MAIN LINE COMPUTER USERS - OCTOBER 1997 - ISSUE #185 ***** OCTOBER 1997 ************************************************* ISSUE #185 ***** VILLANOVA UNIVERSITY, ST. AUGUSTINE CENTER MEETING STARTS - 09:30 - OCT 04 Membership renewal time has arrived !! ---------------------------------------------------------------- CONTENTS History of Computing - Part VI 2 RENEWAL/Other announcements 3 ! WINNERS THIS MONTH ! 3 Product Update 3 YEAR 2000 - First Blood? 3 Trading Post 4 64/128 meeting minutes 5 What File Do You Have - II ? 5 AMIGA User Happenings 7 State of the AMIGA Market 8 MAP/Masthead/Meeting schedule 9 Membership Form/Dues 10 ---------------------------------------------------------------- MAIN LINE 64/128 USERS - Room 110 Our September meeting had a lot of lively discussion - jumping off with some questions that occupied the majority of the time planned for the 'main feature'! Since much of the back-and-forth related to the subject of file transfers - our planned topic - we let it go. However, that left not enough time to cover all the material we had hoped to. In particular, the use of either Little Red Reader (LRR) or Big Blue Reader (BBR) to manage file transfers and conversions just got started. So, we definitely want to complete showing what they can do. Especially, we need to show what LRR and BBR can, and can not, do; so you will be able to decide which might be right for you. (continued on page 3) MAIN LINE AMIGA USERS - Room 210 Our September meeting was attended by a devoted small cadre of members. Though I was unable to attend, I understand the meeting went fairly well as Ted Dean presented various aspects of MIDI. Ted is still very much on the learning curve when it comes to this subject. Apparently, some of the other attendees were able to provide additional limited insight and suggestions for Ted. So, there is something to be gained by being a presenter! Bill Bacon did not do his presentation on using HTML to create Web pages. We will explore that topic with him at some future date. For next month, October, I will be (continued on page 7) ---------------------------------------------------------------- THE PART II MEETING ARE YOU CHANGING? Following the theme of the 8-bit meeting, we want to deal with the subject of file conversions, etc. from the PC side. After all your 8- bit machine is NOT the only source of non-standard (i.e. non-PC standard) files that you will have to deal with. We want to allow plenty of time for Q&A, too. **************************************** CHRONOLOGY OF SIGNIFICANT EVENTS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMPUTING MACHINES (PART VI) BY JAY R. BAKER Nov 1945 - ENIAC completed. A classified wartime project, the ENIAC was made public at a news conference on 14 Feb 1946. The key to the successful use of vacuum tubes in ENIAC was attributable to Eckert's quality control process which screened every tube, his insistance on using standardized circuitry in every component so that input and output signal levels could be relied on and on his approach of operating the vacuum tubes at power levels well below their maximum rated values. In addition, in order to avoid the thermal stress on the vacuum tube filaments during the warmup period, the machine was never turned off unless absolutely necessary. The ENIAC operated at 100 kHz and could multiply 333 ten digit numbers or add 5000 in a second. It could compute a projectile trajectory in 20 seconds compared to the 15 to 30 minutes required by the conventional method using a differential analyzer. The statistics of the machine's construction include 40 panels of electronics which contain 17,468 vacuum tubes, 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors, 1500 relays and 6000 manual switches. It was 8 feet high, 80 feet long, weighed 30 tons and consumed 174 kilowatts of power. In designing ENIAC, Mauchly borrowed several technical ideas from Atanasoff including the use of vacuum tubes as switches and synchronizing the internal operation with an electronic timer but he also ignored some of Atanasoff's best ideas including increasing the efficiency of the machine by separating the memory and arithmetic units and using binary math and Boolean logic without which ENIAC, as a decimal machine, was unnecessarily complicated. Programming the ENIAC was especially cumbersome and was done by setting thousands of switches and plugging in hundreds of cables (like a telephone switchboard) and typically took two days to set up a program that in turn had taken months to plan. Although the ENIAC was still a program controlled calculator just like the Analytical Engine, the Z4, the ABC and the Mark I, albeit thousands of times faster and more powerful than any of those, nevertheless, as the first general purpose electronic digital calculator, it was a significant accomplishment as a bridge between the mechanical calculator and the modern electronic computer. Jun 1945 - Johnann (John) von Neumann (b. 28 Dec 1903 in Budapest, Hungary d. 1957), world famous mathematician, submitted the "First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC" to Herman H. Goldstine (b. 1913), the Army's program manager for ENIAC, who published the report. Von Neumann had become aware of the ENIAC project through a chance meeting with Goldstine and, immediately recognizing the significance of the work, became a consultant to the project. Von Neumann's already established reputation combined with the circulation of his report caused him to get the credit for many of the ideas which Mauchly had developed for the EDVAC such as the stored program concept and the decision to make the machine a serial one because that was easier to build altough slower in operation. In addition, the distribution of this report later contributed to the invalidation of the ENIAC patent obtained by Mauchly and Eckert in 1964. 1946 - Mauchly and Eckert leave the Moore School of Engineering and form the Electronic Control Company, the first U.S. computer manufacturer. [to be continued] --------------- ADAGES BY CHILDREN Laugh and the world laughs with you. Cry and someone yells "Shut Up!" DIRECTIONS FOR ST. AUGUSTINE CENTER MEETING ROOMS For the next many months, we have shifted our monthly meetings from Mendel Hall to the St. Augustine Center at Villanova University. The 8-bit meeting will be in seminar room 110 and the AMIGA meeting in seminar room 210. Please be sure to enter the campus from the ITHAN AVENUE main gate, then proceed to the 2-level parking building adjacent to the St. Augustine Center, on the Ithan Avenue side. However, you may have to enter the building via the front door, as shown in the sketch below. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 64/128/Amiga Meetings 1997 Steering Committee Meetings October 04 October 08 November 01 November 12 December 06 December 10 * = second Saturday ** = third Wednesday ------------------------------------------------------------------ NEWSLETTER DEADLINE is October 16th !!! *********************************************************************** **************** EDITOR: Emil J. Volcheck, Jr. 1046 General Allen Lane West Chester, PA 19382-8030 (Produced with C-128, RAMlink, HD-40/85, 1571, FD-4000, THE WRITE STUFF 128, XETEC Super Grafix, Panasonic KX-P1123, Swiftlink RS-232 and Motorola 288 modem) MLCUG BBS: 610-828-1359 (300 --> 28800 bps), 24 hr/day ######################################## ANNOUNCEMENTS & SPECIALS ######################################## YEAR 1998 IS COMING UPON US! - and that means it is time to renew your membership in MLCUG/MLAUG!! Altho, we have had some increases in the cost of publishing the newsletter, our major expense, we did maintain the status of our treasury this last year. So, at least for the renewal period to year-end, we can hold the dues to $15 as in the past couple of years. Please use the form on page 10 (or reasonable facsimile thereof) and send your dues into treasurer, Stew Stewart, as soon as possible. SPECIAL NOTE: our information about what hardware and/or key software that folks now use is pretty out of date, as most members have not updated their membership form when they renewed. Please take a few extra minutes and provide the information requested on the form - and any other info you think pertinent - before sending it in with your 1998 dues. Thanks from your friendly computer database! ! CONGRATULATIONS ! At the September meeting, our raffle winners were: Bill Detwiler, Nelson Schrock and Peter Whinnery (again)! There'll be three (3) more winners in October, etc. (until the prizes run out)! Come on out, you could be one of them! --------- INTERNET BOOK! - our order for Gaelyn Gasson's book, "The Internet for Commodore 64/128 Users" arrived last month and copies are available to be picked up. We are holding copies for: Mike Byrne, Thad Harry, Ray Madison, Carlos Mason, Tex Shannon and Chauncey Westbrook. Please arrange to get your copy (and pay!). We'll start a new sign up list and, if we can get at least five (5) more interested folks, we can reorder at the $24 per copy price. The book is spiral bound for lay flat, is about 300 pages and is very well done. It provides a pretty complete look at all aspects of the internet from the text-based user's perspective. In fact, there is much information even for a non-Commodore user. It has proved to be useful as a reference source right away! Also included is a copy of Novaterm V9.6 Lite (and it is lite!) LUNCHEON INVITATION - following the regular meetings, several or our members regularly gather at the Villanova Diner to chew on lunch and other thoughts that may have come up at the meeting. No attempt is made to solve the world's problems, but it does offer yet another forum for folks to share interests and even solve some more problems. Why not join us? **************************************** PRODUCT UPDATE THE WRITE STUFF - recently, we had the need to get some TWS stuff from Busy Bee Software - and took the occasion to check on the current status and future for the product line. The author, Eric Lee, indicated that he could still provide all the products in the TWS line. He also noted that he would continue to provide user support - presumably in the way of questions and/or hand holding. However, he said he was NOT DOING any more programming! So, we can expect no further improvements in the TWS product - what we now have is the end of the development (unless there are any other programmers out there, like Hugh McMenamin who brought us Illustrator, that might enhance TWS). Eric did a tremendous job in programming TWS 64 and 128 and all the variants, it is too bad there will be no further evolution. Thanks, and good luck, Eric! YEAR 2000 IS COMING? [by Emil Volcheck] I have, in the past, commented on the gyrations or lack thereof related to "solving" the problems in computer programs dealing with the 1999 to 2000 date change. But, I had no tangible evidence of how pervasive, or important, it might ACTUALLY be. But, we are now beginning to hear of actual incidents. Just in the two weeks preceding this writing, we have had three: 1) we learned that last fall one of the major credit card banks issued new or renewal cards with expiration dates in the year 2000. Shortly after they got in use, the cards began to be rejected as expired! The card reading systems were reading the expiration date as 1900 - which had obviously already passed! The solution? Re-issue the cards to expire in 1999 and buy time to deal (?) with the problem!!! 2) the DOD's Defense Logistics Agency which handles securing and managing supplies for the military ran into an incident - 90,000 items in the DLA's material management system were incorrectly removed from inventory due to a Y2000 date miscue!!! Correcting the offending software took 400 hours, it was reported! (Only 85 programs to go!). 3) on September 20th, it was reported that the securities industry is considering taking a holiday on either December 31, 1999 (last business day of the century) or January 3, 2000 (first business day of the new century)! The idea being to allow some time to see what happened with the date change BEFORE any new financial transactions are attempted! Curioser and curioser! If anyone reading this spots other such incidents - or maybe knows where info on them can be found - please let me know. I'd love to see how it all begins to work out as more and more folks realize how much potential havoc may be coming down the road! I wonder, should I put my money under the mattress - or spend it all December 31, 1999 :-) --------------- COMPUTER BIG LIE #3 - "You can install it yourself". Forget installing your own system and software, unless you are a natural tinkerer and have the patience of Job. It will take a professional five minutes to do something it could take you days to do (assuming you've found the right professional!). $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $ TRADING POST $ $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ WANTED!: manual (to buy or copy) for Toshiba printer #P321SL or the #P351SX Call Hines Mathews, 610-344-0443. (2) FOR SALE: computer bench 40"W x 24"D x 26.5"H, hutch 39"W x 27"H x 12"D. It has right side under shelf space of 14"H x 11.75"W x 24"D. Call Charles Curran, 610-446-5239. It is yours for $10. (2) FOR SALE: MLCUG has a lot of hardware that is available for purchase by MLCUG members at very attractive prices! 4 computer - C-64 w/PS $25 2 disk drive 1541 - clone $20 15 disk drive 1541 - various $20 1 disk drive 1541 - 8/9 sw. $25 1 disk drive 1541-II $30 1 interface - Cardco $ 5 1 interface - MSD $ 5 6 joystick $ 2 1 modem - Panasonic 1200 bps $10 1 monitor - amber - Panasonic $10 1 monitor - screen filter $ 5 1 plotter - Commodore 1520 $10 2 printer - Commodore 1525 $10 2 printer - Commodore 803 $10 2 printer - color - Okimate 10 $10 2 printer - Okimate 120 $20 1 printer - Star Gemini II $25 2 computer - VIC-20 TBD 1 64K RAM/video for VIC-20 TBD 1 computer - Plus4 $25 Also, we have quite a bit of software, for bargain prices (typically $2). You can contact Charles Curran to check on any items of interest (610-446-5239). **************************************** 64/128 MEETING **************************************** The first part of the September meeting was devoted to a brief showing of the hard drive version of THE WRITE STUFF 128 (the TWS 64 version behaves similarly). The big virtue of this variant on our "favorite word processor" is the inclusion of all the help files provided on both version 1 and version 2, plus a few extras relating to the hard drive (or a RAMlink). This makes for an excellent tutotial vehicle - and, since you have plenty of room on the HD, the small amount of space needed for the help files is a small price to pay! After all, that's what an HD is all about - space! This was followed by an impromptu Q&A that rolled gradually around to the cross platform problem. We took a short look at the ACE operating system (beloved by Pete Whinnery who has showed us many of its virtues in the past) - which has a translation feature to handle ASCII, PETSCII, UNIX, Mac and MS-DOS files - very neat! By then, we were running out of time; so the demo and comparison of LRR and BBR was only touched on. LRR v2.6 was thrown up on the screen for folks to have a quick look. But, operating it and its rival BBR will have to await next time. PC Q & A The second part of the September meeting was our second PC Q&A. As in the 8-bit session, questions and discussion got underway immediately and garnered the interest of all. We did take a survey - from the small number of attendees - on what PC hardware and operating systems they used - to give a feel for the needs that might be out there. The results ran the gamut - 286 to 200 MHz Pentiums; so our work is really cut out for us! We had planned to show off a PC utility to aid in the "end of line" problem for cross platform files. But, we ran out of time on this one. A continuation is planned for October. Hopefully, we'll have a better turnout and get a better feel for what folks are really looking for from the PC Q&A. REMEMBER - we will NOT have fruitful discussion UNLESS attendees bring queries and topics to raise to the group at the meeting. So, if you have an interest, don't wait til the meeting for inspiration. Give it some thought ahead of time - whatever interests or bothers you is likely to do the same for other attendees. WHAT FILE DO YOU HAVE - II ? [by Emil Volcheck] [Last month, we had an item on file types and factors related to cross platform conversions and transfers. And, as noted elsewhere, we spent time in the September meeting (and will spend some more in October) on the subject. However, after going to press, I realized that I had left out one (small?) aspect of the Commodore file situation. Namely, I neglected to talk about the character set based on screen codes. So, rather than try to cover where corrections should be made, I decided to simply correct and reprint (editor's prerogative!). In the revised text below, the changes are in BOLD type]. And, I probably should add - what kind of file do you need? More and more, as folks roam the internet, or interact with other computer (platform) users, the dissimilarities in files used/needed by them become apparent - and problems. If we look over the range of file sources we might encounter, we'll at least face: Commodore, Amiga, MS-DOS, UNIX and Macintosh. Either we are users of one (or more) of them - or we give or get files to/from them. Unfortunately, because of differing historical origins, each of these platforms did NOT adopt the same base elements, leaving us to deal with those differences. The two main differences are: A. CHARACTER SETS With the exception of Commodore, the other four platforms all chose to use the so-called ASCII character set (for American Standard Characters for Information Interchange). That at least simplifies part of the cross-platform file use. For Commodore, we have to cope with a modified ASCII character set, variously called PET ASCII, PETSCII or Commodore ASCII. The difference resides in the number values (in the range of 0-255) assigned to the upper- and lower-case alphabetical characters. Numbers, punctuation and some non-printing characters (like carriage return) are the same as "true" ASCII. While not a big deal, it does mean that files in ASCII look like absolute garbage in some cases with Commodore programs! In addition, to improve load, save and display speeds, many Commodore programs use a character set based on screen codes - rather than ASCII or PETSCII. This obviously complicates the situation further. Not only does it mean more file types, but it means an extra conversion to- from a character set quite unlike the other platforms use. B. THE "END OF LINE" How easy a file is to work with - even in ASCII - is a strong function of the "end of line" (EOL) character(s). Depending on the situation, editing a file can become an extremely tedious chore - or a breeze! It all originates from the time when the typewriter got connected to a telegraph line to produce the teletype. In addition to agreeing on what code we would use for characters (eventually ASCII, by the way), folks had to settle on certain "control" characters. These included control functions like ringing the typewriter bell (do you remember when you got a "ding" about 5 characters before the end of a line?), or returning the print head (carriage) from the end to the beginning of the line (carriage return, CR), or causing the teletype to move down a line; so the next line of characters did not overwrite the line just printed (the line feed, LF). In all, there are thirty-some of these control characters. As the characters came down the line, the end of the line was signaled by a CR, followed by an LF. Of the computer platforms we're considering here, only the MS-DOS based continue to use this EOL sequence, CR/LF, to indicate the end of a line. The UNIX (and the Amiga which came from UNIX lovers, I believe) system decided that you only needed a single character and they chose the LF. The operating system, more or less, tells your screen or printer to do both. For Commodore, the same concept was implemented - but with the single character being the CR. If anyone reading this knows the history behind these choices, how about letting us in on it???? Oh yes, the Macintosh (like its Apple predecessor) also uses the single CR as its EOL. So, transfers between Commodore and Mac are relatively easier. In summary, here's what we deal with: Type Char. EOL -------- ------ ---- Commodore PETSCII CR Commodore SCR CODE CR Amiga ASCII LF MS-DOS ASCII CR/LF UNIX ACSII LF Macintosh ASCII CR In past meetings (and newsletters), we have dealt with the conversion problem. For October, we'll continue on with some of the tools we can bring to bear to help us ease the pains of file sharing across platforms. **************************************** AMIGA USER HAPPENINGS By John Deker, AMIGA SIG Leader [continued from p.1] covering my transition from Compuserve as an ISP (Internet Service Provider) to VoiceNet. We will look at price and features and even include a comparison to Erol's. In addition, time permitting, we will review three different Internet mailers, one of which is also a Net News Reader. The mailers include AEMail, AirMail, and Thor. I know some of you have used other mailers and news readers. So, those who have can offer some comparison and insight to their ease of use. RAMBLINGS: ARE ALL 68060's CREATED EQUAL? Recently, it has been my fortune to put my hands on an A4060T, specifically the one owned by Edward Jerome. Ed has attended several of our meetings and he recently asked me if I would do some customizing and configuration work on his Amiga. Last weekend, Ed delivered his Amiga to my place where it currently resides at my kitchen table. As mentioned, Jerome's Amiga is an A4060T. It has been upgraded from its original A4000T status with what I presume is the QuickPak 68060 accelerator board. In addition, it has 80 megs of fast RAM, a 2 Gig hard drive and a 1 Gig hard drive, and a Phase 5 CyberVision64 video board connected to a Sony 17 inch multisync monitor. By comparison, I have an A1200 with a Phase 5 1260 Turbo board and Phase 5 1230 SCSI board connected to an 810 meg hard drive. Total fast RAM is 32 megs, and the A1200 is connected to Commodore's 14 inch 1942 dual sync monitor. Out of curiosity, I wanted to see how the two machines compared in performance. To perform a couple of simple tests I used two pieces of software, SYSINFO and MEMSPEED. Let's talk about the results from MEMSPEED first as this was the easier of the two tests to run on both machines. Here are the results: A1260 Memory Speed Test Copyright 1996 by Frank Wille. All speeds in kB/s. Type Read Write Copy Chip RAM 3763 3763 1881 Fast RAM 34975 24928 13903 ROM 35042 - - A4060T Memory Speed Test Copyright 1996 by Frank Wille. All speeds in kB/s. Type Read Write Copy Chip RAM 4617 6966 2777 Fast RAM 46094 38007 22388 ROM 46094 - - As you can see, the A4060T is about 30 to 50% faster than the A1260! Why? I can only hazard some guesses, but the difference is very significant! Obviously, not all 50MHz 68060 systems are created near equal! I just hope my machine isn't sick in some way. From SYSINFO I got an additional comparison. Here, I must say that SYSINFO didn't fair too well with the CyberVision64 display board, at least not the way it was installed on Ed's A4060T. The main screen of SYSINFO was very distorted at best and almost unreadable in its mode promoted state. With SYSINFO I managed to get a hard drive speed comparison. On my A1200 the hard drive just managed about 2.1MB/second while on the A4060T, the hard drive delivered about 3.9MB/second. In all, I must admit that I was quite shocked by the disparity in performance between what one might have expected to be two comparable machines. It almost makes me wonder if both CPU's are really being clocked at 50MHz. If anyone out there has a 68060 and MEMSPEED, maybe you can provide some feedback at our next meeting on your speed test results. FUTURE MEETINGS 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. ------------------------ THE STATE OF THE AMIGA MARKET ---------------------- [There is a LOT of activity in the Amiga market, only a few of many, many items from John could be fit in:ejv] Picture Manager Professional V4.0 The premiere release of the English version of Picture Manager professional now can be ordered from BlitterSoft in England (dealers welcome, below is end-user price information). A demo version can be found for download on BlitterSoft's WWW site [http://blittersoft.wildnet.co.uk/pmpro.htm] or on Aminet as biz/demo/pmpdemo.lha. Picture Manager Professional V4 (PMPro) is an excellent commercial image cataloging program with a large number of features for creation and handling of thumbnail tables. It is a powerful database and allows loading, processing and displaying images via SuperView-Library and includes an automatic conversion function for catalogs of images, which allows conversion between all the file formats that SuperView-Library supports ... AND MORE ... It even can directly scan LHA and LZX archives for images. The ENGLISH version of Jurgen Schafer's Picture Manager can be obtained from: Blittersoft 6 Drakes Mews Crownhill Industry Milton Keynes, MK8 OER Voice: +44-(0)1908-261466 United Kingdom Fax: +44-(0)1908-261488 Or from any distributor. The official pricing as of August 1997 has been 49.95 UK pounds (no guarantee). Ask them for it. Blittersoft also are the distributors of many other Amiga hardware and software products, among them Village Tronic and phase5. Blittersoft WWW page: [http://blittersoft.wildnet.co.uk/pmpro.htm] Blittersoft: sales@blittersoft.com ODDS & ENDS FROM AMIGA NEWS CENTRAL http://www.comcen.com.au/~paulm/news.html Midwest Amiga Exposition - 09/01 * Due to ISP problems I am unable to provide a full news report. Sorry about any inconvenience, hopefully everything will be back to normal again soon. * More news on the [http://www.amicon.org/mae.html] Midwest Amiga Exposition has been revealed including the fact that Petro Tyschtschenko will be a special guest at the show along with appearances from many renowned Amiga developers and dealers including [http://www.newtek.com] NewTek who will be demonstrating the Toaster. More information can be found Here. * My sincerest sympathy goes out to all those affected by the tragic death of Diana, Princess Of Wales whose tireless work for the underprivileged will never be forgotten.