To: 999 (all members)
From: K1R
Subject: Z88 COMPUTERS
Has anybody got any experience of Z88's
Especially interfacing with the BEEB?
I use my machines mainly for word
processing - I'd be pleased to hear of
ANY WORDWISE+ software or utils.
To: 999 (all members)
From: 4B2
Subject: SOLINET
Apart from having a Model B, almost
from it's birth, and a Master for about
the last six years, I have also had a
PC for 3 years or so. My present box is
a 486DX 33, running MS-DOS 5 and
Windows 3.1.
I have no experience of the Arcs, but
if any 8BS Members are considering a
move to the PC world, I would be happy
to give any help/advice I could, on a
one to one basis.
Ron Marshall (Solinet)
41 Westbrook Drive
Rainworth
Notts.. NG21 0FB
To: 999 (all members)
From: 0E7 (Fred Nevin)
Subject: SUPER MARKETS
I see the new era of Computer Store
Supermarkets has reached our area in
the form of BYTE Computer Superstore.
I decided to pay a visit to appraise
what they had on offer.
I must admit I was surprised.
Like all Supermarkets it is really only
a great big shell where until recently
a kitchen furniture dealer went
bankrupt.
The inside had been personalised for
the product and an aura of expensive
power met one on entering. I am sure
that if it had been in the USA that the
security guard at the entrance would
have been totting a forty five. However
once inside there was no restriction on
one at all apart from the watchful eye
of security. One was able to stroll
around the many display stands
examining the multitude of goods on
display from software to hardware and
all the latest literature. I think
about everything one could think of was
on display.
Now for the good part.Computers all of
them working littered the stands. All
physical sizes and powers are available
for ones titillation, with no
restrictions whatsoever. Indeed help is
even available for one to play with
Windows etc by staff in attendance.
Of course with me being an expert on
Windows (I clean them now and then)
and Mice (I used to keep 'White Mices'
) I did not need their assistance.
In all it is a very good display and
even caters for SEGA fans but alas
no ACORNs grow in BROOKLYN.
One could spend days in there playing
with Windows and Wordprocessors etc.
It is very tempting indeed the only
problem being the price as with my
expensive tastes I naturally would like
the best but when I look at the price
tag I think that seems reasonable until
the dreaded +VAT appears then I realise
it is time to go and stand in the bus
queue and hope when and if it arrives
that the driver will not open the door
and yell when I produce my bus pass
"Can't you wrinklies read the time. You
can't get on here with that .It's only
4.29 and that aint valid till 4.30".
With those words from the Sermon on the
Mount the bus doors are slammed and off
he roars in full flight once more and
triumphant in the thought that he has
shown them once again who is boss and
maintained the very high standard of
the Bus Companies.
I will watch him with disdain and think
what the heck and move along to the car
park where until now I had forgotten I
had parked the ROLLER then home to the
Hall to tea on the lawn.Oh what a life.
Well whats wrong with that after all I
had just visited Fantasy Island.
Enough of this waffle.
Seriously now I have just spent a half
hour this afternoon trying out WINDOWS
with various programs and it became
apparent that a great amount of
learning time would be required to
become proficient with these programs.
Even with the inbuilt help of WINDOWS
it seems a daunting task to master the
software to a standard one is used to
with the BBC.I assume that the learning
time must be long and arduous.
I know that some members are conversant
with PCs having use of them at work.
Could you say if I am correct in my
assumption.
The reason behind this enquiry is that
one day my BBC Master is going to fail
and be scrapped. When that day arrives
what computer do I buy?.I am trying to
see what lies before me which will help
me to make the right decision when
the time arrives.
Oh sorry must finish now as there is to
my suprise no more room in the file and
I was assuming that it would go on
forever like a WP.I wonder if this
occurs in WINDOWS????.
To: 999 (all members)
From: 0E7 (Fred Nevin)
Subject: BEEBUG MAGAZINE
I have been having some difficulties
with some programs in the magazine
and have written twice in an attempt
to obtain the correct listings from
BEEBUG. After a wait of over two months
it would appear they have gone into
'INCOMMUNICADO' or something as no
reply whatsoever has been received.
Vol12. N0 3.July 93.Program "CENSUS"
Page 18. My copy has only half a line
printed prior to line 2290.Presumably
line 2980 or from line 2940 to 2990.
Naturally this missing line or lines
appear to be affecting the saving of
data and without it the program will
not RUN.
Vol12.N04.Aug93.Program"Loan Repayment"
Page 26. This program will not accept
INPUT for storage as a FN procedure. Is
this a programming error as to howINPUT
is stored or another listing error.
Originally published in Vol 4.No 5. Any
one got a copy or can say what is wrong
After having had two letters totally
ignored by BEEBUG about the following
complaint & finding the above problems
I am rather annoyed to say the least
with BEEBUG.
Vol 12.N0 2.June 93."Slide Cataloguer"
There is mentioned in the text about
a procedure called PROCskip. Nowhere in
the listing does this procedure appear.
As can be imagined this is a procedure
enabling records to be selected from
the file. Without it the program is a
bit of a dead loss. Does anyone have a
different copy to mine which shows the
missing PROCEDURE ?.
I am mistified as to BEEBUGS lack of
response to these queries as in the
past I have found them excellent in
their efforts to be of assistance.
I cannot help but wonder if this is a
result of the cessation of support for
the BBCB/MASTER and the close of their
BEEBUG magazine publication.
If so what an ignominious end.
Any help with these programs would be
greatly appreciated as it looks as if
BEEBUG have lost all interest in the
BEEB/MASTER.
To: 999 (All members)
From: 2J3 (Chris Richardson)
Subject: Printout of teletext files.
The program 7TO3 allows you to print
out teletext files such as this one.
Before the file is printed out, the
program asks you "MARKED PRINTOUT?". If
you answer "Y" to this you may then
input a search string. If this string
is found, the text is printed out from
that point. I have noticed comments
that there is no way to then stop the
printout. This is not true!
Firstly, you may temporarily hold the
printout with CTRL+SHIFT, releasing
CTRL to move on.
Secondly, pressing ESCAPE aborts the
operation.
You may therefore use the search to
find the start point in the text. You
may then use CTRL+SHIFT to read the
text as it is printed. When you have
enough printed out you can then press
ESCAPE to terminate printout. I find
this the handiest way to print out
sections of text from teletext files.
I could add a section to the teletext
converter to input a termination
string. This hasn't been done so far
because I thought it would just add
more complications.
To 999 (All)
From 2J3 (C.J.Richardson.)
Subject Humour
I have received similar stories from
several sources so no doubt half of you
have already heard something similar.
However, it seems to hit the nail
fairly and squarely on the head. So off
we go with the first variation that I
heard :
The Ambulance Service and the Fire
service decided to have an
inter-service boat race. The Ambulance
Service was trounced well and truly by
the Fire Service.
After the appalling defeat, the
Ambulance Service senior management
decided to hold an enquiry into the
disaster.
A working party was set up to
investigate. After some considerable
length of time a lengthy report was
produced. The conclusion was as
follows :
The Fire Service had 8 people rowing
and one steering the boat, whereas
the Ambulance Service had 8 people
steering and one rowing.
A re-organisation of the rowing team
was needed. The Ambulance Service,
after further great deliberation
decided that the new team should
consist of:
Three Steering Managers, three
Assistant Steering Managers, one
Executive Steering Manager and a
Director of Steering Services.
A performance and appraisal system was
also set up to motivate the rower to
row harder.
Will we win next year?
And another thing!! Here's another one:
Extract from the writings of the Roman,
Petronius Arbitor, Governor of Bithynia
who committed suicide in AD 65 having
fallen foul of Tigellinus, favourite of
Nero.
"We trained hard... but it seemed
that every time we were beginning to
form up in teams, we would be
re-organised. I was to learn later in
life that we tend to meet any new
situation by re-organising - and a
wonderful method it can be for creating
the illusion of progress while
producing confusion, inefficiency and
demoralisation."
To: 999 (all members)
From: K2B
Subject: InterBase
Having acquired InterBase I'm surprised
at the lack of support for it's
excellent programming language. I've
not seen any article/program in Micro/
Acorn User or Beebug. Can anyone give
any hints or tips?
To: 999 (all members)
From: K2B
Subject: NOVACAD HELP!
I have the NOVACAD chip but with no
utility disc or manual. Can someone
give me a clue?
To: 999 (all members)
From: K2B
Subject: WANTED
Manuals for the Master. I have just
bought a Master and have no manuals
for it at all. Please help!
ALSO. My Master has Econet fitted.
Can anyone tell me how to turn it back
into the normal "stand alone" Master?
To : 999 (All members)
From : 483 (Daniel Shimmin)
Re : Some words commonly mis-spelt
suppressed (double "p", double "s")
independent (NOT "independant")
accessing (NOT "accesing")
thank you (NOT "thankyou")
Use of apostrophes:
"it's own name" SHOULD BE WRITTEN "its
own name"
"its not quite as simple as it looks"
SHOULD BE WRITTEN "it's not quite as
simple as it looks"
"thats a short introduction" SHOULD BE
WRITTEN "that's a short introduction"
To: 999 (all) & YJ2 (A.Snodgrass)
From: 4MD (Graham Gallagher)
Subject: Codename Droid (Stryker's Run)
If I remember rightly the claws in
sector 3 are immobilised by operating
all 3 No. or possibly the first 2 No.
of the switches located opposite the
computer terminals near the roof. You
may also have to collect an object (I
can't remember what) from near the roof
next to a missile, but you need a jet
pack to do this. Since jet pack fuel
doesn't last long you have to be quick
and therefore takes some practice. The
option of pressing "J" at the start of
the game to jump to zone 2 is a good
time saver for such practice, but if
used prevents you from reaching the
final goal. A further tip is that in
order to collect a spanner from the
rooms below sector 3 (right hand lift)
you'll need the jet pack. I discovered
that it's best to collect this before
entering sector 3. Speed is essential
with careful fuel preservation and
use of the re-fueling cannister as you
need to get back up the lift to sector
3 to collect the object from near the
roof. Use the pause facility (copy) to
plan your next move helps to conserve
fuel. Finally, the disc is like most of
the other objects in that it is simply
collected and having done so you are
then allowed access to the Z11 space-
craft at the end of the game. You don't
actually put the disc into any of the
computers.
GOOD LUCK WITH THE REST OF THE MISSION.
To: 999 (all members)
From: 4MD (Graham Gallagher)
Subject: Sound Control by John Isley
The above article looks as though it
might be very useful. I haven't got the
nerve to start soldering bits on but I
think I could at least manage to reset
the volume adjuster on the BBC B to a
achieve a more comfortable sound level.
In the past I have occasionally reset
the sound level from within a program.
This is time consuming and more often
than not I simply muffle the sound by
placing my hand over the speaker (same
as everybody else I should imagine).
I'll put the instructions to good use
in the near future if only to stop the
kids from rushing in every time I !BOOT
a games disk.
I am looking forward to reading John's
article on connecting "...an infinite
number of disk drives...". I recently
acquired a spare drive from an offer I
couldn't refuse. Upon first enquiry
with WE they didn't know what I was on
about. When I explained in detail the
assistant advised that the necessary
cabling would have to be made to order
and if I remember correctly the cost
was about £25 +VAT. This was more than
I'd expected and so the disk drive has
remained in it's box only to be used
in the event of break downs.
To: 999 (all members)
From: K1Z ROY CROUCH
Subject: HELP
CAN ANYONE PLEASE HELP ME WITH THE
LOAN OF A COPY OF MANUAL FOR THE
EPSON LQ 1500 PRINTER YOU WILL OF
COURSE BE REIMBURSED FOR YOUR EXPENSES.
MANY THANKS.
To: 999 (all members)
From: K1Z ROY CROUCH
Subject: HELP
AGAIN IN TROUBLE CAN ANYONE GET HOLD
OF A FUNCTION KEY INSERT CARD FOR ME
ACORN REFUSE TO SUPPLY ONE AND THE
LOCAL DEALERS TWO REFUSE ON THE GROUNDS
IT IS TOO CHEAP FOR IT TO BE WORTH
THEIR WHILE GETTING IT.
To: 999 (all members)
From: 1WU (Fred Price)
Subject: ENGLISH (As spoken)
This little snippet was taken from a
local north east freebee newspaper.
We went down south we took the bus
Folk down there could't understand us,
They didn't narr what we tarrked about
Seemed they didn't narr nowt about owt,
They didn't take hold when I said tak
harrd, The way they spoke you'd a
thought they'd narred,
Hi marra keep gannin what fettel
Come ower here and we'll hettel,
Weer ter gan and see the bloody tower
We'll seyer at quarter past fower,
They hadn't cum be haff past ite
We were hungry so we went for a bite,
When we asked for a bit of fadge
It was easier ter gan and cadge bread,
And from them we coudn't tarrk rite
They passed the plate and called it a
PLITE,
They're a bad speaking clan
They dont say Lundun they say LANDAN,
What we ate we couldn't tell
What we wanted we knew darned well,
They spead their Bread with BATTER not
Butter
Never heard of a Hewer or Putter,
On our Beef we wanted Mustard
They said you mean MASSTARD,
And we smothered our Apple Pie with
Custard
On theirs -- guess what-- CASSTARD,
To travel about we went by Bus
And to be posh they called it a BASS,
After we said we were gannin yem
They made sure we understood them,
They wished we'd gone and stayed
Cos they loved our pitmatic twang
Our northen accent and bits of slang,
On parting they said this to us,
"Even though we didn't narr out what
yae were gannin on about,
We pray that you will always speak so
And never let you accent go".
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