you are a member of cheapskates anonymous here is a hot
tip. Everybody loves those new toothpaste dispensers that
pump the gooie stuff out in neat doses but nobody likes the
extra price you have to pay just for the pump. Sometimes as
much as $.90 extra. Buy one pump dispenser and an extra tube
of toothpaste. When the dispenser is empty, hold it firmly
grasping the top in one hand and the bottom in the other.
Snap the top off in a breaking motion. It takes moderate
effort. You will now see a inner cover in the cylinder that
has a 3/8" hole in it. Place the full tube over the hole and
squeeze. Walla! The cylinder fills. Snap the top back on.
Clean up the mess and you are back in business.
(I know this is not about computers, but I just had to throw
it in.)
NEW RULERS for NEW MONITORS
Many people complain about the shrinking dollar. Have you
noticed that the all American INCH is now shrinking. It has
happened so slowly that almost no-one has noticed. The other
day I sold a new Imtec 14" flat screen monitor to a nice man
in the ribbon re-inking business. He called me up a few days
later and asked why his 14" monitor only measured 13 inches.
I asked, "Are you measuring it diagonally?" He assured me
that he was. On my next trip out his way, I stopped in with
my tape measure in hand. Sure enough, his 14" monitor
measured only 13 inches corner to corner. I embarrassingly
told him that they must all be that way and expressed my
surprise and offered my sympathy. I also offered to replace
it with a nice new Samsung, like mine, if he desired. WELL!
When I got home, I held out my tape to my wonderful 14"
Samsung and to my surprise, it measured only 12.5 inches.
What a blow! I never noticed that before! I rushed over to a
friend's house and measured his Samsung 12" flat screen and
found it to be a hearty 11.5 inches. My 4 year old, 13"
Commodore 1701 measures 13.25 inches. What has happened to
the inch. Somebody is trying to pull the wool over our
monitors and they are doing a pretty good job of it too. Now
get out your tape measure and see how YOUR monitor stands the
test.
EDITOR'S NOTE: I tested my Samsung 14 inch Multi-sync
monitor. It turned out to be only 13.5 inches from corner to
corner, but the 10.5 inch monitor on my Tandy 1400 LT,
tested to 10.5 inches. I guess the laptop maker's decided the
monitors were already small enough.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Keep in mind that the plastic covering around
the monitor is covering part of the actual tube. When they
give a size of 14" screen, they really mean the size of the
picture tube itself. -->> Ron Alcorn
IN OPPOSITION TO THE METZENBAUM BILL KNOWN AS S. 386
by W.H. Lambdin
Senator Howard Metzenbaum has authored a bill to the senate,
that if passed, will make the ownership of a semi-automatic
fire arm illegal.
This started a while back when that guy took an AK-47 or look
alike, and shot up the School in Stockton California. I know
this is not as complete as it should be, but I was waiting
till I could get more facts, and some of the happenings
escapes me.
I am sure that most like me thought this law would relate to
assault weapons. I learned that it also applys to all
semi-automatic weapons. This law if passed would make all
semi automatic weapons illegal, unless of course you notify
the government that you have one of these weapons, and fill
out some forms. Then you would be under the government
scrutiny whether you get to keep them.
There are several other bills in legislation now, that are
almost duplicates of the S. 386 bill by Howard Metzenbaum. If
you want to protect your investment in fire arms, write or
call your congressmen, and senators. Inform them that you are
against the following bills.
S.386 written by Howard Metzenbaum from Ohio
S.747 written by Dennis DeConcini from Arizona
H.R. 1154 by Sam Gibbons from Flordia
These Bills are from this point of view, "if you can stop
people from buying guns, this will cut down on crime".
Friends; This simply won't work. It will only take guns away
from the law abiding citizens. Criminals that want a gun for
a crime, will not go to the sporting goods store, and stand
in line to buy a gun over the counter, especially when most
states require a waiting period. And before you can take
position of the gun, you must go to the county seat, and have
your fingerprints sent to the FBI to see if you are wanted
for some crime. A criminal would not dare do this, He will
buy guns off the black market where there will be no
questions asked. Think about it. Drug's are not the only
thing that get smuggled into this country. A lot of guns get
smuggled in too.
I see no need for gun control laws other than the ones we
already have. Let the Legislative body stop wasting money on
these half baked bills. I would prefer to see the congress,
and senate get together, and fund the building of more
prisons, or tying up the loopholes in laws we already have.
As long as we have these bleeding hearts wanting to plea
bargain, the situation will not get any better. It is already
so bad that the criminal has more rights than the victim of
the crime.
It is time to wake up, and smell the coffee. Years ago, there
was a deterrent to crime with the death penalty. Now Thanks
to some bills the criminal gets a slap on the wrist. THIS IS
NOT RIGHT!
Back in the late 60's, and early 70's, congress wanted to
take the Saturday night specials. Now they want the semi
automatic weapons, and assault weapons. When is the madness
going to stop, "when we are left with only our Steak knives
for defense??
According to the constitution, and bill of rights, we have
the right to keep, and bear arm's. Are these representatives,
and senators wanting people to be defenseless?
If I had been defenseless, on June 10th 1987, I would have
been hurt badly, or killed. A guy tried to stab me with a
screw driver, because I saw him trying to steal a battery.
When he saw that I had a gun, he yelled an obscenity, and
left in a big hurry. He was arrested later. The fact that I
had a gun, probably saved my life. I didn't have to shoot
"thank goodness", so neither person was injured. You don't
have to live in a big city to come near crime. This happened
in a town of less than 1000 citizens.
We civilians greatly outnumber the police, and everyone knows
that they can't do two jobs of enforcer, and protector.
in closing, I say, let the law abiding citizens keep guns for
protection, and sports. But PLEASE strengthen some of the
laws dealing with crimes where guns are involved.
PUBLIC BRAND SOFTWARE
by Dave Seitz
Reprinted with permission from 518 Connect
One of the most difficult tasks for you as a BBS user is
knowing what a program does given only the one line
description that most systems have. A typical entry will have
a file name, date, file size and about a 40 character
description of the program. For some programs, this is enough
- the program may do only one thing, or the general
description may help you decide if you want to download the
program and learn to use it. What if you could have someone
evaluate and test many of the shareware and public domain
programs available, and tell you what each program could do,
what hardware was needed to run them, and give you a rating
for the overall quality of each program? Impossible? No. Its
already been done, and you can receive the guide, in the form
of a catalog, from Public Brand Software.
Public Brand Software is a software distributor. They gather
programs from all over the country, evaluate and test them,
and publish the results in their catalog. An ongoing
Shareware/PD contest, for which awards are given, assures PBS
of receiving plenty of programs. The best entries (about half
of all received) are included in their catalog, which
currently lists over 600 programs.
Program descriptions and ratings generally fall into five
categories:
1) Ratings - From one star for "Probably worth $5.00" (their
charge to send the program) to four stars for "Excellent
Disk or Program - Invaluable Addition". For top
programs, a 'Trophy', for "Tremendous - No commercial
program is better" is awarded.
2) Expertise - This suggests the level of experience a user
should have to get the most out of the program, and
includes Beginner, Intermediate and Experienced.
3) Hardware - Required memory, system monitor, printer,
software (BASICA), disk drive(s) and memory
resident/non-resident status for each program is shown.
4) Copyright Status - Programs are listed as Public Domain
(not copyrighted), "Bannerware", where copyright is
reserved by the author, but no registration fee is
required, and Shareware, where the author asks/requires
that a registration fee be paid if you obtain and use the
program. The shareware fee for each program is also
listed. For users that register their programs with the
author, there are usually additional benefits, which can
include telephone or BBS support, source code, a printed
manual, newsletter, no-charge updates, and possibly an
enhanced version of the program.
5) Description - Generally a complete description of the
program(s) features, its compatibility with other
programs, its unique strengths or shortcomings, and in
many cases a comparison to standard commercial programs.
This section 'sells' the program by explaining what it
can do for you, and how it can be used to accomplish a
given task.
Many of the programs listed in the catalog are available on
your local 518 area bulletin boards. Using the catalog as a
guide, you can search out the best menu systems, disk
utilities, text editors, games - anything you need. If there
is something in the catalog that you can not find locally,
PBS will send you the program for $5 for each 5/14 360k disk
and $6 for each 3 1/2 720k disk. In most cases disks contain
more than one program (up to 20 for file, memory, keyboard
and screen utilities), and special packages such as
"Beginners Necessities", "New Users Pack", and "Business
Users Pack" are available.
PBS is also in the process of setting up their own BBS,
which will have all the catalog software (over a gigabyte
total), four 1200 - 9600 bps lines, author forums, and other
features. The system will be available June 15th, and will
be in full production by August 1st. A $50.00 yearly
subscription gives you 1 hour per day access (plus phone
charges - $.24/min day, $.17/min evening and $.13/min night
from the 518 area) with no per-minute connect costs. A
discounted first year subscription of $35.00 is being offered
until August 1st., and your subscription includes a printed
users guide, a directory listing on disk, and a sign-on
password.
If you want the PBS catalog (no charge), or more information
on their new BBS, call them at 1-800-426-DISK.
PUTTING 1.44 MEG ON 720K DISKETTES
by W.H. Lambdin
There have been a lot of talk about using low density 3.5
disk's as 1.44 disk's. There are tools to make the necessary
incision.
The following is a list of things I have discovered during
the last 8 month's I have been doing this.
1. You can take a drill to make the hole. You should use a
1/8 th inch bit or 3/16th inch bit. When you drill the
hole use the drill at a slow setting, because the drill
bit will get hot and melt the plastic if you get in a
hurry. Also you have more of a chance of throwing the
plastic pieces onto the media. I have been using these
disk's for 8 months. None of them have gone bad. I have
been using the cheapo 85 cent disk's too. While this
trick works, I prefer to use this next option.
2. I prefer using a soldering iron to make the holes, but I
never started using the soldering iron till very
recently. I thought it would really stink up the place
from the melting plastic, but I came up with a solution
to cut the stink down to a minimum, wipe the plastic off
of the iron onto a paper towel, and this helps a great
deal. You don't need an expensive soldering iron. Any
iron that is rated 10 to 15 watts. anything higher, burns
the plastic more, and stink's worse. You should be able
to get one for $5 to $10. This soldering iron will pay
for itself many times over because you can save from $1
to $3 every time you make that silly little hole. I
prefer the soldering iron because it doesn't allow
plastic chip's to get on the media, and if you take it
slow, it will seal up the hole so no dust will get in
either. The Soldering iron tip should be 1/8 th inch in
diameter, and about 1/2 inch long so you can go
completely through the disk. I like to go through the
disk from both sides. this completely seals the gap
between the plastic walls.
Of course you are thinking, "it can't be that easy". But it
really is that easy. The only differences between the low
density disk's and the high density disks is, the high
density disk's have that hole opposite the write protect
notch, and the high density disk's are verified to hold 1.44
megs. This does not mean the low density disks won't hold
1.44. It only means that they weren't tested for the density.
To position the hole, open the write protect notch on a disk,
and flip it upside down onto another disk, then take a lead
pencil with .5 millimeter lead, and draw the box on the disk.
To get the exact position. draw an x in the box.
Of course you wonder what can you do about the melted plastic
on both sides of the disks. If you don't rush the soldering
iron, there will not be much plastic on the outside. If you
are careful with a knife, you can cut the plastic off very
smoothly. It work's better if the plastic is warm. My best
results have been when there is one person making the holes,
and another person cutting the plastic off. I recommend a
knife with a thin blade so you can completely remove the
ridge of plastic on both sides.
Today, I modified 50 disk's, and 48 of them formatted all the
way to 1.44 meg's. That means 96% of the disks formatted to
two times their capacity On the first attempt to format.
After I finished formatting the 48, I took my bulk eraser,
and erased the two disks that failed to format. Then I tried
reformatting them. They formatted to 1.44 with no errors.
This makes my test 100% successful. I know this sounds like
fiction, but it is fact. These disks were the 89 cent
generic's. I saved $2 on each disk, because I don't have to
buy those disk's with the nice square holes. It is silly that
they charge $2 for that hole!
One last note. If you going to convert disk's that have been
formatted to 720K, you should bulk erase them. Sometimes the
drive get's confused, with the remnants of the 720K format.
This will only crop up on some drives periodically. At least
it does on my TEAC 1.44.
CURING THE PANASONIC KX-P1124 PAPER FEED PROBLEM
by David N. Hoshor
I recently bought a Panasonic KX-P1124 printer and was
having trouble with the paper not lining up properly after
doing a form feed. The paper would keep shifting upward a
fraction of a line with each page printed while in the paper
push mode. The errors accumulate, and by the time a large
document was finished printing, the form might be off by a
third of a page or more. The solution is simple, as I found
out from Panasonic's technical service.
The problem is caused by a buckle in the paper between the
paper pushing tractor and the platen where the print head
does the printing. To get rid of the buckle, load the paper
using the memo load feature (FUNCTION + ONLINE), then put the
paper feed selector lever on the left side of the machine
into the T PULL position. Reach into the printer, and pull
up gently on the paper. The paper will rise by as much as ¬
inch. Put the paper feed selector lever back in the T PUSH
position, and readjust the paper using the platen knob.
That's all there is to it. The paper will continue to feed
properly until you use the paper park feature, or load new
paper.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN A COMMUNICATIONS PROGRAM
By Dave Seitz
Accessing a bulletin board requires that the PC owner have
communications software that is going to get the job done.
Today, literally hundreds of such programs are marketed,
ranging in scope from simple line by line TTY emulators to
programs that include such features as unattended file
transfer, automatic sign-on and sign-off procedures and
emulation of different terminal types.
Different programs have a variety of features and
requirements that the user may wish to consider when
evaluating a package. Some of these are:
Memory Requirements - Most communications programs have
memory requirements ranging from 64K to 192K bytes. Some
integrated programs that include communications need from
384K to 640K bytes.
Modem Compatibility - Communications programs may support a
specific type of modem or may be programmable to support many
types. Compatibility with an existing modem can be ensured by
checking the command set supported by the communications
program.
Mode Selection - For the novice user, a menu driven program
makes the various options easier to use and understand. After
a certain level of skill is gained, a command driven program
can become more efficient. Some programs let the user select
the mode of operation, based on their needs.
Dialing Directory - Programs can incorporate dialing
directories ranging in scope from a simple listing of phone
numbers to detailed entries that include a text description
of the destination, number to be dialed and parameter
settings. Some programs permit ten or less entries, which may
be sufficient for many users, while others are limited only
by available disk storage.
Terminal Emulation - If your PC will be used to access
another system, either PC or mainframe, selectable emulation
modes are needed to convert screen control codes into
equivalents that the microcomputer recognizes. ANSI mode, for
example, is a standard for many bulletin board systems.
Another standard is VT100 emulation, developed by Digital
Equipment Corporation.Error Detection and Correction - For file transfer
operations, the communications program should be able to
detect the occurrence of an error and automatically correct
the error without intervention. An example is the XMODEM
protocol, where data is grouped into 128 byte blocks, the
ASCII values of all 128 characters are added, and a checksum
value is obtained and appended to the end of the data block.
If the checksum does not match the value obtained by the
receiving PC, the block is retransmitted.
Foreground/Background Operations - Some programs allow the
user to perform other system tasks at the same time file
transfer operations are being done. This free's the PC up for
other work during lengthy transfers.
Programmable Macros - This feature allows the user to store
passwords and other keystroke sequences, and execute them
with a single keystroke, saving time by avoiding the typing
of repetitive commands or steps.
Disk Directory Access - For file transfer operations, the
ability to access floppy of hard disk directories can be a
valuable feature. Available space can then be monitored
without leaving the program and terminating the connection to
the host system.
Protocol Setting - This can range from the basics, such as
number of data bits, type of parity and number of stop bits,
to more sophisticated options such as specifying the type of
error detection and correction to be used for transferring
files.
Screen Capture Option - Some communications programs allow
screen images to be captured to disk, for later viewing or
editing. This is a useful feature for obtaining a file
listing from a bulletin board, or for capturing announcements
or messages with information that you want to keep.
Automatic Operations Support - Communications programs are
available that will automatically dial calls, retry numbers
that are busy, or place calls at a specified time.
Selectable Data Rate/Communications Port - In the case of an
external modem, options for serial port 1 or 2 may eliminate
a recabling process -some programs assume the modem
connection will be made on port 1 only. Selectable data rates
allow the user to adjust speed if he finds his favorite board
is now running at something other than normal speed.
Other features to consider when evaluating a communications
package might be the availability of clock display (to record
to duration of a call), operating system version
requirements, program distribution media and drive
requirements, and program documentation.
While experienced users each have their favorite programs,
this list should give the new or ready to upgrade user an
idea of the basic communications software features that
should be considered when selecting a program. The right
communications program can make a real difference in your
ability to access and enjoy the excellent bulletin boards
that are available in this area.
WHAT'S ZMODEM
by W.H. Lambdin
I have been running ZIP 2 BBS, and lately I changed the name
to SnapShot Express. It has been a lot of fun running this
BBS, but there are some people that call in, and choose
Xmodem as their default protocol.
When I ask them why they use Xmodem, they say that they like
Xmodem for the error correction. When I ask them why they
didn't step up to Ymodem or Zmodem. They act like they have
never heard of those protocols.
I explain that Ymodem sends 1K block's instead of 128 byte
block's as Xmodem does, and this makes the transfer's a lot
faster, and they have error correction actually better than
Xmodem. On 2400 baud transfers, Xmodem average's 193 CPS
(characters per second), where Ymodem and Zmodem both average
around 227 to 230 cps. This will speed up transfers more
than you would think.
Ymodem is sometimes known as 1K xmodem, it allows you to
download one file at a time. There is a second Ymodem
protocol. Ymodem batch, this protocol allows you to download
multiple files with one command. You can use wildcards too.
Zmodem has the same capabilities as Ymodem batch, but Zmodem
also has one definite advantage. It has crash recovery. This
is nice because if the transfer is aborted, you can finish
the download from where it aborted, instead of having to
download the entire file the next time you log on to the BBS.
If you want to use one of these high powered protocols,and
your terminal program doesn't support them, I would recommend
for you to get Telix 3.11. It has 12 protocols, and It has
one of the best Zmodem implementations, I have seen in a
terminal. TPBoard has the best implementation. It uses Zmodem
from "Protocol Engine", written by Joaquim H. Homrighausen.
I have heard that Zmodem is 10 or 15% faster than Ymodem.
From my experiences, It is about the same speed as Ymodem.
In my opinion, Zmodem is the best protocol there is!
M.BAT
by Chan Shippy
Rt. 1. Box 87
Colome, SD 57528
phone 605 842-2724
This article describes how to set up and use M.BAT, a batch
file that displays a menu for running your programs. Many of
the techniques used are designed to speed up the operation of
M.BAT and can also be used in other batch files. M.BAT is
useful only on a hard disk as batch files of this size run
too slow with floppy's to be practical.
Many DOS shells and menu programs are available. The DOS
shells will do many things, copy files etc., however, they do
not work too well as a menu for running programs. You, or
someone running your computer, has to remember the filename
(and it's subdirectory) for the program you want to run. They
also absorb from 30 to 150K of memory before your program is
loaded. The menu programs are not the memory hogs that
shells are, however, they still absorb some memory before a
program is loaded. Except for batch file basics, the
knowledge required to set up a menu program is basically the
same as that required to set up M.BAT. The price of M.BAT is
also right!
A batch file will use from 50 bytes up to about 4K of memory
before a program is loaded. If you understand what a batch
file is and have created even a simple one, you should be
able to set up M.BAT. M.BAT requires the utility
CHECKEY.COM. A brief description of CHECKEY.COM and the
procedure to create it is at the end of this article.
Unless you want everything in a batch file to be displayed,
begin it with the line [ECHO OFF]. With DOS 3.3 or later, a
[@] at the beginning of a line will suppress that line from
being displayed. If you have DOS 3.3, I suggest that you put
a [@] at the beginning of the first line before [ECHO OFF].
There are many ways to create a blank line with a batch file
when ECHO is OFF. With later versions of DOS, [ECHO]
immediately followed by a colon [:] is the simplest for me.
If this does not work for you, [ECHO] followed by a space and
then ASCII character 255 will work with any version of DOS.
As ASCII 255 is a blank (not a space), a blank line is
displayed. You may create the ASCII 255 character with many
word processors and with the DOS COPY CON procedure by
holding down the Alt key and then pressing 255 on the numeric
keypad.
If you put a single [M] on last line of your AUTOEXEC.BAT
file, M.BAT will run automatically when you boot up. If your
disk already has a file named [M] rename M.BAT TO MENU.BAT,
or whatever you wish. M.BAT should be in your root
subdirectory on in one that is pathed to. You can then run
M.BAT by typing [M] and pressing Enter.
When running a program from a batch file, I always include
the full pathname before the filename, even if the file is in
a subdirectory that is pathed to. This speeds up execution
of the batch file, as DOS does not have to search for the
file. For example, by using [C:\UTIL\CHECKEY], DOS will
quickly find and execute the program CHECKEY.COM. The only
exception is if you are in the subdirectory that the called
program is in.
To save typing in M.BAT, you may load this file into your
word processor, then mark and copy everything between the two
lines of [*]'s, and save the block as M.BAT. This must be
saved as a straight ASCII file (document mode on some word
processors). When you have M.BAT typed into a file you may
then edit it to suit your purposes. You should delete the 10
spaces at the beginning of each line.
CHECKEY.COM is required by M.BAT to get the key press for
your menu choice. If CHECKEY.COM is to be located in a
subdirectory other than C:\UTIL, change the line:
IF EXIST C:\UTIL\CHECKEY.COM
to: IF EXIST [your location]\CHECKEY.COM.
You would also need to change the line that calls CHECKEY
(first line preceding the [IF ERRORLEVEL ...] lines).
When first called, M.BAT checks to see if CHECKEY.COM is
available, and if it is goes to the label [:START]. When you
exit a program that you have been running from M.BAT you are
also returned to the :START label. The lines following
:START clear the screen and insure that your computer is in
the root directory of drive C:. The menu choices are
displayed, and CHECKEY is called. CHECKEY returns an
ERRORLEVEL of 1-37. The 37 lines immediately following
CHECKEY check for this ERRORLEVEL. (The ERRORLEVEL returned
is 1-10 for the keys 1-0, 11-36 for the keys A-Z and 37 for
the Esc key).
DO NOT delete any of the [IF ERRORLEVEL .. ] lines. CHECKEY
will return an ERRORLEVEL for any valid key that is pressed
(invalid keys are ignored). DOS's [IF ERRORLEVEL] command
interprets an ERRORLEVEL equal to or greater than the
ERRORLEVEL being checked as true, so if you delete one of the
ERRORLEVEL lines, the following line will be executed when
the key associated with the missing line is pressed. For
this same reason you have to check for largest ERRORLEVEL
first. For all menu choices that you will not be using,
change the line:
IF ERRORLEVEL [?] GOTO [label]
to: IF ERRORLEVEL [?] GOTO GETKEY
For example, if you will not be using [D.] as a menu choice,
the line to check for ERRORLEVEL 14 (D) should be:
IF ERRORLEVEL 14 GOTO GETKEY REM D
This calls CHECKEY without re-displaying the menu. The
[REM D] at the end of the line is not required and is ignored
by DOS, it's just a reminder of the menu choice for this
particular line. You could leave the line [IF ERRORLEVEL 14
GOTO D] and have the first line following the label :D say
[GOTO GETKEY] or [GOTO START]. However, the [GOTO GETKEY]
after the label :D will execute slower as DOS has to read an
extra line and GOTO START will be even slower as the menu is
re-displayed.
Esc returns an ERRORLEVEL of 37 so check for this first. If
[Esc] is pressed, the line [IF ERRORLEVEL 37 GOTO DOS]
transfers control to the first line following the label :DOS.
The screen is cleared and M.BAT exits to root of drive C:,
(due to the lines immediately following the label :START).
You will want to change the line that say's Chan's EZ- menu
to [your name] EZ-menu. I deleted several spaces between the
two columns of the menu to fit this article (margin of 10 on
each side - 60 character line width). You may want to insert
some spaces between the two columns to center the second
column. This will also give more room for menu descriptions
in the first column.
M.BAT has 36 menu choices. You will want to change most, if
not all of the menu choices programmed into the example. An
example on how to do this follows. Look at the choices in
M.BAT for further examples.
Assume you have a word processor named EasyWrite that is
located in the subdirectory C:\EASY. The main executable
file is EW.EXE and your letters (files) are in the sub-
directory C:\EASY\LET. EasyWrite allows you to use the
parameter *.* following EW to automatically bring up a
directory of your letters. This will be menu choice [E.].
Following the letter [E.] in the menu of M.BAT enter:
E. EasyWrite (word processor)
Then go to the IF ERRORLEVEL line that checks for the [E] key
being pressed and change it from:
IF ERRORLEVEL 5 GOTO GETKEY REM E
to: IF ERRORLEVEL 5 GOTO E
Now go to the label :E and insert the three lines between :E
and GOTO START as shown below.
:E
CLS
CD C:\EASY
EW C:\EASY\LET\*.*
GOTO START
[:E] is the existing label line. [CLS] clears the screen.
[CD C:\EASY] changes to the subdirectory C:\EASY. This
allows EasyWrite to find it's associated files (printer,
configuration files etc.). [EW C:\EASY\LET\*.*] will load and
run EasyWrite and tell EasyWrite to list all the files (*.*)
in C:\EASY\LET. If EasyWrite allows you to specify a
subdirectory for your letters in a configuration file,
and this has been set to C:\EASY\LET, EW *.* would work for
this line. However, I find it worthwhile to specify the full
pathname for batch file entries so you know exactly where the
batch file is looking for a file/program. It also speeds up
execution of the batch file as you are telling DOS where to
look. When you exit EasyWrite the line [GOTO START] will
return you to the menu.
Unless you want a menu choice to exit M.BAT, the last line
under each label (:A-:Z and :ZERO-:NINE) should end with the
line [GOTO START]. This will return you to the menu when you
exit from the menu choice. Use [PAUSE] on the line preceding
[GOTO START] if your menu choice writes something to the
screen that you want to see before the menu is re- displayed,
see [A. Directory of drive A:].
You may run into a program that exits to DOS even though you
have included the line GOTO START, for example:
:H
CD C:\RADIO
COMMAND /C UTU
GOTO START
The program UTU.EXE is located in the C:\RADIO subdirectory.
To exit this particular program, you have to press [Ctrl C].
[Ctrl C] is a documented way to exit a batch file. In this
instance Ctrl C not only exits UTU, it also exits M.BAT. To
prevent this, run the program from a secondary copy of
COMMAND.COM. When your program exits the secondary copy of
COMMAND.COM, control will be returned to the original batch
file (M.BAT), and the following line [GOTO START]. This will
re-display the menu.
To run a program from a secondary copy of COMMAND.COM use:
[COMMAND /C filename]. With DOS versions prior to 3.3 this is
also required to call a second batch file from a batch file
and have control return to the first batch file when the
second one ends. For example if a batch file contained the
line:
COMMAND /C BF2
Control will be transferred to the batch file BF2.BAT and
when BF2.BAT ends, control will return to the next line of
the original batch file. With DOS 3.3 use: [CALL BF2] to
accomplish the same thing.
Many game programs use non-standard programming and do funny
things when you exit (or try to exit) them. For this reason
I do not recommend running games from M.BAT. You can try if
you wish. If it works, fine. If not, delete that menu
option.
************************* M.BAT ****************************
ECHO OFF
REM M.BAT created by Chan Shippy April 1989
CLS
ECHO:
IF EXIST C:\UTIL\CHECKEY.COM GOTO START
ECHO The file CHECKEY.COM is required for M.BAT
ECHO CHECKEY.COM must be in the subdirectory C:\UTIL
ECHO unless you change the drive:\subdirectory
ECHO prefix in the line that calls CHECKEY.
ECHO:
GOTO END
:START
CLS
C:
CD C:\
ECHO:
ECHO Chan's EZ-menu (M.BAT)
ECHO:
ECHO A. Directory of A: (1.2 M) S. Format A: (1.2 M)
ECHO B. Directory of B: (720 K) T. Format A: (360 K)
ECHO C. EXIT to DOS (C:\) U. Format B: (720 K)
ECHO D. V.
ECHO E. W. PCWrite (word proc.)
ECHO F. X.
ECHO G. GALAXY (word processor) Y.
ECHO H. Ham Radio (UTU) Z. Procomm+ (telecomm)
ECHO I. BASIC (SYSTEM to exit) 0.
ECHO J. 1. Q&A (database)
ECHO K. Chan's Calculator 2.
ECHO L. 3.
ECHO M. Chime Clock 4.
ECHO N. 5.
ECHO O. 6.
ECHO P. PARK HARD DISK HEADS 7.
ECHO Q. Quattro (spreadsheet) 8.
ECHO R. 9.
ECHO:
ECHO Your choice: (A-9) or (Esc). to EXIT to DOS (C:\)
:GETKEY
REM ERRORLEVEL's must be checked for in reverse order
REM Check for the largest first
C:\UTIL\CHECKEY
IF ERRORLEVEL 37 GOTO DOS
IF ERRORLEVEL 36 GOTO Z
IF ERRORLEVEL 35 GOTO GETKEY REM Y
IF ERRORLEVEL 34 GOTO GETKEY REM X
IF ERRORLEVEL 33 GOTO W
IF ERRORLEVEL 32 GOTO GETKEY REM V
IF ERRORLEVEL 31 GOTO U
IF ERRORLEVEL 30 GOTO T
IF ERRORLEVEL 29 GOTO S
IF ERRORLEVEL 28 GOTO GETKEY REM R
IF ERRORLEVEL 27 GOTO Q
IF ERRORLEVEL 26 GOTO P
IF ERRORLEVEL 25 GOTO GETKEY REM O
IF ERRORLEVEL 24 GOTO GETKEY REM N
IF ERRORLEVEL 23 GOTO M
IF ERRORLEVEL 22 GOTO GETKEY REM L
IF ERRORLEVEL 21 GOTO K
IF ERRORLEVEL 20 GOTO GETKEY REM J
IF ERRORLEVEL 19 GOTO I
IF ERRORLEVEL 18 GOTO H
IF ERRORLEVEL 17 GOTO G
IF ERRORLEVEL 16 GOTO GETKEY REM F
IF ERRORLEVEL 15 GOTO GETKEY REM E
IF ERRORLEVEL 14 GOTO GETKEY REM D
IF ERRORLEVEL 13 GOTO C
IF ERRORLEVEL 12 GOTO B
IF ERRORLEVEL 11 GOTO A
IF ERRORLEVEL 10 GOTO GETKEY REM Zero
IF ERRORLEVEL 9 GOTO GETKEY REM Nine
IF ERRORLEVEL 8 GOTO GETKEY REM Eight
IF ERRORLEVEL 7 GOTO GETKEY REM Seven
IF ERRORLEVEL 6 GOTO GETKEY REM Six
IF ERRORLEVEL 5 GOTO GETKEY REM Five
IF ERRORLEVEL 4 GOTO GETKEY REM Four
IF ERRORLEVEL 3 GOTO GETKEY REM Three
IF ERRORLEVEL 2 GOTO GETKEY REM Two
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO One
:A
CLS
DIR A:/P
PAUSE
GOTO START
:B
CLS
DIR B:/P
PAUSE
GOTO START
:C
REM Exit to DOS and clear the screen
GOTO DOS
:D
GOTO START
:E
GOTO START
:F
GOTO START
:G
CLS
ECHO Loading Galaxy . . .
CD C:\GXY
GALAXY C:\LET\*.*
GOTO START
:H
CD C:\RADIO
COMMAND /C UTU
GOTO START
:I
CLS
ECHO Loading BASIC . . .
CD C:\BAS
BASIC KEYOFF
GOTO START
:J
GOTO START
:K
CLS
ECHO Loading CALC . . .
C:\UTIL\LOCKKEYS NUM:ON
C:\UTIL\CALC/C
GOTO START
:L
GOTO START
:M
CLS
ECHO Loading CHIMECLK . . .
C:\UTIL\CHIMECLK/C
GOTO START
:N
GOTO START
:O
GOTO START
:P
CLS
ECHO Parking the Hard Disk heads . . .
C:\UTIL\PARK
GOTO START
:Q
CLS
ECHO Loading Quattro . . .
CD C:\QT\WKQ
C:\QT\Q
GOTO START
:R
GOTO START
:S
CLS
ECHO:
ECHO About to format drive A at 1.2 M . . .
FORMAT A:
GOTO START
:T
CLS
ECHO:
ECHO About to format drive A at 360 K . . .
FORMAT A:/4
GOTO START
:U
CLS
ECHO About to format drive B at 720 K . . .
FORMAT B:
GOTO START
:V
GOTO START
:W
CLS
ECHO Loading PCWrite . . .
CD\PCW
ED C:\LET\*.*
GOTO START
:X
GOTO START
:Y
GOTO START
:Z
CLS
CD C:\COMM
PCPLUS
GOTO START
:Zero
GOTO START
:One
CD C:\DB
QA
GOTO START
:Two
GOTO START
:Three
GOTO START
:Four
GOTO START
:Five
GOTO START
:Six
GOTO START
:Seven
GOTO START
:Eight
GOTO START
:Nine
GOTO START
:DOS
CLS
:END
************************* M.BAT ****************************
CREATING CHECKEY.COM
CHECKEY was designed to be used with M.BAT. CHECKEY simply
waits for you to press a valid key and then returns an
errorlevel code that is used by M.BAT. Valid keys are A-Z,
0-9 and <Esc>. CHECKEY is case insensitive and any invalid
keypress is ignored.
CHECKEY will return an errorlevel of 1 to 9 for the keys 1-9,
an errorlevel of 10 for the 0 key, an errorlevel of 11- 36
for the keys A-Z (or a-z) and an errorlevel of 37 for <Esc>.
You can create CHECKEY.COM by using the following DEBUG
script. Type in the script below, (everything between the
two lines of dashes) using a pure ASCII word processor. BE
SURE TO PRESS ENTER AT THE END OF THE LAST LINE, the one with
the Q. Name the file CHECKEY.SCR.
You could of course use your word processor to mark and copy
the script below to the file CHECKEY.SCR. Just make sure
that the file is saved in pure-ASCII format and includes the
blank line at the end.
If you don't have a pure-ASCII word processor you may use the
DOS COPY CON command. At the DOS prompt type:
COPY CON CHECKEY.SCR
then press <Enter> and type in the lines below. Be sure to
press <Enter> after the final Q, then press function key F6,
and press <Enter> again. If you make a mistake, Ctrl C will
cancel the COPY CON procedure and you can start over.
Now, with DEBUG and CHECKEY.SCR on the same disk and in the
same subdirectory, type:
DEBUG < CHECKEY.SCR and press <Enter>.
;---------------------- CHECKEY.SCR -------------------------
E 0100 B4 06 B2 FF CD 21 3C 00 74 F6 3C 1B 75 05 04 0A
E 0110 EB 21 90 3C 39 77 10 3C 30 72 E5 75 05 B0 0A EB
E 0120 12 90 2C 30 EB 0D 90 0C 20 3C 7A 77 D3 3C 61 72
E 0130 CF 2C 56 B4 4C CD 21
N CHECKEY.COM
RCX
37
W
Q
;--------------------- CHECKEY.SCR --------------------------
NORTHGATE OMNIKEY/102 REPLACEMENT KEYBOARD
by David N. Hoshor
If you read any computer magazines lately you've seen the ads
for Northgate Computer System's OmniKey/102 keyboard. It's
the one with all the excerpts from reviews by satisfied
users. Well, the reviews are all true. The OmniKey/102 is
really a solid, snappy keyboard.
The most noticeable feature of the OmniKey/102 is it's crisp
key action. The key action has a definite tactile feel. You
know when you have hit a key because you can both hear and
feel it. It's hard to imagine someone not liking the key
action.
One of the OmniKey/102's major sales points is that it has
the function keys on the left. I'll agree that it is largely
a matter of personal taste, but I prefer the functions keys
on the left, and it was a major consideration in choosing the
OmniKey/102. I find that it is easier to use the VT-100
emulation in Procomm with this layout.
A small bar is located on the lower edge of the 'F' and 'J'
keys for touch typists to home in on. I would have preferred
a small nipple in the middle of each of those keys, but I can
live with the bars.
The enter and backspace keys are large and easy to find, but
to make room for these two large keys, some compromises had
to be made. The right hand shift key is smaller than usual
to make room for the backslash and vertical bar key which is
to the right of the right shift key. It takes some getting
used to, particularly when typing DOS path names. Its
placement is my only major beef with the keyboard. The only
other key that is in a weird place is the reverse quote and
tilde key. It's placed on the right side of the spacebar,
but so seldom used that I don't think that anyone would
really care where it's placed.
OmniKey/102 works on most PC and AT type machines. A switch
on the back of the keyboard allows you to switch it to the
type of machine you are using it with. An optional adapter
allows it to be used with PS/2 machines. One minor quirk
with the keyboard is that it must be plugged into your
computer at the time you power up. Apparently, it uses some
power up signal to get sane.
The OmniKey/102 is big, heavy and sturdy. Because the
function keys are located on the left, the keyboard is a bit
longer than most, and the thick steel base makes sure that it
stays put. It seems very rugged and well built.
The keyboard comes with a ten day money-back refund if you
don't like it (you will like it) and is covered by a three
year unconditional warranty. I doubt if I'll ever need the
warranty as sturdy as the keyboard seems, but it's nice to
know that I'm covered for a long time. At $99, it's not
cheap, but when you compare the price to other replacement
keyboards, it's right about in the middle range of the
market. If you're ready to ditch your mushy membrane clone
keyboard, the OmniKey/102 is worth your consideration.
Rating ****+
OPTUNE
by Ron Alcorn
Optune is a very powerful set of disk maintenance utilities
created by Gazelle Systems. It will do the following tasks:
Optimize and defraggment files and directories
Tune disk will check and set optimum interleave
Check disk (Same as DOS CHKDSK, but beats 32 MEG problem!)
Disk error detection, prevention, and repair
Optune has been very up to par, at least with my 2 AT
computers using MFM hard drives. A friend has noted that he
had problems with RLL, so I can't say for sure if he run
across a shot of bad luck or it was just one of those things.
The document that comes with OPtune mentions nothing about
MFM or RLL, so I can't say how the reliability stands for
everyone. All I know is that OPTune works super for me!
There isn't much need to go in to detail with what all OPTune
can do, because what I said above it does, and it does a good
job. Maybe if you don't want to read on right now, you can
stick this thought in your mind right quick. OPTune is fast,
safe, and even looks good on the display. What else can one
ask for? Maybe the registered version, well I don't need it
because I own a copy of PC Tools Deluxe 5. But if I didn't
own it, OPTune would be one of my registered programs.
Optune has a color configuration program that allows you to
change about any color you want. The appearance of Optune is
rather simple, but sharp. It uses pull down menus,
highlighted one letter commands, and on screen simple help.
All it lacks is mouse support as far as ease of use goes.
Although the keyboard commands are very simple. The general
program operation is very consistent. For example, all four
sections of the program either have a simulation mode, verify
mode, or both. And where applicable, there are settable
options. Also each of the four sections of Optune will ask
for the drive letter before you go to perform a task, whether
simulated or real.
The Optimizer/Defraggmenter has 3 methods of placing files.
Each of these methods has options that can be set.
Just a plain defraggmenter. Each individual file will be one
contiguous string of data on the drive.
Defraggmenter that compresses all files and ensures that all
files are packed from end to end and that there is no empty
space between any of the files.
Defraggmenter that places files in the same physical order as
they are listed in the directory.
The options for the Optimizer/Defraggmenter are:
Sort and pack directories
Sorting method: name, extension, size, or data
Sorting direction: ascending or descending
Tune Disk is a welcome sight for people with improper
interleave settings. Tune Disk will re-interleave your hard
drive to the most optimum performance without loosing your
data. For those few that don't know what the interleave
setting is, I'll give a short explanation. The interleave is
the amount of revolutions it takes the heads on the hard
drive to read the data. To define a fact, logically an
interleave of 1 to 1 would be the fastest, well this is true
to an extent. But your computer's hard drive controller has
to be capable of reading at such a high speed. Remember that
the RPM of a hard drive is 3600. So if your controller can't
handle that speed, you should set your interleave higher.
Some controllers may take as many as 7 revolutions to read
that data. Keep in mind that if the interleave is set too
high, that you are having the hard drive spin more than it
should to read the data. So what Tune Disk does is test each
interleave to see which one provides the best performance in
speed. The only option Tune Disk has is the cylinder (track)
that you wish to start on.
Check Disk is just like the DOS CHKDSK program. In case you
don't know what this does, it will find lost clusters of
data and the chains (amount of locations) of data and try and
restore the data to the proper file. Also it will put this
incorrectly placed data in some files (named FILExxxx.CHK) in
case you need to hunt and peck for some data that didn't get
put back in the correct place. The big advantage of this
Check Disk is that it is more reliable, and faster than DOS's
counterpart. Also it will allow you to check partitions that
are larger than 32 MEG in size. The DOS CHKDSK will lock up
on partitions of such sizes.
The last feature in this showcase of four is the Verify/Fix
Disk section. This function is very similar to the excellent
program called Disk Technician. Not much to say here, just
like I said at the very beginning. It will find marginal
spots on the drive and repair them. If there is any data on
the marginal spot, it will move it to a safe place first, and
then repair the spot. If a spot if found to be unreliable,
then it will get marked bad and unusable. The function may
seem simple, but it can save a lot of headaches, not to
mention that all important data to be kept safe. This program
has three levels of thoroughness. Either Bit 1, 2, or 3.
Level 3 is the best, but it takes the longest, which is
several hours. But of course it will give your drive a full
examination and repair if need be. The results can either be
printed or saved to disk.
All I miss out of this program is help and savable settings.
I would like to be able to set defaults. As for the help, I
just think it should give more information about what each
option fully does, although OPTune is easy to figure out
after a short period of time. I guess this may come with the
registered version. The version I am using has 98% of the
features, so as far as a 98% working demo version goes, I
couldn't imagine what the other 2% could be, other than a
real manual. I've given it 5 stars since I've seen nothing
come close in quality for such a utility that is claimed to
be uncomplete, yet can be considered more than complete. And
for free??? Usually demo's are very limited, but this one
can be considered more than a working program.
Rating: *****
MEMORY MATE BY BRODERBUND SOFTWARE
by Tom Croley
Associate Editor
"Let's see now! Where did I put that little note with that
important phone phone number. I must have left it somewhere.
Hmmm! Maybe its in the desk drawer." You open the middle
drawer of your vintage teacher's desk. Inside you find a
disorganized pile of notes, business cards, keys to locks
unknown, stray paper clips, canceled stamps from foreign
countries, a few recipes, and a small pile of widgets of all
kinds. Instantly you are reminded that you recently swore to
clean out this junk drawer this month. You shuffle through
the stuff looking desperately for the missing phone number.
You think, "If only I had taken the time enter that number
into my computer." "What's this! Oh no! I was supposed to
go to the dentist on the 13th" "Ha! Here is the part number
I've been looking for to repair the lawn mower." "Ah. At
last! Here it is." You pick up the phone, dial your favorite
software supplier and order MEMORY MATE by Broderbund.
If the paragraph above describes a drawer in your office or
home, you could probably use Memory Mate. Memory Mate (MM)
is a computer data base of unique quality. It is a formless,
electronic drawer into which you can throw (enter) records
and data of all kinds; of any subject; in any order; at any
time; and then find what you want quickly and effortlessly.
Unlike the physical drawer that you are accustomed to, what
you are looking for will always be right on top where you can
find it. Unlike other database's, MM lets you file records
of all kinds and subjects in one system without the usual
restrictions of fields. It is so handy, you will soon be
using it for a multitude of things. Here is a summary of its
good points and it bad.
PURPOSE - MM is designed to be a handy, readily available,
data base that will store all kinds of un-associated
information in any form and find things quickly. Originally
published as "Shareware" under the title "Instant Recall", MM
has been greatly improved and is now marketed by Broderbund.
MEMORY RESIDENT - If you want, MM will operate as a pop up
memory resident program so that it is available instantly
wherever you need it. You are typing a letter. The phone
rings. An important message. Hit the hot key and MM is
there instantly to record the message. You can also use MM
in non-resident mode.
FIELDS - There are NONE. Here lies the most unique and handy
feature of MM. You can enter your information in any form.
There are no fields, field names, or lines to restrict your
input. Place things any way you want to on the screen. Each
record can contain up to 120 lines. Never again will you run
out of space in your record to put that extra tidbit of
information that you failed to anticipate when you first
established the database. Just put anything, anywhere you
want it. You can even enter all the names of Mr. Smith's 16
kids along with his address and phone number without
abbreviating anything.
FILENAMES - You can forget them. If you use computer
database programs, you probably have one file for addresses,
another file for recipes, another for home inventory, etc
ad-nauseum. Sometimes it is hard to determine what file you
want to put a piece of information into. MM eliminates all
of that frustration. If you want to, you can put everything
in one file. Addresses, phone lists, account numbers, ideas,
appointments, inventories, shot records, grades, missionary
pledge records and anything else of which you can think. You
can have more than one file if you like and MM will load up
your main database file automatically.
SEARCHES - The most important task of any data base is the
ability to find what you want quickly. MM indexes every word
of every record that you enter. If you can remember anything
about the record that you want, MM will find the record
instantly. Hit CTRL-F and then enter the word or phrase that
you want to find. In a very short time (usually 2 seconds.
or less), MM will find every record that contains that word
or phrase. I often use KEY words to find data of the same
kind. For example, at the top of every page of phone numbers
I put the word "phs". When I search for "phs", my complete
phone list is located. Some of my phone numbers are for
customers and some for suppliers. I put a "cust" and a "phs"
at the top of customer pages and a "sups" at the top of
supplier pages. If I search for "cust", only my customer
phones are found. A search for "sups" produces all the
suppliers. I put the word "games" at the top of all my pages
that contain AWANA games (I am the game leader at the local
youth AWANA program. When I search for "games" a list of
available games is quickly produced. The search function is
very fast and flexible. Groups of records that are found can
be printed or sent to an ascii file for use in other
programs. "Narrow" and "Reject" can be used to further limit
a search without eliminating the records.
EDITING - Record editing is a breeze with MM. There are no
line limits, fields, or restrictions. Simply enter you
information any way you like just like using a word
processor. There is a way to make fields, and forms if you
like but I find it seldom necessary. When you want, you can
Cut, Paste, and Ditto information between records or between
programs. That's right, you can cut information out of MM
and paste it directly into your word processor or spread
sheet. Going the other way, you can grab information from
almost any background screen and pull it directly into MM
without having to retype it. All of this is as easy as
hitting CTRL-C, CTRL-P, or CTRL-D.
IMPORT/EXPORT - Records can be sent to or drawn from other
programs using ascii files. The "in" and "out" functions
control the reading and writing of ascii files. Dump all
your recipes to an ascii file and send them to a friend. Pull
the directory of your favorite BBS into MM and then use the
powerful search functions to find what you want. "in" and
"out" is the pathway to data sharing.
ZAP - Use the "zap" function (CTRL-Z) to delete unwanted
records. "Oops! I didn't mean to zap that one!!" Relax, use
UNDO to unzap a zapped record. Up to ten records can be
unzapped, after that you are out of luck cause they drop off
the end of the unzap buffer.
REMINDERS - MM will handle all kinds of appointments and
reminders. When you save a record, you can enter a reminder
date. When that date arrives, any record marked with that
date will appear on the screen as soon as the program is
activated. DATES can be entered in a pleasing variety of
forms. You are not limited to the annoying MMDDYY method.
For example... 1/1 will be interpreted as 1/1/89.
PRINTING - This is probably the weakest area of the MM
program. After you find a record of group of records, you
can send them to the printer is a small variety of ways.
Records can be printed as "records", "memos", "blocks", or
"special". The "special" method allows control of a typical
page layout. The "block" method allow printout of portions
of a record. Each method of printing has its own
peculiararities. Though adequate for most tasks, I find the
printing features to be in need of improvement. For example,
MM is probably the best way to store an address but the
poorest way to print mailing labels. It can be done, but it
is inconvenient. Efficient printing is simply not the
purpose of MM. MM is a program designed to store and find
all sorts of miscellaneous information. It prints fairly
well, but printing is not its main function or purpose.
SORTING - There are NO sorting functions included in MM. MM
is designed to store a large variety of unassociated,
miscellaneous records. Sorting would not be in keeping with
the overall purpose and function of the program. The
flexibility of input and the power of the search function
more that compensate for this loss. You would not use MM to
keep a mailing list and print it out sorted by zip code. It
could probably be done with MM through clever use but it
would not be practical.
To summarize, Memory Mate is an excellent program to use to
file all sorts of unrelated thing quickly and efficiently. I
use it daily for a multitude of notes, memos, phone numbers,
appointments, games, anecdotes, etc, and find it very handy.
This is a program you will use and use. It gets a five star
rating from me and a since it is available for under $75.00
most places, it will be a bargain for you.
Rating ****+
DOUBLE DISK CONVERTER
by W.H. Lambdin
4 months ago, I ordered this puncher from Biological
Engineering. From the ad, it sounded like a good deal. Now
that I have seen it in operation, (I am very dissatisfied
with this product.
The unit weighs 1 pound. The base is 6 1/2 by 4 3/4 inches by
3 7/8 inches tall. The lever you press down to cut the notch
is only 5 inches long.
The base has a recess where you have to place the disk. It is
a tight fit, and I have found some disk's that will not seat
in the recess because they are slightly thicker than other
disks. You also have to hold the handle up when you insert or
remove a disk. For this job, you need a third hand.
The rod that punches the hole, cuts the exact size notch, but
you have to put a lot of pressure on the lever to cut the
hole. I weigh 110 pounds, and it is all I can do to make the
necessary punch. This puncher does have one saving grace, it
does not break the housing of the disk, but it put's a lot of
stress on the housing of the disk.
This puncher does what it claims to do, but that is all it
does. I could improve on this puncher easily. In the ad, they
claim "their crackpot engineer designed it" A notion I
certainly agree with.
The improvements I would make are as follows.
1. Redesigning the base with room to lay the disk down flat
then slide the diskettes under the puncher mechanism.
2. Give an additional 1/16 of an inch clearance between the
base, and the puncher mechanism. So non standard
thickness diskettes could be punched
3. Lengthen the lever, so it didn't take so much force to
punch the disk's.
4. Redesign the rod that cuts the notch, so it would cut
more efficiently. The way the rod is, it only cuts on
two sides of the hole. This makes the finished disk look
bad.
If I had known what kind of job it did, I would not have
ordered this product, so I guess I will have to settle for a
$29 lesson I learned the hard way. When I ordered it, it
cost $29, and came with 10 3.5 disks. I still got the tool
for $29 but minus the ten diskettes. The unit now sells for
$39, and in my opinion it is way over priced at $29.
You can buy a soldering iron very cheaply, and it does a
better job because it does seal the space between the two
walls. Most importantly, it isn't half the work.
Rating *
NEW BBS's
606 843-9032 SnapShot Express BBS. This BBS was formerly
known as ZIP 2 BBS. After Ron set the ZIP BBS to
operating 12 hours a day. I decided it was time for my
BBS to have a name relating to it's specialty (graphic
images). SnapShot Express was the best original name I
could come up with.
919 471-6255 BACK ROOM BBS has gone down.
314 774-2736 The Waynesville BBS. Baud 300 - 2400. Sysop
Raynond Andrell
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Q: I am presently using an XT compatible with CGA. I want to
upgrade my system for speed, and graphic's. I already have my
eye on a 12 mhz AT, so I need some help with an EGA card and
monitor. Sylvia Vaughn
A: In my opinion, you should upgrade to VGA instead of EGA.
for the following reasons.
1. You can buy a VGA monitor as cheaply as you can buy an
EGA monitor. I have seen the Samsung VGA monitor up
close, and it is better that the Samsung multi-sync. It
has a very clear picture. I have seen it as low as $359.
It is model CQ4551.
2. With VGA, you get more colors, higher resolution. VGA is
infinitely better than EGA.
3. Why settle for 16 colors on the screen at one time from a
pallete of 132 colors, when you can get up to 256 colors
on the screen at one time with a pallete of 256,000 +
colors?
While VGA is more expensive, it is still a better buy than
EGA. During some comparative shopping, I noticed the price
averaged from $100 to $200 more than EGA.
If I have persuaded you do go for VGA, I can recommend a few
VGA cards, that I have seen in operation.
1. Paradise VGA plus. This is the little card I have. It
does a fine job, and very compatible. It has 256K of
RAM, but it is an 8 bit card.
2. Paradise Plus 16. This is a 16 bit version of the card
above.
3. Paradise VGA Professional. This is a step up from the two
cards above. It has 512K ram, and a few extra modes. It
is a lot faster than the little VGA plus, but all of
these are faster than IBM's VGA, and are more compatible
than IBM's VGA when working with CGA.
While IBM say's their VGA is 100% CGA compatible, I was able
to run CGA programs on my little Paradise VGA Plus, the IBM
PS/2 Model 30's VGA couldn't touch. While the Paradise VGA is
not compatible with all modes of VGA, it will do everything
you ask it to do. How many times do you want to use VGA in
monochrome modes any way?
Q: I am using an AT with a single floppy with a 40 meg hard
drive. I want to add a floppy. what would You recommend?
Brian Hurley
A: I can personally recommend Teac, and Toshiba drives. Since
you have an AT, I would recommend for you to add high density
drives. With High density drives, you will have more storage.
My TEAC's have made low density disks for friends very
reliably. The choice to go with 1.2's or 1.44's is up to
you. I have one of each. This way, I can use or make any type
media I need to. You are probably wondering about the cost of
the disks. I use generic's. You can make the hole described
earlier, and put 1.44 on DS/DD 3.5,s but you will have to buy
high density diskettes for a 1.2. Some places sell these
disk's at a reasonable cost. There are special format
programs to put 800 K on a low density 5 1/4, but I have had
problems with these.
TECHNICAL DATA NEEDED
How does one take the Panasonic KX-P1124 printer apart so
that the 32K buffer chip can be inserted. I found a clip on
the very top front edge of the printer, but I am still not
able to take the top cover off. Any help would greatly be
appreciated. I have an ordered a 32K chip which is suppose
to be equivalent to the buffer chip that Panasonic sells.
I'll give you the chip part number and price once I find out
if mine works correctly. If all goes well, I will have saved
$30 bucks and gained 32K more of printer buffer memory.
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 SnapShot Express at (606) 843-9032.
These BBS's operate at 1200 and 2400 Baud. ZIP operates 7pm
to 7am EST and SnapShot Express 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 the editors take no
responsibility in what you may see advertised, so buy at your
own risk.
ZIP is being written on an AT compatible, and a Tandy 1400 LT
laptop. 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.
**** 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
