From 3SQ (Tim Parsons)
Dear Members
Related only to members with an
interest in Z88's.
An issue ago I asked you all, very
nicely, NOT to write to Jack Lawrie as
he was very poorly. I can now happily
report that you are now OK to write to
him after all.
Following his recent illness, he has
now fully recovered and looks forward
to hearing from anybody who needs help
with their Z88.
Jack has compiled a series of Hints and
Tips for this very useful (BBC related)
portable computer, he has also
developed over a period of several
years a variety of Programs and
Utilities which you would be very
welcome to if you send him a Z88 Eprom
(or XOB disc), ask for his LIST first!.
Just to remind you his address is as
follows, please remember to include an
S.A.E. Ta !. :-
Jack Lawrie
15 Sycamore Grove Southam
Leamington Spa
CV33 0EY
Best Wishes from Tim Parsons 3SQ.
To: 999 (all members)
From: K4T (GRAHAM ASHBY)
Subject: BBC COMPACT.
Having joined 8BS early last
year, after acquiring a Master Compact
for my children for Christmas, I
thought it was about time to join in
and pass on my lack of experience.
This has been my first contact with a
BBC computer, and as there was little
information with the hardware as
bought, I have found my way round
slowly and with many mistakes.
The light first started to appear at
the end of the tunnel when I read of
8BS in a copy of Acorn User and made
contact with Chris.
The talk with Chris resulted in the
purchase of some of the excellent
range of software, and I started to
make some progress.
Our local Primary school uses some
BBC's so I was able to gain advice and
some software from them.
At this point the lack of a printer
made life difficult so that became the
next priority.
Eventually I spotted what looked
like a good buy at a local car boot
sale, TRS80 printer with lead,in good
working order,only `15. Sold to the
man with the Compact.
Once home I was eager to print!
shame the lead did not fit the compact
printer socket. Many phone calls later
I was put in touch with Vantage of
Leeds.Tel 0532 374000.who had stock
and posted one by return.
Printing would commence, or so I
thought, after some time spent trying
to coax response from the printer I
rang Chris, who very quickly confirmed
the printer worked, but was unable to
make the Compact talk to the printer.
Very particular about who they talk
to these Compacts!
The loan of a school Citizen 120D+
soon had printed sheet all over the
place. Prompt sale of TRS80 printer
which it appears is not Epson
compatible, and the search for a
Citizen soon paid off, and after
copying the dip switch settings of the
loan printer, I was in business.
As I gained confidence I found that
copying and backing up discs was a
real pain with only one disc drive,so
began scouring Micro Mart for suitable
drives. Talk about the early worm, some
people must get their copy of Micro
Mart before dawn has broken, I missed
so many chances by the skin of a phone
call. One kind gent whose plinth
housed twin 3.5 disc drives had been
bought by the previous caller, gave me
a contact name and number and
suggested I might be lucky, sure
enough the promise of a second drive
to fit into the Compact complete with
connecting lead.
On receipt I was delighted to find
th drive came with all fixtures and
screws etc to secure it next to the
original drive. Okay so far, the power
supply,in the Compact, has a plug
fitted for a second drive so that part
was easy, however the data lead was
only a duplicate of the original drive
lead, PANIC! I then remembered the
letters in issue 37 concerning
coupling two single drives, and after
re#reading the info, and noting Colin
Culpitt-Smith had offered to make up
leads, I rang Colin and asked his
advice, He very quickly had me on the
right road and using the existing
leads and connectors I was able to
make a lead, set the additional drive
as drive 1 and complete the
installation. Easy really when you
know how!
So now back ups and copies are much
quicker and not as painful.
I am currently working on
documentation for a business venture,
so the learning process has moved on
to Desk Top Publishing, so far so
good.
Before closing I would like to thank
Chris for masses of help, as well as
the 8BS issues and library.
To: 999 (all members)
From: K4T (GRAHAM ASHBY)
Subject: HELP
As a follow on from above, can I say a
big thank you to Colin Culpitt-Smith
for his help and advice, and also to
Paul Mathews for kindly sending me
a copy of a utilities disc I required.
Although I have not been involved
with 8BS and BBC computers for very
long, I have found everyone I have come
into contact with has been very
helpful and friendly and it is a
pleasure to belong to such a committed
group.
To: 999 (all members)
From: K3B (PAUL MATTHEWS)
Subject: MANY THANKS TO ALL
======================================
BOTH MY SELF AND MY WIFE, RUTH WOULD
LIKE TO THANK ALL OUR FRIENDS IN 8-BIT
WHO SENT THEIR CONDOLENCES AFTER THE
SUDDEN DEATH OF OUR DAUGHTER HANNAH A
THE END OF OCTOBER 1994. IT IS GREAT
TO KNOW THAT PEOPLE, WHO WE HAVE NEVR
SEEN HAVE OFFERED SO MUCH SUPPORT IN
THESE TIMES. HANNAH WAS EIGHTEEN
MONTHS OLD AND WAS BORN WITH VERY
SEVERE PHYSICAL HANDICAPS, ALTHOUGH
SHE LOOKED PERFECT. HANNAH WAS ALSO
CORTICALLY BLIND AND WE SET UP AN
APPEAL TO TURN PART OF THE HOUSE INTO
LIGHT STIMULATION ROOM TO HELP IMPROVE
HER EYESIGHT. UNFORTUNATEY HANNAH DIED
BEFORE THE TARGET WAS REACHED AND NOW
THE APPEAL WILL BE USED TO HELP OTHER
CHILDREN WHO HAVE VISUAL PROBLEMS.
I AM ALSO SELLING ON BEHALF OF THE
SCOPE (SPASTICS SOCIETY) NURSERY SOME
COMPUTER EQUIPMENT TO RAISE MONEY FOR
RE-EQUIPPING THEM WITH SOME MORE
MODERN GEAR.
PLEASE SEE THE FOR SALE SECTION 8BS 41
**************************************
======================================
**************************************
EDITOR.... The advert mentioned was in
8BS 40. You will not find it in 8BS 41.
To: 999 (all members)
From: D2F (James Sargent)
Subject: Greetings!
I thought that as I'm new to 8BS, I
should introduce myself and computer.
Well, I'm 26 years old & work for
Oracle UK (nothing, I hasten to add,
to do with Teletext). I had a BBC B
and bits back in 1984, but this had to
be sold in 1990. I now have (as of 6
months ago) a Master, 65C102 co-proc.,
colour monitor, 2xDS 80t discs, a 3.5"
disc, a Music 5/4/3/2/1000 system and
teletext adaptor. A mouse is due to
arrive shortly, if Messers Watford can
get the order right 2nd time around!
As an aside, you may be intested to
know that in the Usenet newsgroup
comp.sys.acorn, there has been an
extensive and fiery discussion about
the merits of Watford (or Watfrog or
Watfraud as others have called it).
Most (all?) writers seem to tell
horror stories of late deliveries,
missing software or documentation or
broken hardware. My experiences of
them aren't too bad, but the tone of
most of the writers gives the
impression of a certain amount of
dislike (bordering on hatred) ...
After looking through the catalogue, I
noticed a number of programs needed
the use of the "Acorn Sprite Rom", an
image of which is on the Welcome disc.
As far as I can see, there's no such
thing on my disc (which is a copy).
Am I missing something, or is this
just for Compact users?
Secondly, does anyone have any idea
why my battery-backed clock produces
rubbish if I do a *TIME? The other
CMOS settings seem to be OK ...
Following on from Tim Parsons in issue
39, I've been thinking about getting a
Ink/BubbleJet printer - are there any
"Epson-Compatible" models, even
amongst the current Epson printers?
Finally (and last colour change!), I'd
like to say how very impressed I am
with the magazine, I was pleasantly
suprised by range and quality of
articles and programs.
To: 999 (all members)
From: K8X (Eric Lane)
Subject: Membership
Many thanks for inviting me to join
the 8BS group, what a fast efficient
service provided by Chris.
I hope to take a more active part as
my experiance grows
To: 999 All Members
From: 3WU (Fred Price)
Subject: Cleaning Computers
Hi Folks
After reading ( A Winters Tale ) in
Issue 40 about cleaning machines with
Sprays and WD40 plus boiling them to
make them work, here is another
addition to the cleaning saga
I am in contact with people who look
after school machines and the manager
told me about one machine that was
sent back in for repair. After
unpacking it they discovered that some
over zealous child prodigy had very
nicely been SICK OVER IT, ( YUCK )
So to clean the said machine they
decided that the only course of action
was to take it outside and like
Fireman Sam they very gently turned
THE
HOSE ON IT and it cleaned that machine
up like new.
Well at the end they put it away to
dry out. Then came the glorious power
up day. And that BEEB worked as if
nothing had happened to it so it just
goe's to show that Beebs are made of
good stuff and they keep on working.
Fred
To: 999 (all members)+2J3
From: 0E7 (Fred Nevin)
Subject: 8BIT-PD LABELS
I like the new labels Chris that were
used for disc N0 40.
Are these purchaseable blank by
members and if so could we please
have details?
EDITOR...... There are now a number of
label purchasing options all of which
are mentioned in the 8BS advert on
every 8BS issue. To recap. You may
purchase printed labels or blank ones
at 15p per sheet as long as you supply
return postage.
To: 999 (all members)
From: D2G (Neil Parry)
Subject: Hello and Thank You!!
I am a new member to 8BS and I would
just like to say Hi.
It is so nice to actually speak to
people who actually know what a BBC is,
people think that I must be silly when
I say how good they are, they look at
me and usually say what are you talking
about.
I have put ads in windows, local
papers and anywhere I could think of.
I would just like to say Hi again and
I hope to be speaking to you all again
soon.
To: 999 (all members)
From: K6N (BRIAN RAW)
Subject: SOFTWARE SUBMISSION
EUREKA! I have just discovered the
perfect reason for sending any
software you have written to 8BS.
After backing up what I thought was
the current version of my latest
project and wiping the original disc,
you guessed it! I found that I backed
up the wrong version. Oops!
Fortunately I had already sent in the
updated version for testing, I use a
BBC B and Chris kindly informs me
whether or not and somtimes why it
won't run on a MASTER, it takes a
better man than I to get it right
first time!
So Chris, please please do send me back
copy of my disk. Will this still cost
me 50p ?
EDITOR....... It costs at least double
in these circumstances.
To: 999 (all members)
From: K4V (Trevor Crapper)
Subject: In Passing
Issue 40 has come and gone, full of
the usual high standard of fare. My
contribution is aimed solely at new-
comers who may not have the benefit of
manuals. If anyone wishes to give us
their version of an advanced guide
then please be my guest. Because as
people progress they do need something
more advanced than my offering.
Okay so it's obvious, but starting
with the basics means there is a
platform on which to build successive
layers of ever increasingly
complicated information for those
users who need it.
Recently I decided to change my letter
printing style from standard 10 cpi to
12 cpi (characters per inch) get more
in that way! Well what a struggle I
had trying to remember what it was I
did to alter the line length from 72
cpl to 85 cpl (characters per line).
Anyway I resorted to seeking advice
from some of my contacts, whilst at
the same time still attempting to
solve the mystery. Anyway between us
it was solved. Now this left me to
think how this problem could be
overcome.
No trouble with printer codes, these
can be found in your printer manual,
in quite a number of articles written
for 8BS and in all the other magazines
however, in looking for information
about what I actually typed into the
computer to make the printer do my
bidding - nothing.
It then dawned on me what could be a
solution. A pre-start check list of
inputs to be typed into the computer
prior to doing any work. In addition
any other inputs that are needed
during the course of your work can be
included in the list.
You will have to compile your own list
since it is safe to assume we all use
a variety of different word processors
and one list would not cover all of
them.
However, your list should tell you
what you must type in to alter the
line length and any other alterations.
If you use printer drivers, is it the
right one. The inputs needed to alter
the font and make sure that it is
turned on and off again.
Basically the idea is to try and
eliminate wasting time and paper. It
is very annoying to have to go through
your mind time after time trying to
remember how you did something.
Maybe someone already does this, it
would help if they would let us into
their secrets. So come on, put some-
thing useful on your blank disc before
sending it in, and learn how to use
the messaging system at the same time.
Finally if anyone out there wishes to
part with a 512 co-processor please
let me know. Provided it works and
doesn't cost an arm and a leg, I won't
haggle - much.
Trevor Crapper K4V
R.S.Chamberlain,
78, Whitemoor Lane,
Belper,
Derby. DE56 0HD
TEL. 01773 829543
Dear Chris and All,
This is just a brief letter of apology
to all those members who have
attempted to get in touch with me,
about loaning books from the list I
submitted in issue 10.2 of Solinet and
the January issue of 8BS. I'm
afraid my fingers did too much walking
and typed the wrong digit in my
telephone code. It should have been
01773 not 01733. If anyone got
through to someone and received a cold
reception on the mistyped number,
then please accept my sincere
apologies. The same applies to all
members
who tried to contact me. There were
one or two who did a little detective
work and managed to locate my correct
phone number on earlier disks, or
already had it from previous contact.
Again, apologies to all concerned.
It seems that the service I'm offering
isn't a total failure, as I've had
a few enquiries after books and
manuals. So much so that I'm putting
in a
plea to anyone out there, who may have
any unwanted, and I stress
'unwanted', books, manuals etc. that
they may like to donate to the
'library'. I would be prepared to
refund the postage incurred on said
items, but as I am unemployed nothing
more. Which is why I stressed that
only 'unwanted' books would be needed.
You know the ones, taking up loft
or bedroom/cupboard space. The ones
you bought thinking that they may
come in handy, then never got round to
using them. Anything Beeb/
Master/512/PC related, no matter how
obscure would be welcome. I'm sure
that members will find them very
useful.
Before I close, I'd just like to say
thanks agian to Bob Rose, whose kind
offer of a couple of PC relatedmanuals,
made me think it may be worth
asking other members about donating
anything to the 'library.
Regards and Best Wishes.......
Richard 080/K6L
PRESS BREAK.