To: 999 (all members)
From: 4WL (MARTIN WILSON)
Subject: Watford V's WeServe
Roughly two to three years ago I
purchased by mail order a Panasonic
KXP1123 from WeServe near Portsmouth.
A couple days later the parcel arrived
but on opening it I found that instead
of a 1123 model they had sent a much
cheaper 9pin model. If I remember
rightly it was an 1180 or
possibly 1170 model. I was obviously
not too pleased especially as I'd
been charged for the 1123. I rang them
up and made my complaints and asked
for it to be collected plus a full
refund. It was collected the next day
but the refund was minus the delivery
costs. Great I thought they make the
mistake and I have to pay for it.
Anyway I wrote to them and got the
postage money returned. I don't
remember them being that polite or
apologetic which is why I asked for a
refund and not a replacement. Anyway I
ordered the same model from Watford at
a much better price and that came the
next day, no problems. I realise it's
not exactly the consumer test of the
century but they did a better job than
WeServe. One other point is normally I
find Watford to be quite expensive but
the Panasonic was at a very good
price.
To: 999 (all members)
From: 6EE (MICK NEEDHAM)
Subject: HARROGATE SHOW
I HOPE TO SEE YOU ALL AT THIS YEARS
SHOW. WITH LUCK I SHALL ARRIVE EARLIER
THAN LAST YEAR, WHEN I HAD A FEW
PROBLEMS WHICH YOU MAY HAVE READ
ABOUT IN AN EARLIER ISSUE.
THERE IS A SMALL ADDITION TO THIS
STORY, THE MAIN PROBLEM I HAD AT THE
TIME WAS A FLAT BATTERY. WELL IT LET
ME DOWN AGAIN DURING THE SNOW AND COLD
WEATHER. BUT THIS TIME I WAS READY AND
HAD THE CAR FACING DOWN HILL SO I COULD
BUMP START IT.
AFTER THIS I DECIDED TO GET THE
BATTERY CHECKED. SO DOWN TO MY LOCAL
CAR SPARES SHOP. WHEN THE CHAP SAW THE
BATTERY HE SAID 'OH IT'S ONE OF
THOSE', "IT'S A SEALED BATTERY" I SAID,
'NO IT'S NOT', HE SAID, AND WITH THAT
HE TOOK A KNIFE FROM HIS POCKET AND
LEAVERED OFF THE LID. UNDERNEATH WERE
SIX PLUGS WHICH HE REMOVED. 'THE CELLS
ARE DRY' HE SAID. HE THEN AT MY
REQUEST TOPPED UP THE CELLS USING
NEARLY 1 LITRE OF MINERAL WATER. HE
THEN TESTED THE BATTERY AND IT WAS OK.
I TOLD THIS STORY TO MY
BROTHER-IN-LAW FROM WHOM I HAD BOUGHT
THE CAR. HE SAID HE ALSO THOUGHT THE
BATTERY WAS A SEALED FOR LIFE ONE AND
DURING THE SIX YEARS HE HAD THE CAR HE
HADN'T TOUCHED THE BATTERY.
SO THE CONSIDERING THE BATTERY HAD
NOT BEEN TOUCHED FOR A TOTAL OF SEVEN
YEARS I DON'T THINK IT'S DONE TOO
BAD.
SINCE THEN I HAVE HAD NO PROBLEMS,
AND THERE IS A PRONOUNCED DIFFERENCE
IN BATTERY PERFORMANCE.
SO I HOPE TO SEE YOU ALL AT THE SHOW.
To: 999 (all members)
From: K4V (Trevor Crapper)
Subject: En Passant
Dear Chris and Members,
I would like to express my deepest
sympthy to Paul and Ruth Matthews on
their sad loss. Courage dear friends.
Nice forty one Chris! The lasses and
lads are really feeding you, noted a
couple from the old medicine man
himself.
'Aladdin' Richardson must rent one of
the caves in his area to stash all the
goodies in. Actually I have just
sussed out why Gill Richardson can't
go to the show, it's her turn to hold
the rafters up in their front room!
Seriously though it must be a worry
finding space, and keeping it all
secure and in ship shape.
Z88 owners not writing to Jack Lawrie
should do so, he really does have a
wealth of info. Don't forget the
postage though, with the amount of
mail he gets this would be a rather
heavy burden for a poor old pensioner
to carry. (My words not his). He may
even be able to sort out the Withered
Toad!
Since I am very deeply involved in
learning to use View Professional I
though it may be handy if this was
passed on. Somebody could be in the
market for what it has to offer.
Thanks to both Steve Flintham and Fred
Price for their comments. Having to
read 8BS from cover to cover means
that unless I fall asleep when doing
the catalogueing I don't miss a thing!
Now where have I heard that one before
anyway I spotted their inputs.
To Steve, I am for my sins repeating
warnings given in the manuals I was
using to verify my statements.
To wor Fred, ya alreet hinny! And this
from a Yorky bar kid! Anyway matters
keyboard, would like the full story of
the hose down job. All I can say is
that somebody has got more bottle than
me!
Seen in Maplins catalogue keyswitches,
will these fit the Beeb does anybody
know? Not that I need any, got a spare
keyboard for the Master which was
given the WD40 treatment before being
wrapped up.
Nice Lottery solution Christopher!
Trevor Crapper.
To: 999 (all members)
From: D2C (ANDY BURGESS)
Subject: Survey of Breakdowns?
I am a new user of the BBC after being
given one for my children to "play"
with. I have been most impressed with
its capability and I agree with many
comments I have read that it provides
a cheap, but challenging introduction
to computing for all ages. My first
question was however: can I still get
software, spares and support?
My conclusion was: Yes, but with some
dfficulty. This was highlighted just
before Christmas last year when the
power supply gave up. After
considering a new one from the limited
suppliers costing £50+ and a
significant time delay I looked in the
local paper. A short drive and £20
secured a basic machine, cassette
player, B&W TV and a few books and
software. The power supply was
transfered and we were in business
again.
My investigation of the power supply
had shown that the fuse had blown, but
a replacement was just blown again.
No fault was apparent which suggests I
couldn't have predicted the failure.
I am sure this is probably the case
for most faults.
With a limited supply of new items I
suspect that it would be wise to
accumulate some second hand spares,
but which ones?
This long winded explanation now comes
to my suggestion: could 8BS do a
survey of breakdowns/faults/problems
with the BBC and other equipment (I
think the disc drive is also
critical). If a pattern is evident it
may help people wishing to keep their
BBC going to take precautions.
What do you think? Also has anyone
any suggestions for repairing my old
power supply? I can wield a soldering
iron OK if anyone has any suggestions
for the fault.
EDITOR........... Thanks for the
suggestion Andy. Anyone wishing to
contribute should do so via the
messaging system. Maybe a careful
examination of messages in past issues
may give an indication as to various
problems that have cropped up.
To: 999 (all members)
From: K6Z (DICK GOODALL)
Subject: TO .... ALL.. ESPECIALLY
CHRIS. SORRY TO HAVE JOINED 8BS AND
THEN DISAPPEARED FROM VIEW. (NO PUN
INTENDED !) I SPENT A LOT OF TIME LAST
YEAR LOOKING FOR ANOTHER ABODE AND
MORE TIME ARRANGING AND MOVING HOUSE.
AT LEAST WE ARE NOW BEGINNING TO FIND
WHAT WE PACKED. LUCKY I MARKED THE BOX
WITH THE M128 WITH BOLD MARKS OR IT
WOULD STILL BE LOST. HOPE TO TAKE SOME
SORT OF ACTIVE PART IN 8BS THIS YEAR,
IF ONLY TO ASK STUPID QUESTIONS TO
WHICH EVERYONE ELSE KNOWS THE ANSWER.
WELL someone HAS TO PLAY THE ROLE OF
COURT JESTER.
somewhere IS A KEYSTRIP FOR THE M128
WHICH I MADE UP TO ASSIST IN USING THE
8BS MESSAGING SYSTEM. I'LL FIND IT
SOMEDAY (PROMISES, PROMISES !!) AND
TRY TO MAKE MY MESSAGES MORE
COLOURFUL. I GOT THE KEYSTRIP PROG
FROM A BBC PD DISC AND FUNNILY ENOUGH
I WAS BY A CERTAIN CJR, EVER HEARD OF
HIM ??
THANKS TO ALL WHO SEND IN PROGS,
LETTERS ETC AND ESPECIALLY TO CHRIS
FOR ALL YOUR WORK FOR 8BS.
LONG LIVE THE BEEB FAMILY !!
To: 999 (all members)
From: K5P (ANDREW FAY)
Subject: BRIAN RAW'S 312.5 LINES
I thought I ought to make a comment on
something that Brian Raw said in the
last issue. He calculated the vertical
and horinzontal line frequencies and
worked out that this only gave 312.5
lines per frame. This is of course
perfectly correct because we use an
interlaced system in this country
which displays 50 half frames every
second. The cinema after it's first
steps soon standardised on 24 frames a
second as the best compromise to give
a correct moving image. Television
wanted to copy that, but to give a
flicker free image without using slow
phosphors gave rise to displaying the
image as twice as many half frames.
The raster scans the screen and draws
the 312.5 lines, ending in the middle
of the bottom of the screen. It then
restarts and displays the next 312.5
lines in between the original lines.
Thus the system only displays 25 full
frames per second. As an aside the
difference between 24/s and 25/s is
why old cine films run fast on
television. The Americans use a system
called NTSC for the colour broadcasts,
which suffers from colour hue changes
and hence the definition; "Never The
Same Colour". In Europe we get round
that by reversing the polarity of
every line which has the effect of
averaging out any transmission
problems and hence the name; "Phase
Alternate Line", or PAL. The French
use SECAM, but that stands for some
French rubbish.....
To: 999 (all members)
From: D2T (Jonathan Hamilton)
Subject: NEW MEMBER
Dear 8BS members,
I have just joined 8BS,
and have already made many new
contacts. I have read through isues 40
and 41, and found them very good indeed,
although it seems that the menu system
takes up more memory than Solinets
does, therefore reducing the amount of
text available. I have been a member of
Solinet for a year now, on and off, and
have decided to finally take the
plunge,and become a member of the much
talked about 8BS.
Let me explain my position. I am a 15
year old student, currently finishing
off my first year of GCSE. I am doing
a BBC related subject (partly), i.e.
Design and Technology. For my main
coursework project, I will be using
the BBC in some form of Input, process,
and output. If anyone has any helpful
hints, or knowledge, then this would
be invaluable.
However, that is not my only
occupation at the moment. I am going
into PC, and many members at this
point, will be saying.. oh yes we've
heard it all before, he's getting rid
of his BBC, etc. However contrary to
the norm, I am going to stick with my
BBC and will stay in touch with 8BS
and Solinet ( that other user group
look OK as well). Anyhow I am off the
tack again. In order to make a few
extra bob, I try to get hold of any
BBC equipment which anybody is in need
of or is interested in. I would
therefore be honoured to be included in
the regular contacts list, for any BBC
computer related hard/software at
all.
Either contact me through the messaging
system, or by phone/post.
J.Hamilton
5 Garson Close
West End
Esher
Surrey
KT10 8LW
(01372) 467625
To: 999 (all members)
From: K2F (John Davis)
Subject:
They say that there's a secret place
where elephants go to die. Do you
think the same applies to user guides
and manuals?
To: 999 + Paul Harvey
From: K2F (John Davis)
Subject: ByteBack
ByteBack was fun while it lasted.
Nice work, Paul.
Cheers, John.
To: 999 (All)
From: SUE (Susan Dodsworth)
Subject: JUST STARTING
Being a complete novice at computing, I
approached the operation of my
new BBC Master with a lot of enthusiasm
and very little expertise.
Luckily having a big brother, better
known to you as the editor,
I had someone to turn to as I stumbled
along attempting to understand a
little more about the basics of
computing of which I was woefully
ignorant.
I am that species of creature much
referred to as The Housewife, i.e
a lady of leisure with at least, ooh,
half an hour a fortnight to
devote to reading computer guides.
In my spare time I work as an Avon
Lady, yes I know .....Ding Dong
Avon Calling, and felt that a Computer
could help me to keep track of
vital information such as who likes
perfumes, skin creams or sexy
underwear. Plus of course the even
more vital information of who
hasn't paid yet, and how much money I
have made so far. I was a bit
dissapointed that the new car and
Caribbean cruise would have to wait a
bit longer.
The most useful word processing program
I have found so far is View
Professional. It came with a
refreshingly jargon free manual, which
for a person who doesn't know her
format from her doormat was
essential. Having grasped the basics of
this program I then proceeded
to become too big for my boots and
imagined myself a real whizz kid.
So when I read in the Manual about
Multi Sheet Documentation,"oh ho", I
say to myself, "this is just the job
for keeping records of each
individual Avon customer".
I can't go into all the awful details
of what a mess I made of it, by
the time I had wasted several hours
trying and failing to set up the
Multi Document I was convinced that not
only had I messed up any
previous data held on the disc but also
that my husband was about to
blow a fuse over the number of hours
spent flicking through computer
manuals hoping to find a magic wand to
wave over the Disc Drive "Hey
Presto" It's done!
So in the end I did what any sensible
person would do under these
circumstances, I cried "Help Me" and
luckily Big Brother was able to
bail me out. Now I have my Multi
Document with an index page listing
each customer's basic details i.e Name,
Address and amount spent in
total, and then for each customer there
is a separate page detailing
what she (or he) has bought and in
which brochure.
My moral from this story to anyone like
myself who is just starting in
the new and fascinating world of home
computers is : NEVER get
embroiled in complicated functions you
know nothing about and ALWAYS
get expert advice when in a muddle.