VILLANOVA UNIVERSITY, ST. AUGUSTINE CENTER
MEETING STARTS - 09:30 - SEP 11th
COME AND JOIN US - BRING FRIENDS
For September, we'll have another of our participatory Q & A problem solving sessions. The last two meetings have had some good interchanges - that appear to be well received by attendees. Then, we'll segue into a short session of Linux delvings, by our Linux guru and webmaster, Peter Whinnery.
Time permitting, we'll do some shorter demos - including items that attendees may bring to the fore. One is the potent handy utility called Tweak UI - developed by the Microsoft programmers. We'll try the Microsoft email help system. Others installed on the club PC include WinZip, Atomic Clock. How about yours?
Come join us in room 110 ... [continued]
MAIN LINE AMIGA USERS - Room 210
We convened our August meeting with the primary purpose of helping each other answer questions and solve problems. Well, we wound up with enough questions and problems, but I don't think we solved any of them. Instead, the problems and issues just seemed to multiply.
So, for our September meeting I thought we would try again, assuming those who attended last month haven't taken care of their computing problems in the mean time. Like our August meeting, we'll try to demonstrate and use some networking to update software like datatype and library files. I've ordered the Amiga-Link/Envoy Starter Kit from Software Hut to be used in lieu of trying a parallel port PLIP connection. It'll be interesting to see if we can make headway on any of the problems this time. So, if you feel up to it, bring your machines and problems. We'll try to take care of you better this time around. [continued]
One of the really growing uses for the internet is in real-time
communication. Internet chat has been one such route, but the growth
has come in apps that monitor the net for folks on your personal
contact list who have logged on. One-on-one interaction via Instant
Messenger is one - while ICQ for many-on-one is another. More info
here.
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MEMBER SURVEY - so far the prime returnees of the member survey form
have been those who use PCs a lot. We'd like to hear from the 8-
bitters and the Amigans, too. To plan for the year 2000 and more, we
need to hear from EVERY ONE OF OUR MEMBERS!
Please dig out the form, give it some real thought and return it post-
haste!
Loadstar - well, after finding, and sending in, my renewal check for
Loadstar (it had lain under a pile of papers on my desk for 3 months!),
my LS resumed today! And there is new news! LS is relocating:
LOADSTAR
They are still planning to publish thru the end of 2000.
Their former association with Softdisk Publishing is end(ing)(ed) as
that firm is closing down its paper/disk public-ations (their Softdisk
PC, the last one is shut down, apparently). They are still doing some
internet service stuff.
So, Loadstar is totally on its own now. Hopefully, the 8-bit world
will continue to support them.
SUPER FGM! - issue #182 of Loadstar 64 is accompanied by a separate
floppy that contains version 8 of the Fun Graphics Machine (FGM), by
Ron Hackley. Ron chose to distribute thru Loadstar to avoid the hassle
of small orders, from a dwindling clientele.
V8 is pretty big - and does a whole lot of graphics stuff. It
completely fills both sides of a 5.25 floppy - plus the LS#182 disk
has 50+ doc files (in TWS format) on it.
Loadstar plans to keep issue #182 "in print"; so folks can continue to
purchase Super FGM v8.
For a measley $10 - you get issue #182 (normally $6-7) plus the v8 of
FGM - not a bad deal!!!
BTW - I have transferred all the FGM files, all the TWS doc files and
an intro TWS file, that I prepared, to a single 1581 disk. They fit
with about 500 blocks free. I'll have it at the next meeting - tho not
being an FGMer, I can't show much other than it's HERE!!!
Hopefully, one of our FGM using members (like Charlie?) can do a future
demo (hint, hint)?
COMMODORE PRODUCTS LIST - Roger Long has published the version #7 of
his C= products & vendors listing. Available in print ($5) or disk
($3) from him at: 1815 97th St. S., Apt. V7, Tacoma WA 98444.
GEOWRITE 128 - even on the GEOS front, there is news. Todd Elliott has
published a patch for GeoWrite 128 v2.1 to add enhancements similar to
Maurice Randall's Wheels improvement for the GEOS OS, e.g. multi-
drives. The "patch" is only $6. I'll bring it to the next meeting,
too.
Restoring Missing/Damaged Files
On several occasions, the question of how to restore single files from
your Win95/98 install CD or cab file directory came up. Files may have
been inadvertently deleted, corrupted, or mysteriously made unavailable
- hence the question.
The story of how to get those files back is in a Microsoft Knowledge
Base article. I'll have a printout for folks to see at the September
meeting.
However, if you want to get it for yourself, fire up your browser and
go to:
support.microsoft.com/support/search/c.asp
You should be at a page showing a search form to fill in. Click the
radio button for finding an article by ID number.
Type q129605 into the provided box, press return and you should be
there. Print it, or save it and be happy, secure in the "knowledge"
that you've got this backup info. But, also, see page 5.
***************************
by Peter Whinnery
One of the reasons I opted for the SCSI version of the Zip drive was
the fact that it can be attached to a CMD hard drive and used with a
Commodore system. Recently, while troubleshooting the SCSI devices on
one of our PCs, I found that I had an extra SCSI cable lying around
that was just begging to be attached to the CMD HD. So I dug around a
bit on the Internet and looked through my back issues of Commodore
World and found the info (and confidence) to finally give it a try.
The process was a snap! I was able to create a set of partitions that
mirrored what is on the hard drive and then do a complete backup using
M-copy. The capacity of the HD is 80 megs (and is only about 1/2 full)
so everything easily fit on one zip disk. My 'Peace of Mind' index
went up significantly.
If anyone is interested in the nitty-gritty please let me know. I will
be happy to provide the details.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
FOR SALE: the club has been receiving quite a lot of Commodore stuff -
software, computers, disk drives, monitors, printers, etc. - from
former members or other folks who spotted us in the Delaware Valley
Computer User.
So, if you are in need of replacements or augmentation, please contact
Charles Curran - he has most of the stuff and the prices are VERY
reasonable!!!
***************************
The August PC/64/128 meeting had some 11 attendees. We had a very good
info interchange amongst the attendees for about 1.25 hours - bit
longer than planned, as we were having fun!
Then Tom Johnson took over. Via the ethernet connection, he downloaded
the ICQ software - latest version - about 4 MB file (took a couple of
minutes to download).
Then he did an install - which you do on-line as the install and
registration for an ICQ account are performed together. All this went
smoothly without a hitch. The program has a vast array of options, but
the defaults make it easy to get going.
Tom then did a brief demo of some of the operation of this
communication tool. It may be a good followup topic for a future
meeting. Especially, if any members decide to get on-line with ICQ.
More details are below!!
by Emil Volcheck
Recently, we have been playing with CD-R and CD-RW units - with some
interesting learnings. One of the more disturbing:
As mentioned in my message on the BBS to John Murphy, we had made a CD-
RW disc on Charlie's new Backpack unit.
He could not read it on the CD-ROM drive in his PC (a 16X unit, about
2.5 years old). The club PC with a 24X unit about 1.5 years old did
read it.
I hooked up Charlie's Backpack to the club PC - erased the RW disc and
recorded some different files on it. But, the club PC's 24X CD-ROM
could not now read that one!
My laptop with a 32X CD-ROM, about 9 months old, was able to read it.
It appears that CD-RW discs are a very long way from being generally
useful!!! Now, I understand better why folks say to stay clear of them
unless they serve a very special need (and maybe used for info that you
expect to eventually NOT be able to read)!
We hope to test some CD-R discs which are supposed to be more generally
readable. I have an array of CD-ROM drives to test them on from a 2X
drive about 4 years old, thru 6X, 8X, 16X, 24X and 32X units. That
ought to be enough!!!
If members are using any of these devices, share your experiences...
"He who has a thing to sell and
goes and whispers in a well, is
not so apt to get the dollars as
he who climbs a tree and hollers."
[ed:and the car salesmen believe this for sure!!]
by Tom Johnson
At the August meeting, the ICQ (I Seek You) communication program was
demonstrated. This versatile program allows you to communicate in real
time with others. By putting this program on your system, you are
transported to a chatroom where what is typed on your screen also
appears on the screen(s) of the party (parties) with whom you have
contact. ICQ is completely free of any charges and gives you the
ability to converse with family and friends world-wide. Find new
friendships, send messages, send files, and configure ICQ to work with
other applications. (Did I mention it is free?)
The new beta version 99a (4mbs) can be downloaded from
www.mirabilis.com or www.icq.com. Just follow the instructions to
setup your account, which contains only the information you want to
provide. You are completely in control of the information you want
others to view, and you choose how to arrange lists of people to
contact. An abundance of detailed instructions is provided through
linked pages to help anyone to start to use this fun-filled
communication tool. One of the main links is to the ICQ Home Page,
which supplies an abundance of sites that will help to put you in
contact with other people sharing your interests.
The program is attached to your browser and starts up automatically
when you go online. Bring up the main menu by double-clicking on the
flower sitting in your computer tray or add another flower as a
floating icon that can be placed anywhere you want on the screen.
Online registration establishes a base and identifies you with an ICQ
number, your real name, a nickname, and your email address. After that
you are ready to explore the many resources connected to ICQ. Use the
Invitation Wizard to send others everything they need to download ICQ
onto their systems, or use the Random Search feature to find people
with a certain interest you want to discuss. Join a group discussion,
or simply indicate your interest so that others can find you. After
mastering the simple mode, move to the advanced mode, which presents
more possibilities of communicating with the million plus members of
ICQ. If you do not want to be contacted, post a Not Available sign,
create your own sign, or elect to become invisible to other users. You
decide on how and when the program is to be used.
After being established by Mirabilis, ICQ was acquired by America On
Line earlier this year, but you do not need to be a member of AOL to
enjoy complete and unfettered access to ICQ.
(The author uses ICQ to chat with his brother who lives in California.
Communication between the two has increased, and a pile of money has
been saved on phone bills. He has also established contacts with
people in other parts of the world. The tales told never cease to
amaze.)
Knowledge Base Articles via Email
Microsoft has a nice service for getting the articles in their
knowledge base. This is a followup to the item on page 2.
If you know the article number (such as when John Fried refers to one
in his weekly column in the Inquirer), you can get a copy for yourself,
as follows:
Send an email message to:
mshelp@microsoft.com
For the SUBJECT line, put the article number. For example, the article
on extracting files from cabs is Q129605. So, that number (with the Q
in caps) would be the subject.
Then send it - nothing needs to be put in the body of the message.
You will receive the article by email shortly thereafter (certainly
within a day - maybe only minutes). I've tried it and it works just
fine!
The emailed articles come in plain text format - no HTML - so you can
read, print, forward or whatever, with no special steps needed.
We convened our August meeting with the primary purpose of helping
each other answer questions and solve problems. Well, we wound up
with enough questions and problems, but I don't think we solved any
of them. Instead, the problems and issues just seemed to multiply.
So, for our September meeting I thought we would try again, assuming
those who attended last month haven't taken care of their computing
problems in the mean time. Like our August meeting, we'll try to
demonstrate and use some networking to update software like datatype
and library files. I've ordered the Amiga-Link/Envoy Starter Kit
from Software Hut to be used in lieu of trying a parallel port PLIP
connection. It'll be interesting to see if we can make headway on
any of the problems this time. So, if you feel up to it, bring your
machines and problems. We'll try to take care of you better this
time around.
AMIGA FOREVER AND NETWORKING DEMOS
In addition to my A1200, I brought my PC to the August meeting. I
wanted to demonstrate the latest version of Cloanto's Amiga Forever,
which is what I did. Cloanto's Amiga Forever is now at version 3.0
of UAE, the Universal Amiga Emulator. It includes all Amiga
Kickstart ROM images from 1.0 through 3.1, and includes emulators on
CDROM for MSDOS, Mac, and Win95. Emulation supports 68000 &
68020 Motorola processors along with 68881 FPU for compatibility, and
includes support for OCS, ECS, and AGA chipsets.
Amiga purists may frown on UAE, but for some users migrating to the
PC, this is an excellent way to maintain a foot in the Amiga world,
and for PC users, this is an inexpensive way to find out about the
Amiga. UAE is available for free on the Internet, but doesn't
include the Amiga OS software and Kickstart ROM. Buying Cloanto's
Amiga Forever for about $60 is actually the least expensive way for a
PC or Mac user to legally acquire and put an Amiga OS on their
computers. In addition, the user gets some included Amiga
applications for free.
PROBLEMS, PROBLEMS, PROBLEMS
Problem solving was the intended focus of our August meeting.
Problems were what we got, but solutions seemed to elude us. If
nothing else, everyone became aware of the problems others were
facing on their respective systems. Hopefully, we'll come to this
month's meeting better prepared to deal with each other's problems,
assuming everyone hasn't solved their own problems between meetings.
BACON A DILEMMA
Bill Bacon arrived at the meeting ready to replace his failed floppy
drive. Actually, Software Hut had sold Bill an A4000 HD floppy drive
to use in his A3000. As we started to look at Bill's situation we
realized one of the oddities of the A3000. The A3000 front bezel is
an all-in-one molded piece without knockouts for peripherals. So, it
requires the floppy drive to not have its own bezel. However, the
A4000 has knockouts in its front bezel for the floppy drive bay. The
first dilemma was how to adapt the A4000 floppy drive to the A3000.
The second dilemma was that the supplied instruction sheet did not
match his floppy drive. Where there were supposed to be 6 jumper
pins, there were only 4 pins.
The instructions became the show stopper for Bill. Under advisement,
he deferred installation until he could speak to a Software Hut
technician.
THE MEAN DEAN MACHINE
Ted Dean showed up with his hi-powered machine, but it seems all the
hi-tech stuff was at odds with other pieces of hardware. Essentially
Ted's machine had great difficulty booting. It would aggravatingly
hangup in the startup sequence as though there was a hardware timing
problem. Not having brought tools for hardware troubleshooting,
there wasn't much we could do for Ted. Ted was going to take his
computer to Software Hut before the next meeting to see if they could
resolve his misfortune.
THE TROUBLESOME ENVOY VISIT
When Ted finally got his machine running, we tried networking his
machine with mine using Village Tronic's Liana and Envoy, in this
case Envoy version 3. Envoy is a peer-to-peer networking solution
originally developed by Commodore. Liana is the device driver
software that lets one use the Amiga's parallel port as a networking
connection. Though we were able to see the machines on the network,
we were unable to establish a usable connection. Running out of
time, we eventually gave up the battle to hopefully win the war
another day.
For some time I've considered buying Amitrix's Amiga-Link. The other
week I ordered it from Software Hut who informed me they didn't have
Amiga-Link in stock. So, I'm hoping it is delivered in time for this
month's forthcoming meeting.
For those that don't know, Amiga-Link is a floppy drive "cheapernet"
type solution that uses an interface connected to the floppy drive
port, and in turn connects to the next computer by coax and BNC
connectors. Amiga-Link throughput is about twice as fast as PLIP
(Parallel Line Internet Protocol), and more than twice as fast as
SLIP (Serial Line Internet Protocol) connections.
AMIGA IN RETROSPECT
Excerpt taken from:
About Jim Hines
First, a little about myself since this is the first article that
I've written for HomeToys. I am the Network Administrator of two
Windows NT networks of over 25 machines for a television station
(WDTV-TV5). I also maintain a network of Amigas there as well,
consisting of six machines. Both in work and in my spare time, I
write software for the Amiga which includes programs that automate
certain functions of WDTV's operations, as well as my home.
A Brief History of Amiga, AmigaDOS and ARexx
I normally would not go into the OS in an article about Home
Automation, but since it is the O.S. which makes the Amiga the ideal
HA machine, I will explain a little bit about what makes it so
powerful.
AmigaDOS was one of the very first pre-emptive multi-tasking
operating systems coming out shortly after OS9. The big difference
was that AmigaDOS was a 32bit OS and had a GUI interface. Meanwhile
in 1985, PCs were still stumbling with only 16 colors and Apples were
still black and white while the Amiga was doing a whooping 4096
colors! Top it off with built in 8 bit four channel digital sound
with decent digital speech synthesis. It was years ahead of other
platforms and in some respects, still is (like in it's ability to
play back full screen high resolution animations with a relatively
slow processor!).
AmigaDOS is currently at v3.1. It can still boot in as little as 512k
ram, but that would not be very practical. Many programs will run in
as little as 2mb without any CPU intensive disk caching, while still
fully multi-tasking.
AmigaDOS not only has its own scripting capabilities, but also
includes a much more powerful language called ARexx. It is based on
the Rexx language developed by IBM and is somewhat compatible to Rexx
which is available on OS-2 systems. The beauty of ARexx is this: Most
Amiga programs include a built in ARexx port so that it may be
completely controlled externally by another application or script. A
script may be written to control many programs simultaneously, or
just a single program. It can even hand data back and forth as it
goes. This is quite powerful and I've yet to see anything that even
comes close on other platforms. ARexx is even powerful enough to
build complete stand-alone applications with a GUI interface that may
even be compiled. It is easy to use and most people can learn the
basics in just a few days. As you can imagine, these capabilities
make for a very powerful home automation computer, and an easy way to
create powerful custom programs or macros.
For those who may be interested in what ARexx looks like, here is
very small Arexx script example:
/* Tell the CM11A daemon to turn A1, A2 and A5 on */
/* Tune VCR to channel 18... */
/* ...and then record */
/* Have Amiga speak via built in speech synthesis */
Because the Amiga's OS is very efficient, it does not take a lot of
CPU power to handle tasks effectively. As an example, here are my
system specs.
There were many different models of Amigas made throughout the years
starting with the original Amiga 1000 from 1985. A 32 bit system
running a Motorola 68000 at 7.14mhz. It had 512K RAM as well as an
optional 8088 PC card for running MS-DOS programs.
Next came the Amiga 500 also running a 68000 @ 7.14 mhz. More video
RAM through a redesigned custom graphics chip (Agnus) made the A500
the ultimate gaming machine. Perhaps this is where the Amiga got its
reputation as a "game machine".
The A2000 was available with the 68000 or 68020, video slot for
internal genlock or other video devices (the Video Toaster was a
popular one), a CPU slot for future expansion as well as 3 ISA slots
and 4 Zorro 2 slots (The Amigas 16 bit expansion slots). Even though
the A2000 is old, third party companies are still making accelerator
CPU cards in 060 and PPC flavors transforming the A2000 into a very
modern machine.
The A3000 and A4000 are listed together since both have very similar
architectures. These machines are considered high end workstations
and available in both desktop and tower variations. Both feature the
newer Zorro 3 32 bit slots. The A4000 tower features, a most useful,
two video slots instead of the usual one.
The A1200 is a wonderful home computer that is not much larger than a
standard computer keyboard. The A1200 features a 68EC020 CPU plus 2mb
video RAM. The CPU is upgradable to a 200Mhz PPC chip if desired.
This machine is very popular and very capable of useful things. The
A1200 also contains a Zorro 3 slot.
If you have either software or hardware for your Amiga that has taken
your fancy, please bring it to our attention. I'm sure your specific
interests will be of interest to others. Let me know if this is the
case at the next meeting, or leave me email on our BBS. Remember, a
user group is only as rewarding as the sum of the efforts of its
individual members.
DIRECTIONS FOR ST. AUGUSTINE CENTER MEETING ROOMS
Meetings are in the St. Augustine Center at Villanova University. The
8-bit and PC sessions will be in Room 110 and the AMIGA meeting in Room
210.
Enter from the ITHAN AVENUE main gate, then proceed to the 2-level
parking building adjacent to St. Augustine, on the Ithan Avenue side.
NOTE: maps on our webpage -
http://astro4.ast.vill.edu/mlcug/index.htm
MLCUG STEERING COMMITTEE:
PRESIDENT: Emil Volcheck 388-1581 SECRETARY: Charles Curran
446-5239
TREASURER/MEMBERS:Dewitt Stewart 623-5145 AMIGA SIG/SYSOP: John
Deker 828-7897
INTERNET: Peter Whinnery 284-5234 DATABASE: Layton Fireng
688-2080
AT LARGE: Tom Johnson 525-3440
ANNOUNCEMENTS & COMMENTS
########################################
443 GLADSTONE BLVD.
SHREVEPORT LA 71104
318-868-8727
www.loadstar.com
MS INFO - I
Zip Drive and my Commodore
$ TRADING POST $
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
64/128/PC MEETING
***************************
CD-RW Part I
ADVERTISING
MORE ON ICQ
MS INFO - II
MAIN LINE AMIGA USER HAPPENINGS
by John Deker
The Amiga Computer:
A Viable Alternative in Home Automation?
by Jim Hines
(http://www.iolinc.net/~hines_j/AmigaHA.html)
/* This is an arexx script example. */
address EZHOME send A1 A2 A5 on
address INFRAREXX VID_CH_1
address INFRAREXX VID_CH_8
address INFRAREXX VID_REC
curtime = time() /* 18:00:00 */
say 'Your recording has started' /* Print to screen */
address command 'echo >speak: "jim, your recording has started
at"' curtime
/* END PROGRAM */
Amiga Hardware
Model : Amiga 2000
CPU : 68030
CPU Speed : 50mhz
RAM : 18mb FAST RAM
: 2MB CHIP
Drives : 1gb, 550mb, 240mb &
: Archive Viper Tape Backup
Ports : 1 Serial, 1 Parallel
Sound : four channel 8 bit stereo sound
: w/speech synthesis (built in)
Cards : VFX Phonepak (FAX & voicemail boxes)
: MultiFace3 (2 Serial, 1 Parallel)
: PicassoII gfx card w/2mb &
: Cirrus Logic Chip Set
Misc : External 33,6 FAX/Modem w/CID
: CM11A ActiveHome Unit
: CP290 X10
Interfaces : InfraRexx infrared controller
: SCSI-2
As you can see, a mediocre system at best, but is able to handle more
jobs simultaneously than a Pentium 166 or maybe even a P200. The
ARexx port in each program is what allows the increased flexibility
of AmigaDOS as compared with mainstream Windows systems.
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/\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\
/__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\
/ \\_| \/ ||_||_ \__//_/ \\_
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FUTURE MEETINGS
64/128/PC/Amiga Meetings 1999 Steering Committee Meetings
September 11 * September 15
October 9 * October 13 **
November 13 * November 17
* = second Saturday ** = second Wednesday
**********************************************************
EDITOR: Emil J. Volcheck, Jr. 1046 General Allen Lane West
Chester, PA 19382-8030
(Produced with C-128D/SCPU 128, RAMlink, HD-40/85, 1571, FD-4000, THE
WRITE STUFF 128, XETEC Super Grafix, Canon BJ-200ex, Swiftlink and
Motorola 288 modem)
MLCUG BBS: 610-828-1359 (300 --> 33600 bps), 24 hr/day
WWW: http://astro4.ast.vill.edu/mlcug/index.htm
PUBLICITY: Robyn Josephs 565-4058
DISK ORDERS: Charlie Curran 446-5239; Bill Bacon 441-5908
VILLANOVA SPONSOR: Prof. Frank Maloney, Dept. of Astronomy