To: 999 + 483 (Daniel G Shimmin)
From: 15A (Steven Flintham)
Subject: JANET email in issue 29
I thought this was quite interesting,
although it does make me feel rather
worried at how little I actually seem
to know about things!
I appreciate that this is hardly a
novel suggestion, but why not put your
collection of email onto a TBI/XBI disc
in its original form. You could perhaps
put a separate 'article' on that disc
with any comments, rather than
interspersing them with the messages,
which I found a bit confusing.
If this isn't practical, I'd certainly
like to see some more in a future
edition of 8BS.
A program which uses the Master's
shadow RAM to provide a 640x512 mode
is mentioned in the article - do
you have or could you obtain a copy
of this? I would be very interested in
seeing it. I wrote a crude program like
this myself - it was just an interrupt
routine to switch between the two banks
every VSYNC and relied on the
programmer to create the display
correctly. I never bothered finishing
it because I felt it was too much
effort to write routines to plot text
onto it at any appreciable speed.
To: 999 (all members)
From: K1R
Subject: BROTHER M1224L PRINTER
Can anyone help me with details of what
the dip switches do on this printer - I
don't have a manual for it!
To: 999 (all members)
From: K1R
Subject: Scouting
Are there any other Scouts out there?
There are a whole load of us in this
family, me a Leader, 2 Scouts and 1
Venture Scout. Get in touch!
To: 999 (all members)
From: K1R
Subject: SPELLING CHECKER
DOES ANYONE HAVE A GOOD SPELLING
CHECKER FOR SALE, MUST BE BBC
MASTER/WORDWISE PLUS COMPATIBLE.
To: 999 (all members)
From: K1R
Subject: CAMBRIDGE COMPUTERS Z88
I have just obtained a Z88, together
with some goodies, extra RAM and 1
EPROM. I intend to use it mainly for
word processing.
Does anyone have any experience of
these machines, its hardware and
software, I'd like to hear from any
other users. I may be interested in
buying any suitable Z88 gear,
particularly Ram cards or Eproms.
To: 999 (all members)
From: YJ2 (Andrew Snodgrass)
Subject: Mandelbrots or otherwise
In answer to a question asked in issue
29 the fractal pictures were not all
mandelbrots. Some were in fact created
using the Newtonian program found in the
Acorn User some 5/6 years ago.Those that
were created using this program were
based on values that I entered.
Looking at the REM statements at the
beginning of the program should have
explained this.
To: 999 (all members)
From: YJ2
Subject: Archimedes PD
I have just bought an A4000 Home Office
System and as yet I haven't got much
software for it. If any members have an
Arc (or know someone else who does)
could they please contact me.
To: 999 (all members)
From: YJ2
Subject: Mirror of Khoronz (BBC - 08)
I have been playing this game a lot
recently and have got quite far.
Unfortunatly I have become stuck and now
I can't get any further. I can get to
the beach where you can see
the ship from but I can't get into the
coracle. HELP!
Incidently does anyone know where to get
the prequel to this excellent adventure?
I believe it had the word Karos in the
title but I can't remember the full name
.
EDITOR.... Gateway to Karos is
available from BBC PD (Disc 143). If
anyone has it could they send a copy to
me? I shall forward it on to YJ2.
To: 999 (all members)
From: 176 Eric Shuker
Subject: Topic of little importance!
I have recently seen a 1974 Readers
Digest publication of Quotes some
of which might be of interest.
"Out of sight, out of mind." When
translated into Russian by computer,
then back again, became "Invisible
maniac"
A schoolgirl answered the question
"In which countries are elephants
found?"
"Elephants are very large and
intelligent animals and are seldom
lost"
The Duke of Edinburgh (At the English
Speaking Union) said,
"I include "pidgin-english" even though
I am referred to in that splendid
language as "Fella belong Mrs. Queen"
To : 19F + all PC/Arch owners
From : 483 (Daniel Shimmin)
Re : PC's and Archimedes
Silas Brown comments as follows.
Firstly, to program a PC you'll need a
software package. Sometimes some are
supplied; try typing DEBUG, GWBASIC,
BASICA or QBASIC.
Secondly, the figures 70, 90 etc. are
access times in nanoseconds, you should
choose the one which matches the
specification of your existing system
and memory.
Members with less-powerful PC's (up to
386) might wish to consider trying some
software from Alan Blundell's BBC PD,
which has a large (compacted) selection
of PC software in its Master 512
section.
In addition, I thought it might be a
good idea for a list to be compiled of
the addresses and/or phone numbers of
members who have PC's and who would
wish to contact other PC-owning members
to swap software, tips etc. Anyone
wishing to be included on this list
please let Chris know next time you
write.
Finally, can anyone with any Archimedes
PD or info of convenient size (less
than 150K) send it in to Chris (in
ready-to-run form) for inclusion on the
ADFS version, to start up our
long-awaited Archimedes section.
To: 999 (all members)
From: 2J3 (Chris Richardson)
Subject: WANTED
WOULD ANYONE WITH A COPY OF:
Repton Through Time
XOR designer
Repton Infinity
PLEASE CONTACT ME ASAP?
I will refund all postage/phone
charges etc as I am
To: 999 (all members)
From: K1H.J W Fullbrook
Subject: For sale and wanted.
I have for sale a BEEB scanner
I bought it second hand together
with other hardware but as I'm
not into DTP I want to sell it.
They retail at about `99 from
Watford electronics, I want `45 for
it.
It will work on a Master or BBC B
but I can't be sure of any other
machine, It comes with documentation
and all the leads.
8271 FDC chip, together with two others
`10.
Replay rom MKII works with 1770/2 DFS
and ADFS I'm not quite sure about 8271
but I should think so, this will copy
any tape and most discs but the discs
will only work on the machine that the
Replay rom is fitted to.
It has built in editing so that you can
alter a game or add cheats.
It holds up to 8 games on one side of a
disc. The reason I'm selling it is that
it cannot be used with a Winchester.
Its boxed and comes with a manual.
I want a tenner for it.
Viglen 40 track double sided disc drive
works off BBC power supply, in good
working order `10.
WANTED....
Any of the following....
Eprom progammer and eraser.
Zif socket for the BBC B.
Computec Integra B board to upgrade a
BBC B to a Master, this has to be cheap
as I can pick up a Master for `75.
If anyones interested in any of the
above or has any of the articles that
I want, please write to me at the
following address..
J W Fullbrook
77 Chestnut rise
Plumstead
London
SE18 1RJ.
EDITOR... Excuse the effect caused by
double height!
To: 999 (all members)
From: K2C(Frank Jones)
Subject: Fault Finding
I am the owner of an Issue 4 BEEB, no
modifications with a faulty screen
presentation.
On switching on, the screen presents a
few small squares, haphazardly placed.
At the top left hand of the screen there
is no BBC 32K etc or cursor, only an
hyphen. Continually tapping of the
key will see the hyphen descend the
screen until reaching TAB 20; there the
cursor appears in either Mode 6 or 7.
One is now able to type a program in and
run it. Any syntax or error messages
appear and all this activity takes place
in the lower part of the screen. A
change of mode might see the print or
size change but chaos returns to the
screen and one has to press BREAK,tap th
e RETURN key and accept Mode 7 and the
bottom four lines of the screen.
Not wishing to spend a lot of money in
sending the BEEB away, I am wondering if
with the knowledge and advice of fellow
members, I can repair it myself.
My sources of information are page 498
of the 'User Guide' (regretfully, I have
not yet got a copy of the 'Advanced
User Guide') and pages 32/33 of
"Choosing and Using your Home Computer";
the latter being the most useful
featuring a double page coloured layout
of the inside of the BEEB.
From the above sources, Am I naive in
suspecting the VIDEO CONTROLLER, this
is chip ref HD46505SP which is described
as "The chip takes information from the
user memory and converts it into a video
signal for display" or does the trouble
lie before that and the chip is
producing only what it is sent?
I have examined Watford Electronics and
Bells Computers' list of chips available
and neither features this particular one
Any help or advice appreciated. My
'phone number is 0845 522241.
To: 999
From: K2C(Frank Jones)
Subject: WANTED
Wanted a tractor feed for an Epson
LX80. Frank 0845 522241
To 3SQ and 999
From 3PM
Subject CMF Printer driver
Thanks Tim for the observations,
Iss.29. I originally had trouble with
the editor, set it aside mistakenly to
await a new version and made versions
of the driver proper with appropriate
code sets. I'll go back and have
another try now I'm a bit wiser. I also
squeezed into the 7 remaining bytes the
facility to print `, £, and $ in either
Epson or IBM emulation using the method
of E.Ellis, Acorn User May90 p23. If
anyone would like to add this to their
own CMF driver send SAE to DP-J, 69,
Ashley Road, Lytham St. Annes,
Lancashire. FY8 3EL for modification
details.
To 483 and 999
From 3PM
Subject Copyright
This does seem a thorny subject. I
appreciate your comments. Apart from
flagrant plagiarism, the use of code in
what is now a near commercially
obsolete processor would seem to be
unlikely to offend. And hands-up anyone
who can write a couple of lines that
somebody hasn't published somewhere. I
think I will just simply acknowledge
any known source and be damned. All
publication is after all 99.9% previous
generations building blocks. Did Henry
Ford insist that GM handbooks showed
their cars with square wheels?.
To 20G, 483 and 999
From 3PM
Subject Savings: in answer to your
problem, the value V of £P at R%
compound interest after n years is:-
V=P*(1+R/100)^n
Sometimes a yearly interest rate is
offered but interest is added calendar
monthly in which case R is taken as the
annual rate/12 and n is now the number
of months. Try it out and you will see
that 1% per month for 12 months is
better than 12% per annum. Go for it.
Regarding maths it's only shorthand
really with a few rules thrown in, the
telly thrown out, and the secrets of
the universe are yours for the asking.
You can even save energy (a popular
subject?) with humble arithmetic. eg.
20 million tellies*100Watts=2,000
Megawatts=8*Dounreay Fast Breeder
Reactors. Better than folding all those
cardboard boxes, 483? Mind you, you do
get two threats of imprisonment a year
from the trivia police with the wording
"Please state why you do not own a
television set".(Oops, copyright
again?). Just
say "Because I'm a mathematician", or
"I ran out of cardboard".
To: 999 + YJ2 + 0E7
From: 6EE (Mick Needham)
Subject: Early 8-bit issues
The first four issues of 8-bit
contained only the Systems Software
Each issue updated at least one of the
Systems programs, the aim was for all
members to send comments and ideas for
improving the programs and for these
to be incoporated into the updated
versions, thereby every member had
a part in improving the program.
Issue four was the last complete update
however System bank was updated around
issue 7 but was only issued on request
and for some unknown reason never
released on an 8-bit issue.
Systems Server was also updated and can
be found on issue 14.
For those new to 8-bit the four Systems
programs are as follows:-
Systems Bank v3a - personal bank
account management
Systems Phone v1a - Phone call cost,
estimation and store
Systems Server v6a - Comprehensive
program database
Systems Comms v1.1 - Customised BB
database
I did with the permission of Duncan
produce some bound copies of Systems
Server v6a, if anyone is interested in
a copy just send 4 first class stamps
to me at:- 153 Firth Park Road,
Sheffield, S5 6WU.
To: 999 (all members)
From: 6EE (Mick Needham)
Subject: Wanted
Does anyone have a copy of Clares
Beta-Base utilities disk they want to
sell also Vine Micros Scythe ROM and
disk.
PRESS BREAK FOR MENU