USE CURSOR KEYS TO SCROLL TEXT. USE CURSOR KEYS TO SCROLL TEXT. 8 Bit GENERAL MESSAGES 2 GENERAL MESSAGES 2 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. BUT BUT 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