To: 999 (all members)
From: 2J3 (Chris Richardson.)
Subject: A few last comments
The deadline has come and gone.
Things have been much easier for me
with more members sticking to the
deadline. Thank you! Keep it up.
Just a few last notes before I put the
finishing touches to issue 35.
The TBI pool. Reprise!
TBI-52 now increased to two discs:
TBI-52-1 amusing text, a double sided
disc.
TBI-52-2, single sided with just one
very large file on it so far well worth
a look, Sam Beckett (Quantum Leap)
jumps into Captain Picard (Star Trek).
TBI-54 Mandelbrots, advertised in this
issue. Single sided. This disc is
fantastic. Get it yesterday.
TBI-55-1 Digital Solutions Dreamscape
demo. Single sided. Demo on this issue.
TBI-55-2 Digital Solutions Music
Tracker. Single sided.
TBI-56 BBC PD Disc 172 containing
various items including ADDOS and VP
utilities. This disc is in the TBI
section as it was not listed in the BBC
PD catalogue database (see later).
TBI-57 Europhile. See the next issue
for the demo of this brilliant
educational disc. 42 European countries
with Hi-res maps and graphs for each.
Also detailed info on history,
demography, trade population and much
more.
BUG-01-10 Beebug Volume 1. Issue 10.
Yes folks, I am tracking down volume 1
for you. This was the easy bit. Now for
issues 1 to 9. Anyone typed them in?
21.5.94 A big day in the life of 8BS.
Most of the DFS BBC PD collection has
appeared at 8BS HQ! Only about 38 discs
to collect now. The BBC PD catalogue
has now been put onto TBI-00, so send
for your update of TBI-00.
All BBC PD discs in the 8BS library
will now be known by their BBC PD disc
numbers and titles. BEWARE that there
may be a couple of duplications left in
the 8BS library. I am working on this.
Any duplications found so far have been
removed from the 8BS catalogue (about
30 discs). This makes it quite
important that you UPDATE YOUR
CATALOGUE DISC NOW!
You have now got approximately 505
entries in the two catalogues to choose
from. 8BS is expecting at least another
100 before too long, this is on top of
the discs that are submitted by members
and other customers. All at only £1
each still!
BBC-PD discs NOT in the 8BS library are
as follows:
12 21 26 30 31 35 42 43 44 48 51 52 65
73 76 85 98 99 101 103 114 115 122 124
125 128 131 138 139 142 149 150 151 152
157 158 159 171 The rest are!
Still trying to get the Master 512
section.
If you have any of these discs 8BS
would appreciate copies. CJR 30.5.94
To : 999 (All Members)
From : 2J3
I received this message from a member
that I feel sure you would be
interested in reading
"I want everything" says K3U. This
calls for some multi-tasking, and
expert programming, beyond me. But I
have an idea for a halfway stage.
1) Enter WORDWISE+. Load the article
to be viewed into TEXT; use Search and
Replace to clear out the unwanted pad
characters. (What is left is
readable, but sometimes the lines are
split).
2) Set up a function key with |[9|[
(which is the equivalent of escape 9
escape). This enables you to switch
from TEXT to segment and back again
quickly.
But there are snags: when
attempting to load a full Message file
into Wordwise, I get "File too long!".
(but it works with shorter files).
Then how do you convert your Wordwise
comments into Message file language?
To: 999 (all members)
From: 6EE (MICK NEEDHAM)
Subject: Acorn User Show Harrogate
I had decided to go to the show if
possible before I volunteered to help
Chris, my wife Jackie wanted to look
round the shops with her sister, so it
was decided to set off at 8.30am
collect my wifes sister, to arrive at
Harrogate around 10am, little did I
know.
The day arrived, we were up and ready
for the alloted time, I started the
car, NOTHING, completly dead,
"don't believe this", I said "today of
all days", so up with the bonnet, had a
check round, could find nothing wrong
Just then a neighbour drove up in his
van "do you have any jump leads", I
asked, "yes" he replied, so up with the
bonnet on with the leads, start her
up, NOTHING, more tinkering, but as I
know little about cars it was time to
give up.
Phoned the sister-in-law told her the
story, brother-in-law came on the line
"Don't worry I will come and have a
look", he was still in bed at the
time,(that will teach him to have a lie
in), 45 mins later up they rolled, more
tinkering, off came the starter motor,
but could not get it to work. He
offers to run us to Harrogate, so
starter motor in his boot, transfer
all the stuff for Chris, lock up and
away.
Reached Leeds within half an hour,
took more than 45mins to get through
Leeds, then on to Harrogate, loads of
traffic, finally entered Harrogate,
found the Exhibition Centre, drove in
the car park, ten minutes later drove
out of the car park, round the streets
we went, finally found a place to
park.
Had a quick bite to eat, grabbed two
of the boxes I had brought and set
off, the boxes got heavier and heavier
by the time I reached the entrance my
arms had lengthened two inches, of
course Club Corner was in the furthest
corner from the entrance, I evenually
found and introduced myself to Chris,
a good three hours later than I had
intended.
The 8-Bit stand was very busy all
afternoon, in fact so busy I did not
get chance to look round the show,
but it was nice to meet and talk to so
many members and be able to put a face
to the name. When the show closed I
said my farewells, the journey home
was quick and uneventful.
We returned to my brother-in-laws
home, took the starter motor to pieces
finally got it working, returned home
to put it on the car while still
daylight, we tried to start the
engine, NOTHING, this time the battery
was flat, I removed the battery to put
it on charge, the charger was in the
shed at the top of the garden, but
couldn't find the keys, we looked
everywhere, but they were not to be
found.
We changed batteries, started my car
turned it round facing down hill, so I
could bump start it in the morning,
(Why didn't you bump start it in the
first place I can here you say, well
the car is parked facing up hill on a
very busy road, with cars parked both
sides, it is difficult to turn with an
engine never mind without one),
batteries were swapped again, we had
forgotten my brother-in-laws new car
had a key code radio and he had not
yet been sent the number.
So ended an eventfull day, I have
still not found the shed key, oh!
Jackie went for a shower, the water
was cold.
Roll on next year!
EDITOR...... The keys were in the bring
and buy box Mick!!!
To: 999 (all members)
From: 2J3 (Chris Richardson)
Subject: ROMS Article in issue 34
I have had it pointed out to me that I
omitted to mention a very important
point in the article in issue 34
regarding fitting roms into your
computer.
Clean hands are essential.
Also make sure that you are not bearing
zillions of volts of static
electrickery which when coming into
contact with your precious rom zaps it.
I always grab the copper pipes of the
central heating before touching a rom.
Bear in mind what clothing you are
wearing and whether your carpet creates
static too.
Ideally, you should be unclothed
wearing only metal shoes with a wire
soldered to the toe. Connect this wire
to a 3 foot piece of copper tubing
hammered into a point at one end.
Hammer the pipe into the earth (outside
your house near the back door) and wear
the shoes whenever touching your roms.
Try to avoid touching the legs of the
rom and keep roms wrapped in foil. Also
keep the window of the rom covered and
away from sunlight as sunlight will
erase the rom.
To: 999 (all members)
From: K4R (ROBIN MOROM)
Subject: USER GROUPS
A personal view.
Having been a member of BEEBUG almost
from the start I was naturally sorry
to see it go. I have all 120 issues in
binders and quite a few of the discs
and tapes. Looking round for something
to take it's place I decided to write
to all the user groups mentioned in
the last two issues. This I did on
13th March sending a S.A.E. with each
and asking for details.
Results as follows:
8-bit Software.
Reply by return of post enclosing
copy of TBI-00 and welcoming letter
from Chris (Quote "Please return the
disc sometime") I sent off immediately
for the mag disc and have since bought
ten more from the catalogue. I am
overwhelmed with the quality (and
quantity) of what I have received.
Report: Excellent work - 9.5 out of
10 (nobody's perfect)
ByteBack.
After five weeks I received a small
slip of paper giving brief details of
the (printed) magazine at one pound
per issue. I sent my money on 21st
April and eventually (13th May)
received the MARCH issue and another
copy of the same slip. According to
the editorial there should also have
been a postcard sized advert. There
wasn't. I found practically nothing of
interest in the magazine. It had two
pages devoted to the second part of an
article on using Interword. Surely if
you have got the chip you've got the
manual? Also two and a half pages (out
of the 18) devoted to one particular
printer. Also some hints and tips but
nothing new as far as I could see.
Report: Must try harder - 3 out of 10
- Sorry, Paul. Enthusiasm alone is
just not enough.
Destroyed Realities.
This was also a long wait for a
reply. I received a A4 sheet giving
details of a disc mag. Price is `1.80
for a single sided disc (presumably
DFS). May try this at some time.
Report: Not very detailed info but
not fair to mark it as I haven't seen
a disc.
Solinet.
Again A4 sheet with plenty of
technical details of discs and systems
they will work on but strangely NO
details of what the programs are!
Cost: `1.00 (+disc) for first disc
and 50p for subsequent issues
Report: May give it a try - or not.
Beeb Developments.
Still no reply (15th May) to my
query. Are they still going?
Report: Well, I can't, can I?
I hope that this may be be of some
help to other ex-Beebug members.
To: 999 (all members)
From: 3SQ (Tim Parsons)
Subject: excuses and more excuses
I get great pleasure reading the
contents of the disc that our esteemed
editor puts together for us and will
continue to do so.
Until recently I have offered help to
any members asking for it,
particularly relating to subjects, I
like to think I know a little about.
The last few issues I have had to "bite
the bullet" (is that the correct
phrase ?) and resist the temptation to
respond to the many pleas fo help from
various members. I would like to take
the oppurtunity to give my reasons for
this seemingly unsociable behaviour.
ITS the WIFE (and kids) !.
It has been bought to my attention
that my family and marital duties have
been suffering at the expense
of my Beeb activities, which I
have to (reluctantly) admit, have been
taking priority, well it seems that if
I want to stay married etc. I have to
cut down, so guys and gals out there I
shall have to hope that somebody else
will be able to help and/or assist
you, where sometime ago I would have
jumped in with both feet !.
So to sum up the situation, if I
appear to be taking a lower profile
than is my norm, you chaps will know
why, IT'S the bloody WIFE !!!!.
Having got that off my chest, I must
say it has helped enourmously me
having a Z88 I can now type letters
in places I had never before, dreamt
possible !!!.
A few weeks after typing that I can
gladly report that things have improved
greatly, for a number of reasons, which
I wont bore you with now.
In trying to relate the above to
something more factual, I remember a
well known very naff song.
It goes like this :-
Hello Mudder, Hello Fudder, here
I am Camp Granada etc. etc. but it ends
with the line Guys are Sailing , Guys
ar Swimming, Mudder Fudder kindly dis
regard this letter.
To: 999 (all members) + 3PM
From: 15A (Steven Flintham)
Subject: TBIT discs
This sounds like a very good idea but
I am slightly confused as to the exact
nature of the proposed discs. Would
they be a form of 'sub-magazine' or a
gradually built up collection of
'articles' presented in a similar
style to the 8BS magazine itself, or
something completely different?
EDITOR........ Members are invited to
compile their own discs of software to
be included in the TBI pool. If a
particular member wishes to compile a
disc of software on a particular
subject, then that member could use the
8BS messaging system to make this known
and invite submission of programs/
articles directly to themselves or via
8BS. Anyone wishing to find out more
about compiling TBI discs should
contact me.
To: 999 & 483 (Daniel Shimmin)
From: 15A (Steven Flintham)
Subject: Questionnaire and DFS/ADFS
Many thanks for your comment in the
last issue about the problem when
using a DFS submissions disc while
running the system from ADFS. This
also affects the messaging system.
I chose the present system (assume the
submission disc is in the same format
as the program disc) because it seemed
to be the best way of handling the
problem of coping with the different
filing systems available. Ideally, the
program would read the disc in the
drive and determine its format, but I
do not think this is possible (any
advice?).
Allowing the use of an OS command
would solve the problem, as would an
option to press D for a DFS submission
disc or A for an ADFS submission disc.
I will do this as soon as time allows
and I may also add an OS command
facility to the main menu.
In the meantime, the obvious solution
is to copy the program in question
onto your submission disc, or any
other disc using the same filing
system.
To: 999 (all members) & 483
From: 15A (Steven Flintham)
Subject: 'Filetypes'
I think the idea of standard file
descriptions is great. BBC font files
are in a format suitable for *PRINTing
(on a Master/Archimedes) (*TYPE should
perform the same task on earlier
machines) - i.e. the file is a
sequence of bytes suitable for sending
direct to the VDU drivers. The two
font files accompanying one of my
early Presenting Programs articles
were BBC font files.
To: 999 (all members)
From: 15A (Steven Flintham)
Subject: Emissions from monitors
No, I'm not referring to the possible
health risks. I was recently reading
"The Apple Machintosh Book" when I
came across a section on data
security. It mentioned the possiblity
of someone within a reasonable
distance of your monitor being able to
reconstruct the display from the
emissions and hence 'watch' what you
were doing.
I had seen this mentioned in the
Computer Answers section of PCW at
some time in 1986 (approximately) and
this reminded me of it. The mention in
PCW was the more detailed of the two,
and if it is to be believed, only a
fairly simple piece of electronics is
needed to 'snoop' on a display from
up to 100 metres away.
Does anyone know if this is true, and
if so is there any easy way to prevent
it? PCW made it sound almost
impossible to guard against - the only
possiblities mentioned were bulky lead
shielding and security guards to keep
people more than 100m away! Without
knowing how it works, I would have
thought that having another display
nearby would interfere with the
emissions from the first, or is it
possible to 'tune in' on one
particular display?
PRESS BREAK