From: 0E7 (F.W.Nevin) Subject: 5.25" Floppy Discs As if in confirmation to comments I made earlier re the difficulty in obtaining 5.25" floppies suitable for the BBC from Dealers can it be deduced from the Editors statement in issue 53 Dec 96 that this situation now applies to wholesalers. It would therefore appear that manufacturers have ceased to manufacture 5.25" floppies. In view of the ever growing popularity of the PC with its CD-ROM system how long before the same fate befalls the 3.5" floppy. In leaving you with these thoughts for the New Year does any one out there (Sounds like the X-Files) know of any dealer who can supply me with a 3.5" DD.PSU suitable for a BBC Master or know of anyone who has one for sale please.These items too would appear to be victims like the 5.25" floppy killed off by the PC,CD-ROM multi-media popularity. I can be contacted (Not by Vodaphone /Orange or even agents Mulder and Scully but on Good Old Reliable B.T. on:- Cheers Fred ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, From: D5B (Jon Ripley) Subject: Big Numbers! A few issues ago a member, sorry but I forget who, gave us a nice big number to contemplate... Well, they also mentioned 2^8192 and 3^5000, well, here they are! Also, a few issues back I asked members to add up all the digits in the number 4444^4444, obviously it was a trick question. Well, if you add up all the digits in the ACTUAL number you end up with 7! Take a look! Believe it or not but this number is over 16 thousand digits long and was calculated by a BBC Master in just a few hours by a BASIC program! ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, From: E2G (Derek Hill) Subject: Concept Keyboard Thankyou Cris Robbins for the Concept Keyboard which arrived safely. It is now connected up to my BBC and is working well. Jon Ripley and I had a session together on it the other evening. We have managed to get a first attempt together with speech incorporated for the Robin club for the handicapped. We meet next Saturday. Those who have perfectly lucid thoughts but find other mortals have difficulty in understanding them will now have the opportunity to use the BBC computer to express them for them with just a keypress or two on the Concept Keyboard. Well that is the theory anyway! We'll see how it goes. Bye for now, Derek. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, To: 999 (all) From: D6E (Richard Harker) Subject: General Here's a quick question. What is the longest word that you can make from the top line of letters on a keyboard (keys QWERTYUIOP)?. Any letter may be used once, more than once, or not at all I'll send in the answer next month. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, To: 999 (all) From: D6E (Richard Harker) Subject: General (Book review) I found this book in PC World. It is a highly ammusing book which expains different aspects of computing to novices, including computer user types. The book is sarcastic in places and very very funny. Here is an example that I found in the section 'computers in the home - multimedia'. The quotation is about computerised encyclopaedias' educational value and the ease with which pictures and text can be copied into childrens essays: "Before multimedia, the child would have to read and understand the six-paragraph encyclopaedia entry, and then write it up manually, which is clearly no way to gain an education" Another nice touch is looking for 'Endless loop' in the glossary, it reads: Endless Loop - See 'Infinite loop' Then when you go to 'Infinite loop' it reads: Infinite Loop - See 'Endless loop' I would recommend this to anyone who has ever used a computer although I think that a complete novice may not understand all the jokes. Anyway if you like a good laugh - buy it. INFO Title: Bluf your way in computers Authors: Robert Ainsley & Alexander C.Rae Publisher: Ravette Books Limited Price: 2.50 ISBN number: 1-85304-081-9 ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ReplyTo: D6G (Sprow) From: K8G (Jonathan Harston) Subject: Magazines In the beginning... (ie, 1981), there was BBC Micro User. Acorn complained, so they changed the name a couple of months later to The Micro User. At the same time Acorn User was born. In about 1993, MU did a 'Snickers' and changed their name to Acorn Computing. A year later, they merged with Acorn User to form Acorn User Computing. Within a week or so, that title was shortened to Acorn User. BBC Micro User Acorn User | | Micro User | | | | Electon User | | | | +--+---+ +---------+ | | Micro User and Electron User | | | Micro User | | | Acorn Computing | | | +---------+-----------+ | Acorn User Computing | Acorn User ...and there we have it. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ReplyTo: 999 From: K8G (Jonathan Harston) Subject: Phone Number Oops! My phone number in the Editorial came out as 1004 233 2682. Obviously an easy typo. It should have the ones and zeros transposed: 0114 233 2682. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ReplyTo: L1M (Janny Looyenga) From: K8G (Jonathan Harston) Subject: MUGINS Yes, unfortunately MUGINS isn't fully finished. I was responsible for writing the technical parts, and somebody else wrote the actual game bit, the bit that needed the imagination. He's no longer doing BBC stuff, so the game part of it is a bit stagnant. It can be played in stand-alone mode, as for a long time I had no access to a network to test and run it on. I've now got a network up here at home, so I'll be able to dive back into network programming again. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ReplyTo: D6K (Mike Mallett) From: K8G (Jonathan Harston) Subject: Letter of 27th July I apologise if I haven't replied to you. I started a new job in August which kept me busy for about 18 hours each day. Your letter may have slipped from my pile and got lost. Now that the job is finished, I can return to doing computer things. I'll have a good look to see if I can find it and I'll reply straight away. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,