Volume 7, Number 7 November, 1989

CATS

—

PRESIDENTIAL RAMBLINGS

This is my last Ramblings. Í have decided to resign my presidency effective immediately. The reason is quite simple - I do not have enough time to give CATS the attention it expects of its president. Among other things, I have been promoted at work and it is taking up much more of my time than it usually does!

I want to thank many of you who have worked tirelessly on CATS activities and have contributed to its success. I hesitate to name people because I am sure to leave someone out, but I want to

especially thank the officers - past and present, the other members ~—“ of the Executive Board, the people thet worked tirelessly and unselfishly to make the Capital Fest a smashing success, people who have made outstanding presentations at the meetings, written articles for the newsletter and the newsletter editor himself.

Speaking of Vernon, he has told me that he has written a column/letter somewhere else in this newsletter in his own inimitable style that addresses his concerns about CATS. I have not read it (and it certainly did not affect my decision to resign), but I know that two of the things that he intends to talk about is communication within the club (both horizontally and vertically)

and support for the newsletter by writing articles. These are both very important issues and are important to the future of our club.

I will miss working with all of you but I will look forward to remaining an active member of CATS.

st

NOVEMBER, 1989

"T | NEWSLETTER

The Official Journal of the Capital Area Timex/Sinclair Users Croup

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machine. t some of the points Joe made. Sadly, the newsletters announcing this event were not mailed until after the meeting, so a prime event may have slipped by many members.

JOs OBSERVATIONS:

By Joe W. Miller

Possibily the saddest item in this

chronology and the one which con- tributed the most to the demise of the 2068 was the inopportune timing of the release of the T/S 1500. The

floppy disk drive to a 2068 turns it into a real computer. Of the 3rd party interfaces (I/F’s) around today for the

Costimesd on Page 6

CATS NEWSLETTER

in This issue

LEY OATES

4 General Meeting 23 THANKSGIVING 24 December N/L

CATS NEWSLETTER

trom fhe ed

Well, here it is, time to get another issue of the newsletter out the door. Not to be overly pessimistic but I'm not sure how many more issues we will make. Perhaps I should change the "we" in the last sentence to "I".

refresh your memory. Over a year ago, I wrote that I felt

objected to MY having to select the articles for the following reasons:

is why I requested that, at the very minimum,

articles submitted by

take care of the back page, the ad page (page 11), page 2, the top half of page one, and some additional

. Sometimes I even write an article. All the members have to do is take out their trusty quills and

icles almost every month on a variety of topics. I am deeply greatful to them.

The dtp contest

As I indicated in the September editorial, I had entered the August and September issues in the CUR- RENT NOTES-WAACE dtp contest. I’m sorry to say that we didn’t win. Didn't even take second. Placed

driver used by ProPub. Various other duties have kept me from really del- ving into the program and I want to be absolutely sure I check out all the points DP made in their letter. I hope to have this article ready for the next

make one to the CFC. The N/L contribution won't cost you a thing and you can see the results immediately.

Contianed ca Page 7

Submissions to the newsletter should conform to the following criteria: Column width no greater than 2 3/8". QL users should submit their articles on a microdrive idge or floppy disk. TS 1000 and 2068 based articles should be hard copy. All authors should consider sending their articles to the newsletter via the CATS BBS,

NEWS

QUAD DENSITY DRIVES LOOKING FOR OWNERS

TOM ROBBINS, longtime CATS

(720 Kb) floppy disk drives for the incredible price of $25 each (plus shipping). Tom leamed that fora

CATS-type "group-buy", the shipping

costs could be as low as $1 per unit, compared to $5 if bought individually. Tom has one of the provide members with the spec's needed to make this standard 5.25"

reached at home at 1-301-877-3700. Also, he will be making final for this particular buy

arrangements at the November 4 meeting, where all the financial and technical details will

Happy Thanksgit

be available.

CATS NEWSLETTER

ARCANO

POTPOURRI

THE Rertecen AT SMEGHT FER

For over two years, CATS vice presi- dent GEORGE REY has been putting together a Superb aeris of speekers sad

Now he finds he must step down from his stint during

UPCOMING MEETINGS Sat.,Nov.4 Planning Workshop

Sat., Dec. 9

Page 3

BELTWAY

P Sur o ns

reading lamps, and the like. Duane says an EPROM will not be neces- sary, since he has a new Pascal compiler which eliminates the need for one.

For questions, contact Duane at home at: 1-301-285-2799.

OCTOBER, 1989

THE WAY I SEE IT News And Notes by Vernon Smith

Ive decided to try to get back into the swing of writing a monthly column, á la “QL on the QT”, rather than combine the administrative chores of the Editorial Page with my own feelings and observations. Now to please the purists in the group: THE FOLLOWING IS SOLELY THE OPINION OF THE AUTHOR AND NOT THAT OF CATS OR THE CATS EXECUTIVE BOARD.

NEST? METS? A new group

I had a long talk with Peter Hale. I’m sure most of you remember Peter from the Fest. What he can get the Abacus spreadsheet to do is simply amazing. Well, Peter says that the Boston Timex/Sinclair group now affiliated with the Boston Computer Society will be splitting off and going it alone around the first of the year. It seems that the basic phil- osophy (MS-DOS) of the BCC just didn’t mesh with the Sinclair types. They will be forming NEST, New England Sinclair Timex. I sort of think they ought to call their group, NETS, and give it a regional flair.

As I mentioned last month, Peter is the author of Tax-I-QL. For those people that reserve their copy of Tax-I-QL prior to the end of Novem- ber. they can get the "early bird special" price of $19.95. EMsoft, P.O. Box 8763, Boston, MA 02114-0830.

EMsoft has also been appointed the exclusive North American distributor for text87, the full featured word that his price includes 2 hours of consulting time, something I wish were available with many software

I've seen. Since most (all?) QL soiftware is born and bred across the pond, telephone consultation can get rather expensive, despite what AT&T and MCI says. Since Peter is in Boston, talking with a guru doesn't require hocking the family jewels. In the near future, I'll try to have another review of the latest version of text87.

CATS NEWSLETTER

Uncle Clive's little laptop is selling quite briskly in the Macintosh market. I've seen ads for it in all of the Mac magazines as a perfect way to store data while you are away from your desk. Watch Uncle Clive closely. He is always out ahead of the pack in the practical applications of the new tech- nologies. Guess what the new Atari pocket computer, the Portfolio, uses for data storage? You got it, EPROMS. Want a laugh? Listen to their ads and you will think that they were the first to do so.

Emulators-Old and new

First there was the MS-DOS emulator, The Solution, and now there is one for the Mac. The Solution is SLOO- OOOW just as PC Ditto is on the Atari. That’s one drawback of the software based emulators. Not much info right now on the Mac emulator and it will be interesting to see if it

now he’s established a BBS but people leaving messages never get replies. No one can get him on the phone either. He’s been paid by some software distributors for advertising but basn't delivered the ads or refunded the money. Most of the comments in the newsletters I've read say, "Where's Tim?" but some still say to forgive and give him another (7) chance. Personally, I feel that we already have and he blew it. We've been through this before with TS Horizons. I think most of us would welcome an honest assessment by Tim of his situation and. if it comes down to having to fold, do it. Return the

Page 4

money owed and close up shop; thereby gaining everyone's mepeot That's certainly better than dragging

things out, as they are now being done.

Last year when SNUG was testing the water to see if they could make a go

. would like to see them get out a press

release to all the newsletters and let us know EXACTLY what they have to offer. What additional benefits can I get from SNUG that I don't already have? For those of us that can attend regular meetings of an established group, I expect that they can do no more than is done locally. For those living too far away, I wonder if.

SNUG is providing even as much asa group like CATS could, since we publish a newsletter and, so far, SNUG doesn’t. OK, SNUG, I’ve had my say, now it's your turn.

the QL. I'll be the first to admit that I've probably just scratched the sur-

For those of you that think I concen- trate exclusively on the QL, think again. I have a 2068 with a twister

Continsed on Page 5

€

"official journal" of the group. A second

more people interested in using the BBS?

the road.

This is an open letter to the Executive Board

On September 27th, I left a message on the CATS BBS asking for information I needed PRIOR to the November newsletter deadline. I was hoping that the BBS would be a centralized, convenient place for newsletter info and articles and that at least the Executive Board would use it. From the lack of a response, perhaps I was wrong. I'm not sure whether this is indicative of the use the Executive Board makes of the BBS or the attitude of the Board toward the production of the newsletter; however, to me it indicates apathy and that isn't good. I’ve got my hands full putting out the N/L (remember, I’m a part-timer, too) so anything you could do, individually or collectively, would be appreciated.

At the very least, you could write something for the newsletter. With the

exception of Mark Fisher, Hank Dickson, and Barry Washington, I don’t have any n/! articles from Board members. If it is the desire of the membership to

correspondence libraries, etc. The newsletter, if it contained such information, would truly be

It is up to the Board to set an example for the group to follow. I know you can do it.

Vernon

would be to get a modem

and get active on the BBS. With the advent of a 1200 band capability, there is no need for a modapter. If the Board doesn't set an example, how can we get

Basically, we have a communications problem, among the Board and between the Board and the general membership. To meet the challenges of the next few years (increasingly older machines and a shrinking pool of potential members), we will have to be skillful at communicating need to raise the level of internal communication, before we take our show on

r, however, we

‘The Way I See It-From Page 4

board and a DISCiple disk interface so that my son can run Spectrum software. I try to follow.

know and I'll bring the catalog to the meeting.

That's all, folks

If you have any comments, pro or con, want to suggest a future topic, or just chew the fat, give me a call at (703) 978-1835 or leave a message on the BBS. I read AND answer my mail.

NOVEMBER, 1989

DDINTED FOR SALE

SAM LEFKOV, former charter member of CATS, dropped by the October mecting to visit old friends and announce he has a printer in excellent working condition for sale. It is a GEMINI 10X, 80-column, 9-pin dot matrix printer, which uses a paralic] Centronics cable. The asking price is $100, but reasonable offers will also be considered by Sam. He can be reached at home at:

(Metro) 422-1832.

Vol.5 No.3, surprisingly won't be far behind. Later.

— QuickBBS v2.04

* Origin: -=[*] The Bull Pen [*]=- <=-Sinclair Users

Unitel-=> (1:105/204)

...(thought you might be interested...Phx Pete...)

Page 5

messaags FROM THE BB> From: Phoenix Pete Re: MacPaint reader for QL

A collaboration of Don Walterman in Detroit and Jim Cook in LA has

The ZED-88 BBS (703-968-9438)is having a Z88 programming contest. Grand prize is your choice of a 128K EPROM or RAM Cartridge. Check board for full details. All are wel- come.

Gerald

I took the following message from Phoenix Pete (Fisher) off oór BBS. Is the Tim Woods/TIME DESIGNS corpse rising from the dead? Who knows. Stay tuned.film atl... -

10-12-89

To: All

From: Phoenix Pete

Re: TDM beck again! LOOK: Message #1707 "SINCLAIR" Date: 11-Oct-89 03:09 From: Tim Woods To: All I may have solved my “phone prob- Jems". I have put online the TIME DESIGNS BBS. It is based on Cas- board for now (300 baud; setting 8/1/n). This board is a simple mes- sage-posting board (no downloads or anything like that yet). And by no means am I trying to compete with really good professional BBS like this

ons. Since I am unable to man my

time (let me know what you think): (503) 824-2658 For all Timex Sinciair type systems. Tim Woods

P.S. Vol.5 No.2 is now being mailed this week (of TIME DESIGNS) and

Contineed on column to the left

CATS NEWSLETTER

Tablo Published by Mi

about a catalog that lists 14 books on chaos on one page?

id Catalog Review: John’s Picks

icrocomputer ications P.O. Box E, Suisun, CA fr (707) 422-1465

John's Picks is such a catalog. Most products are books - but there are IBM programs prints, CD's, and various knick knacks as well. Subjects covered incude Escher, Chaos,

In short, I*d recommend this catalog to anyone that wants to know what the current range of activity is out on the fringes of science. Even without

The 2068 was (and still is) quite a machine

Continued from Page 1

lieve the Larken has the hands-down edge. The Larken does not pull power out of the 2068 the way the Aerco does. Also, the Olliger inter-

alot. L also have a DOS machine ar home, but with my years of exper- ience with the 2068, it is the one I prefer to use. I think this machine iz going to be around a long time, and I think we would do well to spend "our time learning how to truly use it effectively. To this end, I would like to propose a 2068 special interest group which would meet monthly at

CATS NEWSLETTER

— n 2068 (Aerco, Olliger, Larken), I be-

the same time as the hardware group, but in a different room. Watch for

passage of time. It scoms that if a CATS member has a 2068 at all, he

running! (NOTE: Joe Miller finished up his presentation with some demonstra- tions using his "modded" 2068, his Skip Fisher RGB monitor, and Sam

Page 6

TRE RISE ARD FALL OF THE T/82068 COMPUTER May °83 First inkling of 20XX

received by PGZUG (a predecessor

Plug-in cartridge dock Built-in clock (vaporized) A-wide 38912 sound chip

(vaporized) Bank-switching (for real) Six edge connectors in

RGB output Dual display (up to 80

:

Pomona

forder Now! Then Watch your Mail!

THAT'S RIGHT! Now you can get the RMG CATALOG on LKDOS DISK in TASWORD 2 files, This format for the 2048 will be the on] format available and at the sane old a- Price of onlyt š

$3.00 PP

AND THERE'S MORE!!! We now offer our aonthiy mailers on; the same format disk! Keep up with what's new, used equipment and SUPER BUYS! AS AN EXTRA BONDS YOU WILL GET AT LEAST 3 PUBLIC DOMAIN S/W ITEMS FOR THE LKDOS SYSTEM PER YEAR! This

alone is worth more than the $12 Per year subscription price! (COUPONS INCLUDED WITH BOTH PACK

RNG ENTERPRISES

1419 1/2 7TH STREET ÜREGON CITY, OREGON $70u$ S 03/655-7484 w NOON-10 TUE-SAT

Bopp pop papas papaya pa papa paga

ADVERTISING INFORMATION: P CATS will run one free 1⁄4 page "commercial" ad per year for each full ($18) membership. Noncommercial ads may be submitted at any time. Publication dates for both types will be determined by the Newsletter Editor. ADVERTISING RATES: : ; 1/2 page, $15; 1/4 page, $10; 2" X 2°, $7. Mukiple month plans are also available.

Edi oral Continued Re Page 2 EMEN Y i toward keeping the group together.

; P'U bet that your pet that they arc in shoyt supply amtare | make that statement. © oath to let them get d What's inside | Thank you Hank an Jie or ilr Lipi dad Mark Fisher has a book review with

leave machine. When the new a little different twist. This

1'd like w take this opportunity to Kaypro 10 comes on line with 1200 Bonn he beep icr We

' thank Hank Dickson and Mark baud capability. we will be able to oe tea red Fisher for all of the support they have do some serious up/downloading. X MUT apped Sapte given me. Month after month, they Also, the modaptor won't be requir- Of toe presentati

write article after article; thereby ed at the 1200 right into my Atari monni e merang. ue one | insuring my sanity. dtp program. An article on modif- rome, ope MOT

i from the BBS. This i : ying your modem cable will be in ideis estara wisi my Speaking of the BBS the next issue. Who’s going to work ‘onth T amy

a group buy on modems? If we columnist’s hat on to write on my i ë i ions of the Sinclair scene. couldget tied together electronically, observations

i think it would contribute greatly

NO The RHS ic really a neat right into the newsletter. Those of you that are still

I hope that you enjoy the issue. NOVEMBER, 19859 CATS NEWSLETTER

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The nexi meeting of CATS will be held on:

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Saturday, November 4, 1989 11:00 AM Pascal and Hardware Workshop

2:00 PM General Meeting

Please note: NOVEMBER MEETING WILL BE ON NOV. 4.

>>FIRST<<SATURDAY IN NOVEMBER.

At New Carrollton Public Library 7114 Riverdale Road (Hwy 4107, New Carrollton, MD

v

W: YOU ARE NOT A MEMBER OF CATS, THIS IS THE ONLY ISSUE YOU WILL RECEIVE

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