An announcement to all members:
"Unfortunately the pressure of work at university has increased somewhat,
and as a result of this I will be unable to edit Issue 28 as originally
planned. So please IGNORE the statement in Issue 26 that Issue 28 will be
edited by me; you should send your disks and submissions to Chris Richardson
at his usual address.
However there is still a possibility of me editing a few issues at some
stage in the more distant future, apart from which I will be assisting Chris
in running 8BS, contributing to issues and so on. A whole new variety of
things are planned for 8BS, including the creation of a related PD library.
So keep your submissions and support flowing in (but not to me!)
Finally, due to the way in which I am handing things over to Chris in a bit
of a hurry, I feel I may have forgotten about or omitted some matters. If
you have any outstanding queries, or have submitted something and not
received a response, please get in touch. This excludes a certain amount of
material which reached me a while after Issue 26 was completed, and so was
left at home, and has to be forwarded via university to Chris. This will be
forwarded in due course, and should appear in Issue 28 if not in Issue 27.
If there are matters which I was/am discussing with anyone, or any info/etc.
I promised to send, please remind me as I may have forgotten. You can send
me messages as User 483 through 8BS, write to my usual address (1 Oakwood
etc..), or, from July onwards, phone 0204 492613 after 7:30pm.
Weizburg's second law: Progress is made on alternate Fridays.
Daniel Shimmin, OXFORD, 10am May Morning 1993. "
To : 999 (Everyone)
From : 483 (Daniel Shimmin)
Re : Repton Competition
OK, um, it's over, only three people voted and two of them voted for
themselves. (Yes.) Our very own Chris Richardson received two votes, and
hence, ermmm, won. So there. I will be writing to Duncan Webster (who
offered the prizes in the first place, sometime back in Spring 1971).
To: 999 (Everyone)
From: 483 (Daniel Shimmin)
Re: Apologies, buying/selling hardware/upgrades
A little while ago, Chris Richardson and I tried (for our own good reasons)
to persuade people to buy ADFS and Sideways RAM upgrades for their BBC B's
if they didn't have them.
I would like to point out:
(i) ADFS on the BBC B isn't as useful as I expected due to lack of RAM, and
for #25 or so there are lots of more useful things you can get, like
sideways RAM or even a 6502 second processor (anyone after one drop me a
line I may be able to help).
(ii) A lot of people then wrote in asking how/where to get Sideways RAM
upgrades for the BBC B and I then advised them to buy a BBC Master instead.
On re-consideration, this seems a little excessive - buying a 16K sideways
RAM slot is quite a lot cheaper and also pretty useful. Having one 16K slot
is vital, having four (plus all the other bits) is just convenient. So much
for that.
One more thing. I'm afraid that, after speaking to some people, if you
really want to get rid of your BBC "B", a more realistic price is around #70
(plus little extra bits for all the little extra bits that you're selling
with it). Sorry, but it's true.
To: 999 (Everyone)
From: YJ2 - Andrew Snodgrass
Re: Mandelbrots
While recently looking through past issues of 8BS I came accross the
mandelbrot creation program from issue 10. I decided to try my hand at
deciphering the program, but to no avail. Can anyone help me to understand
how mandelbrots are created and what is the difference between the division
(divide by 2) and log versions of processing? I would also like to ask the
reason why the programmer (who was he/she?) in question did not see fit to
include a "load" option (any offers?)? I inserted a line in the program to
*LOAD a previously created picture, but when I zoom in on an area I came up
with a picture which had no resemblance to the original - what am I doing
wrong? Does anyone have any time to overhaul this program or has anyone
written their own (user friendly) program? I personally would be very
interested if there exists a PD application which can do this - especially
if it made use of the shadow screen memory on the Master series.
To: 999 (Everyone)
From: YJ2 - Andrew Snodgrass
Re: Screen saving/loading
Another problem I have been having recently is the saving and loading of
just part of the screen - how is it done? It would be useful to do this for
instance with the mandelbrot program mentioned above where only 3/4 of the
screen would have to be saved. Maybe someone could direct me to part of the
reference manual or even write an article on the structure of graphics
screens (for modes 0,1,2,4,5)?
To: 999 (Everyone)
From: YJ2 - Andrew Snodgrass
Re: Masterdisk Magazine
Does anyone know if issue 6 (or greater) has been released yet as I only
have issues 1 to 5? Does Andy Nibbs contribute at all to the public domain
anymore?
DGS replies: I am pretty convinced that Andy Nibbs is sufficiently busy not
to be able to program/edit things any more. (I suspect he may be off to
university/college, as Masterdisk 6 was planned as a "final issue" for
summer 1992, but unfortunately did not appear).
To: 999 (Everyone)
From: YJ2 - Andrew Snodgrass
Re: Disk Copiers
I own a DS DD 40/80 track switchable Watford disc drive and often have to
back up DFS discs. This as everyone in the same position as me knows can
take a long long time. What I need is a disc copier that covers the
following specifications (PREFERABLY PD)....
1) Should be able to copy files from drive 0 on its own or 2 on its own or
both drives.
2) Should contain an option to copy only selected files or all files
present.
3) Should be able to detect and utilise all available Sideways (SWR) Ram eg
4 banks on Master series computers. (Similar to the ADFS quick backup system
from a past 8BS issue)
4) Should be user friendly, clear, simple and quick to use.
Can anybody help?
To: 999 (Everyone)
From: YJ2 - Andrew Snodgrass
Re: Length of magazine
Don't change the format of 8BS's magazine section! I look forward to
reading through the news, views, hints and tips in each issue. The magazine
part of 8BS is what makes this user group stand out from the rest of the
crowd and is something unique which we should cherish not critise for being
too long! Keep up the good work Daniel and Chris! I am sure that the
people complaining are a minority.
DGS replies: All comments submitted about amount of text etc. have (I think)
been published, so Andrew's last sentence appears to be correct. Sorry
John...
To: 999 (Everyone)
From: YJ2 - Andrew Snodgrass
Re: PD Libraries
What happened to the series of PD catalogues. Has anyone been in contact
with PD libraries other than BBC PD, Welsh Boys PD, GLM PD, or Mad Rabbit
PD? If you have been in contact with e.g. Headfirst PD, JJF PD, Screenteach
or "The Wizard" please could you send in information on what software they
provide as I have not heard anything about any of these PD libraries.
DGS replies: hopefully I will be able to write an article (somewhere in this
issue maybe) about the various PD libraries now available. It is unlikely
(but still possible) that any further PD libraries' lists will be featured
in 8BS issues, as we're quite short of space these days. The planned
"catalogue disk" is still planned, but this depends upon how many catalogues
we receive...