To: 999 (all members)
From: K1Y (Paul Harvey)
Subject: Hello!
This is a message to everybody who
remembers me, a note to say hi.
I used to run ByteBack, before the
rest of my life took over all of my
time. As a self employed person, work
is very demanding. I sometimes miss
ByteBack myself, and the enjoyment I
gained from putting it together.
I also miss the many friends that I
made along the way, many of whom have
found their way to 8BS, into the
caring and completely competent (and
somewhat crazy?!) arms of Chris
Richardson.
One of the things I was doing towards
the end of ByteBack was moving house.
This I have now seemed to accomplished,
and am settling in nicely.
As you can see from this letter, my
Beeb still has a place in my room (I
now have my own 'study'!) And I enjoy
going through this disc every month.
I want to say a special hello to Tim
Parsons, whom I haven't spoken to for
a while (hi there!) and to Trevor
Crapper. Among others, these guys were
a great encouragement, and pleasure
along the ByteBack trail.
Now I am settled in at my new home,
and with the expansion of our (my wife
and I) company to five people, I find
my hands even fuller with things to
do. I don't intend to restart a
newsletter for the Beeb (even though
part of me wants to): it would be a
selfish act on my part, a
responsibility I know I would not be
able to live up to.
Instead, I think I will hang around
these pages (sectors?), reading,
learning, smiling and generally having
fun.
After a while away from my Beeb and my
Beeb friends, it's great to be back!!
learning, smiling and generally having
fun.
EDITOR....... Hi Paul! Thanks for the
kind comments. Nice to see you back.
Your disc was corrupted, it looks like
there was supposed to be more message
than this, but this is all my sector
editor could find.
To: 999 (all members)
From: K6N (Brian Raw)
Subject: 80 columns v teletext
I think a turning point has been
reached as to the development of the
8BS disczine and as such we as members
ought to sit back and think in which
direction we wish it to go.
Issue 44 for me had too many 80
column texts on it which, unless you
have an expensive high resolution
monitor can cause a bit of eye strain.
The questionnaire didn't ask into this
one, eyesight that is not monitors, but
is best assumed to be averagely less
than perfect.
Don't get me wrong, I did like and
will probably be using !Fred in issue
44. I just think that things such as
8BS adverts should all be in teletext
mode to swing the balance a bit more
in favour of teletext screens.
So to open up the argument here are a
few comments for and against :-
80 column FOR
*************
Easier to produce on a wordprocessor,
if you have one.
Can be sent straight to a printer.
Electron compatibility.
80 column AGAINST
*****************
No colour or graphics.
Delay when getting text from disc.
Difficulty in reading on T.V. etc.
Teletext FOR
************
Colour and graphics available.
Larger text make easier reading.
Faster scrolling.
All text in memory so no delay.
Teletext AGAINST
****************
Printing can be a problem and graphics
don't print at all.
Word wrap of long words make text look
untidy.
***************************************
What do you think ?
EDITOR...... Yes, what do you really
think? This issue has fewer 80 column
articles I think.
The mode 7 articles have to fit into
memory the way they are written at the
moment. This increases the speed that
articles can be scrolled, much faster
than being read from disc. However,
sometimes articles are too big to exist
in one file. In the past, I would split
large articles and use a linking
facility to enable one file to load
another. I had a report of this causing
problems on someones machine and so I
stopped linking articles and left large
articles in 80 column which are *TYPED
from disc.
I prefer articles to be in mode 7 with
colour. I would be prepared to risk
using the linking facility in the next
issue if anyone comes up with a strong
opinion one way or the other before the
next deadline.
To: 999 (all members)
From: K4R (Robin Morom)
Subject: 3-D moving pictures.
This is just a half-baked idea I had
some time ago and was too lazy to
develop fully. It occurred to me that
if one wrote a program to produce
rotating wire frame images it should
be a fairly easy step to make it 3D.
These wire frame pictures work by
printing the various positions of the
required shape in different colours
and redefining them in succession to
show a white image, the remainder
being defined as the background
colour.
Now for the clever bit!
If TWO (slightly different) sets of
images are drawn and are programmed to
show one in RED and the other in
GREEN then it should be possible to
view the monitor through the glasses
provided with 3D books (one eyepiece
RED and one GREEN ) and finish up
with real 3D on a mono screen.
As I said this is just a half-baked
scheme. If anyone would like to take
this up and make it fully-baked please
feel free to use the idea.
To: 999 (all members)
From: 3WU (Fred Price)
Subject: Beeb Development Group
Can anyone tell me if this club is
in existence? After BDUGS appeal a
few months ago for Issue No4 which I
replied to with my disc & postage, as
yet I have had no reply,
I have since written again & still
I have got no reply.
So once again I wrote another letter
to this same address & I still have
not had a reply from that one again. So
you can gather I will not be sending
any more mail to this address. So can
anyone put me in the picture as to
what is happening or happened to this
group BDUG.
PS. I DID NOT SEND ANY MAIL TO THE
OLD NEWBIGGIN ADDRESS.
---===============---
To: 999 (all members)
From: K4V (Trevor Crapper)
Subject: 512 PD Library
Any 512 User who has not had a look
through the library catalogue is to a
certain extent missing out.
There are a number of word processors
spreadsheet and database programs. In
fact enough for all tastes really.
I have bought most of the disks in the
library and continue to buy the new
ones that are being added.
Apart from a couple of programs, all
the rest will either run from a floppy
disk or else from a hard drive.
The one program that will not run is
BOXER311 on 512-3-6, it needs someone
with programming skill to look at and
put the .EXE file right.
INTEXT on 512-3-4 does work okay, the
trouble arises when trying to print a
file, the program hangs up with an
error message. Pity really because
this is a good program.
You will need to install a mouse
program prior to running SKYGLOBE on
512-3-9 otherwise it just crashes. You
can either use the mouse or keys in
the program. It is a very nice solar
system program.
Duplications, the main one to watch
out for is 512-11 E NUMBERS this is on
disk 512-3-3 under the name DOCDATA.
As far as I can make out the two are
identical. If not then sorry. There
are few more around but not many.
At one pound for the disk and postage
paid these are a snip, nothing earth
shattering and of course certainly not
Windows 95, but back in 85 some of
the programs were market leaders.
The other point to remember is that
this library does cater exclusively
for the 512, and as already stated is
being increased with new material.
By the way if you pick something up
that is not commercial, either PD or
Shareware will do, then send this to
Chris Richardson he may be able to add
it to the list.
The aim of the article is to inform
anyone thinking of buying from the
library that in the main most of the
programs will run. For a brief run
down on the contents of the disks read
the 512 catalogue, and also the
Editorial in the latest issues of
8BS.
Bye for now.
To: 999 (all members)
From: 20G (Roy Dickens)
Subject: Radio and TV programmes
Some progs about computing
that may be of interest.
Radio 5 Live: Sundays 12.15pm
45 minutes of "THE BIG BYTE" live.
...............
Radio 4: Tuesdays 8.30pm
30 minutes "THE NETWORK"
One of the recent discussions:-
'Men play with computers.... Women
use computers'.
...............
ITV (Anglia) Sat. 1.30pm
ITV (Meridian) Sat. 2.10pm.
other regions not known.
30 minutes "THE BIG BYTE"
.............
Channel 4 Teletext Page 650/3
"ON LINE"
News/new products/letters/internet.
.............
Channel 4 Teletext Page 470/6
"Computer Games"
.............
To: 999 (all members)
From: K8G (Jonathan Harston)
Subject: Whata Fraud!
Ok. I've got to come clean. I used
to work for them. Believe me, it
wasn't a nice experience. Imagine you
applied for an Architect's job and
then discovered that you were the tea
boy. I joined WE thinking 'Great...
someone's at last going to pay me for
writing all these programs and things
that I keep coming up with'. Reality:
I was manning a phone in what can only
be called the complaints department,
trying to fob off disgruntled
customers, and opening returned
packages containing faulty goods.
Only one person at a time was allowed
to go for lunch, so I often ate at
around three o'clock. When I went for
my interview they said 'you can eat in
the canteen', and I thought 'ooh,
great, no more cooking for myself,
cheap company meals'. It turns out
that Shiraz Jessa though 'Canteen'
meant 'a small room with tables in',
where we could eat our sandwiches,
etc. that we brought with us.
At one point I ask, where do you
actualy write and develop software,
having not been able to see anyone
else in the entire builing but us. Oh,
we don't write anything, we buy it.
Buy it up, more like. WE's products
sold because they bought up the
competition, and closed them down, and
I don't care who reads this. Acorn
was developing and external Tube box
so you could plug Master Co-Pros into
a Beeb. Watford got theirs out
earlier and cheaper, so Acorn's never
got to the market. Unfortunately, WE
just put a design together, plugged it
in, and if it worked sold it. Sod
soak-testing it to see if it
overheated or crashed after being used
to twenty minutes. 'Oo, these 25MHz
ARM3s will run at 30MHz!' 'Right,
sell them at 30MHz'. Yes, but they're
rated at 25MHz, because they aren't
designed to go faster. You could drive
a Mini at 120mph, but it won't get very
far before the engine blows up.
I've had medical exemption from any
lifting work ever since working in
Watford. Oh, you can lift that box by
yourself, ignore that label that says
'two people only'. 'Fire exit? It's
behind that filing cabinet that's
behind those boxes that are behind
those monitors.'
They also seemed to think people
picked up knowledge through osmosis.
I was often phoned about products that
I didn't have the foggiest idea about,
yet they wouldn't let you actually
take any home to fiddle with in your
spare time. And as for 'playing' with
them in company time...!
The high-up Jessas seemed to want to
treat all the employees as their
family and control them as they
wanted. I was in a room in a company
flat. A flat with no communal areas,
so I had to eat my meals balanced on
my knee on the edge of the bed. No
heating. One of the other tenants was
my immediate boss, who thought it was
a good idea to have a fourty-minute
bath before going to work in the
morning, and who kept the phone in his
room.
EDITOR..... A bitter man....
(Pun intended)
To: 999 (all members)
From: K5K (David Robinson)
Subject: Apologies for Absence
Apologies to anyone who may have
sent me a message and had no reply. I
have been completely out of 8BS since
about the end of April. I
unfortunately took on rather more than
I should have done, so my hobby
evenings were cancelled! I have now
just about caught up though, and am
looking forward to reading the next
issue. 6-Oct-95