USE CURSOR KEYS TO SCROLL TEXT. USE CURSOR KEYS TO SCROLL TEXT. 8 Bit GENERAL MESSAGES 1 GENERAL MESSAGES 1 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. Well done! Well done! ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, 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, 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 . 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.