Vol. 11 No. 2 June 1993
CATS
soe SE
icial Journal of the Capital Area Timex/Sinclair Users Group
Presidenriai Ramblings ES CONDE IIO PEE
As our Constitution, which has not been entirely abandoned, calls for an annual election of officers, our next get-together MUST be the June General Meeting for the election of officers.
We have no slate of candidates for office since we were unable to come up with a volunteer for Chairmanship of the Nominating Committee, hence the positions are up for grabs. Anyone in attendance at the meeting can announce his/her willingness to stand for office Or propose another present member as a candidate.
As our Vice-President has pointed out in his editorial in the May 1993 issue of the newsletter, CATS "often has significant business to transact, much of it unpredictable as to when it will occur". Our present situation appears to be exactly what he spoke of. He also, rightly, noted our deviation from the provisions of Article 10: Amendments.
These items, election and amendment, will have to be addressed at our June meeting whether we like it or not. Some resolution of these problems must be arrived at within the framework of the present Constitution OR a drastic revision of the rules under which CATS operates must occur.
In all honesty I must admit that I am not enough of a parliamentarian or organizer
to offer any cogent suggestions as to how we may resolve our problems. I only know that having served as President during the past year has made me appreciate the efforts that others have made to make CATS the entity it has been. I also know that it is now time for someone better equipped to take the reins of our group. During the coming year I shall be doing more extended travelling and will be unable to serve in any office.
On a happier note, I am pleased to Know thai CATS wili be represented at the IQLR get-together in Rhode Island. I am sorry to miss it, but I know that Herb, Ken, and Bob (and whomever else goes) will fill
us in on the happening. M el
Date: 2 Jun 93 08:33:00 EST
Subject: RE: hello, Tim! To: "sfisher" <sfisher@capcon.net> Content-Length: 176
Well, your message got to me.
Tell Mark and the gang that I say hello. I will be in Rhode Island for the
OL show there. Hope to see someone from CATS there.
Tim Swenson
CATS Page 1 June 1993
FACTS and FIGURES
by George Rey
Do you know -- that the world of computer communications is breaking down into two domains -- the fibersphere and the atmosphere (wire and wireless), (cable and broadcasting).
Do you know that a residential community builder is now providing his area with a wireless cellular TV service, using transmitting frequencies thought useable only in outer space. All this in lieu of the cable TV norm.
Do you know -- that the law of microcosm dictates exponential rises in computer efficiency as transistors become smaller. This drives the bulk of computations to ever cheaper machines and pushes intelligence from the center to the fringes of all networks.
Do you know -- that the converging realms of communications and computers is called the telecosm and that today the microcosm is converging with the teleccsm and igniting a new serics of industrial shocks and surprises.
Do you know -- that the convergence of microcosm and telecosm in any array of multimedia industries -- from personal intelligent communications to video teleputers to digital films and publishing -- is now the driving force of world economic growth. And yet one of the wealthiest investor uses hand made spreadsheets in lieu of a PC to analyze his data.
Do you know -- that the cost effectiveness of microchip
technology has been doubling every 1 months and is accelerating as we enter the 1990's. And that the chips that are central to digital communications is the digital signal processor (DSP) and their cost effectiveness have increased tenfold every two years.
Do you know -- the law of telecosm dictates that the higher the frequency, the shorter the wavelength, the wider the bandwidth, the smaller the antenna, the slimmer the cell and ultimately, the cheaper and better the communication.
Do you know that Hong Kong has more cellular phones per 100 inhabitants than the U.S.A.
Do you know that virtually all electromagnetic signals (from radio to nuclear radiation) can bear information, and the higher the frequency the more room they provide for bearing information.
Did you know Claude Shannon invented the information theory that underlies all modern communications.
Do you know he showed that using more bandwidth lowers the needed signal-to-noise ratio from one million to one to 30 to one by increasing the bandwidth of the signal from two to eight megahertz. This means a 33,000-fold increase in communication efficiency.
With all this at our doorsteps we CATS can have more than nine lives. Who knows we may go on forever.
Next edition I'll chat about the A la Carte and A la Mode costs for there are no freebies; unless we have a few safecrackers that can get our machines into networks all around. Following that I'll say some words on Money and Modems.
From page 2 After all that and a great deal more that I failed to follow, MANNIE announced an International
Sinclair Fest to be held in Newport, R.I. early in June of this year.
JOE MILLER demonstrated the sounds of the 2068 with a large repertoire of musical selections, and a Speech Systhesizer that lets the 2068 speak to us. JOE said he wished for a larger memory, but that's what we all say.
In summary: It was a good turnout, and in our new meeting room, very close and cozy with lots of participation. I'm sure there were many who ` had things they would liked to have said -- so write them down and send them in!! At this juncture the Newsletter will probably print anything, without prejudice!!
CATS Page 4 June 1993
From page 3
objective is to use such excerpts judiciously, with items hopefully being nominated and introduced by members who provide a personal paragraph or two.
The main goal will still always be to give first priority to manuscripts submitted by the membership of CATS. When such material falls short of filling a complete issue, it will be the decision of the Editor where to turn for appropriate and informative material.
Attendees included: Duane Parker, Robert Diggs, Ruth Fegley, Mark Fisher, Herb Schaaf, Joe Miller, George Rey, Cliff Watson, Akin Olowofoyeku, and C. H. Dickson.
En ion: :
Before his talk on Modems and the QL, DUANE PARKER checked a special telephone jack in the main conference room to ses if it was alive. Installed several years ago for special events, this jack can be activated on demand for $175. Although it had never been accidenally connected before, on CATS” Saturday DUANE struck paydirt. The dial tone was there. He quickly
. Strung a telephone extension line across the main conference room and connected it to his QL via a modem.
MARK FISHER contributed a few numbers out of his head which facilitated connecting with library systems around the country. The two were just preparing to dial Hawaii to see what was on the library shelves there when an astute county employee tripped over the telephone extension cable and began asking what was going on.
Disconnected but undaunted, DUANE prepared to forge ahead with a telehone-less demonstration on communications.
In a moment of serendipity, however, MARK FISHER proudly produced the luggable
KAYPRO-4 that encapsulates the CATS Bulletin Board System. Although some said it couldn't be done, within minutes DUANE and MARK had the QL "dialing up" the KAYPRO directly and going through several routines routines as if they were "live" connections.
At the outset, DUANE patiently explained how modems work, why they are needed, and how to cable them. He also showed how to set up
"Q Link", a superior communications package for ihe OL,
Q Link was first marketed in 1987 by Meta Media Productions, but is no longer being produced nor supported. It has fallen into the shadowy realm known as "Shareware". For local QL owners ready to plunge into telephone
communications, the software guru's stand ready to supply a copy of Q Link on demand (wow!).
Other software packages, such as the QL52 communications program, were also discussed.
The importance of using the proper cable was stressed many times, although BOB DIGGS pointed out only three wires are needed for normal serial communications. For first-timers to the world of modulating/demodulating, the hardware guru's volunteered to carefully check out any modem cable brought to them, or alternatively make a new one from scratch for anyone requesting one. (How about THAT!!)
Onlookers were given the opportunity to practice logging onto the CATS BBS, using the QL/KAPRO connection, with results produced before their very eyes.
In total, a most instructive presentation was given by DUANE to a highly attentive audience. Perhaps in the quite near future it will be possible to have DUANE give us an encore which, with minimal prepration, could be captured on videotape and circulated among the rest of the CATS family!!
CATS Page 5 June 1993
—— disk intertacé plugged in, .
ə 4
19:48 FROM
ADDING PORTS TO YOUR QL by Thomas Robbins
The standard ‘off the shelf' QL is equipped with two serial ports and two microdrives. Most QL owners have added a memory/disk interface card and many use the Miracle Systems serial to parallel converter to run a parallel printer from one of the serial ports. Many QL owners have a backup QL just sitting around.
On my system, I have a parallel Daisy Wheel printer, a serial Dot Matrix printer, a modem I have never been able to come to grips with, and an assortment of 5 disk drives - two 3 1/2" 720k, two 5 1/4" 720 k and one 5 1/4" 360 k. This has required unplugging and swapping cables whenever I wanted to use the modem, and unplugging and swapping drives whenever I wanted to change drive formats. In addition, my main QL does not have microdrives.
Recently, I upgraded my QL with a Gold Card - its GREAT!!- and have been using my spare QL, disk interface and serial ports as a "smart" expansion card via the QL network. The spare QL has my old
disk drives plugged in and a serial printer connected. There is no monitor hooked up to it and
it sits by the printer. The cartridge in Microdrive one has the following boot program:
10 TK2_EXT
20 lrespr mdv1 ramprt
30 FSERVE
line 20 is optional, and loads the Qjump ramdisk/printer buffer if you have it.
The Gold Card QL, which "in use" machine, has the modem, parallel converter and printer, and three disk drives hooked up.
is the
Both QL's are plugged into the same power strip and the startup Sequence is as follows:
1. Turn on power
2. Press F1 on the main QL
HARFORD MEMORIAL
tno. Underscores as Valid Quill files.
TO 17036937285 P.@2
The Microdrive on the auxilliary OL whirrs and I now have 5 dis drives on line, 2 extra serial
ports on line, 2 microdrives on line and an additional 640 K ramdisk available.
Using the printer attatched to the remote QL from Quill ,Abacus and Archive was a problem at first. I was entering F3,Print ... nl_serl and getting nowhere. The answer is buried in the Trump Card Manual on page 3. the answer is to print to .nl,serl. The underscore at the beginning is significant.
In fact, this note was printed out via the networked OL.
To access files on the remote/auxilliary QL, the cryptic NFS_use command is invoked on the main QL. I use the following:
nfs use XDV, ol flpl , n1 flp2 , nl, ndvl ol mdv2 , n1 rami.
From the Psion Xchange programs,
F3,load,XDVi filename loads a file : from the remote FLP1_. To load
from MDV1_ on the remote, it is F3,load,XDV3 filename etc . Saving is similiar. You have to use this technique, as quill will not recognize names with two
I use the Xchange all-in-one program, and have not tried this with the seperate Quill, Abacus and Archive programs.
Change ONE - I have just tried this (of course while writing this news article - isn't multitasking wonderfull!) and it works OK with the standard Psion Quill. One note - loading from disk or ramdisk across the network is slower than from the main QL - about the speed of loading fom microdrive.
There you have it. I know a lot of you have a second QL, and a fair
number upgraded to trump cards and
have an extra disk interface. Why not put them to use as a "smart expansion card" for your main OL?
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CATS Newsletter PO. Box 11017 - Takoma Park, MD 20913
The next meeting of CATS will be held on: June 12, 1993 12:00 M Hardware Workshop 2:00 PM General Meeting
At: New Carrollton Public Library 7414 Riverdale Road (Hwy 410), New Carrollton, MD
IF YOU ARE NOT A MEMBER OF CATS. THIS IS THE ONLY ISSUE YOU WILL RECEIVE