VILLANOVA UNIVERSITY, ST. AUGUSTINE CENTER
MEETING STARTS - 09:30 - JUL 10th
COME AND JOIN US - BRING FRIENDS
Over the course of the last year, we have devoted time in each meeting to problem solving and Q&A. Generally this was followed by a formal presentation or demo. These have covered a variety of topics primarily selected by the prez. Not very much input has been provided by members on the meeting content.
So, for July, we want to do two things: 1) provide some extra time for problem solving (which may provide ideas for future meeting topics) and 2) followups on past topics, eg. the CD-R session last month or genealogy, etc.
This will be, we hope, a great opportunity for members to get help and provide it!!!
MAIN LINE AMIGA USERS - Room 210
In June the Amiga SIG joined with the rest of the group for John Murphy's presentation on CDROM writing-burning. For a summary discussion of that meeting look for a write-up elsewhere.
For our July meeting we'll step back to followup on a few previous meetings. Specifically we intend to cover the Amiga Radiance program from Aminet as a followup to Peter Whinnery's excellent presentation of Radiance running on a Linux platform. We'll also follow through on Amiga networking and cover some significant topics there. Beyond that we will be open to a general question and answer session with the emphasis on helping each other resolve
[continued]
For some time now, MLCUG has had a webpage, hosted by VU and mastered by Pete
Whinnery. It has included accessible club newsletters. Recently, John Deker
and Pete have been converting the NLs to HTML format.
Beginning on p.6, John
describes the technique he has been using - a GOOD beginner's lesson in HTML.
Check it out!
########################################
MEETING DATE IS CHANGED! - just a reminder that, for the rest of 1999, we are
testing the switch to the SECOND SATURDAY, as listed below. Please mark your
calendars now for:
Please note that unforeseen circumstances may dictate change; so watch the
newsletter and check the BBS (610-828-1359). The table on the next to the last
page of each issue will have the succeeding 3 months schedule (as usual) as of
the time the NL goes to print. Be sure to check it out each issue.
Because of this date change, we will normally switch the Steering Meetings to
the THIRD WEDNESDAYs; so they occur after the regular monthly meeting. This
schedule will also be in the boiler plate table. As a reminder, if you would
like to provide input into some of the workings of the club, you are welcome to
attend the (informal) steering meetings.
MEMBER SURVEY - if you have not yet returned your member survey (from the June
newsletter), you will be receiving a reminder phone call! In order to better
understand where our membership is heading, 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!
MEMBERSHIP STATUS - we still have only 41 1999 members, all renewals from 1998.
If we are to get some new blood, each of you should keep your eyes open for
possible new recruits - that can be helped by the club - OR who would like to
help the club! Both kinds of folks are more than welcome!
Y2K STATUS - we have not had much in the way of commentary on the Y2K situation
for a month or two - but Y2K will be less than 6 months away by the time you
are reading this.
A few days ago, my place of employ received a letter from our property and
liability insurer - said letter included new policy endorsements. The letter
explained that the endorsements were being sent to reinforce the insurer's
position that Y2K problems are VERY UNLIKELY to be covered by our policy.
For the curious, I'll bring the info to the next meeting. Anyone who has got
similar communications is invited to share their knowledge, too!
***************************
[from the internet]
Just so that everyone can have this information, about exactly how to get in
touch with V-Tech (phone number, E-Mail address and so forth)... This is the
Correct information about them (including the Correct Phone Number... I know it
is... since I just called and ordered some ribbons and Re-New ink from
them...)... this is their Address and they also have an InterNet E-Mail address
where you can write to them as well...
They are real close to me, since I'm right near Glenside/Wyncote PA... I hope
this can help someone... Jim Caldwell
------------------------
---------------------------
[by Emil Volcheck]
Well, another example of how disk drive manufacturers try to make you think you
ae getting more than they actually deliver!
Remember 100 MB zip disks? Well, your DOS or Windows or Mac (or even
Commodore) will tell you that you have about 95+ MB, not 100....!
Not to be outdone, the new 250 MB zips are similar. Your OS tells you that
there are only 238 MB available on a blank disk??
So, where is the missing stuff?
As you may gather, it is all in the fine print. If you use chkdsk or check
properties in My Computer - you'll be told that the 250 MB disk has:
250,331,136 bytes available
So, there's your 250 million bytes. OK?
BUT, to get MB, your OS divides - not by 1,000,000 - but by 1,048,576 - the
binary mega.
When you use the latter value, you get 238 MB - just what your OS reports.....
another gotcha
----------------
Win95/98 Users! - be sure that you take precautions to preserve your critical
systems files before you install a major piece of software. And, especially,
before you install new or upgraded hardware. A good start is the EMERGENCY
RECOVERY UTILITY (ERU). If you've forgotten about it, we can demo it at the
July meeting - just ask!!!
FOR SALE: do you have a need to replace some ailing Commodore part? Are you
looking for a particular piece of Commodore software? Or do you need to
replace a master disk for Commodore software that no longer works - but you'd
like it to? Contact our inventory manager, Charles Curran.
***************************
Slowly, thru our region, various modes of high(er) speed internet access are
arriving. All come with lots of hype about what they will deliver (eg. "pages
load instantly!"). Among those that may already be available at least
somewhere near are: 1) cable modem, 2) satellite (I think) and 3) xDSL.
Note: outside this consideration are those fortunate ones who have (usually at
their place of employ) high speed intranets linked to the internet via
something like a T1, T3 or faster.
The cable modems have very high speed potential - and a large percentage of
folks have cable - but all is not a bed of roses. Most cable systems are not
yet two-way - that requires investment on the part of your cable company and is
a long way from being common around here. The system runs with a fixed
bandwidth; so the more simultaneous users, the less bandwidth (ie. those pages
load slower) each has (sounds a bit like the internet!). While these are
limitations, cable modems may be one of the earliest (perhaps only?) choices
for many.
Satellite systems are apparently primarily one way - fast coming down to you
from the satellite - slow going to the net via a phone line. This situation is
not likely to change soon; so if you need to send significant content to the
net, this may not be a viable option for you.
xDSL is getting more and more attention - it is a route for the telephone
company to get two-way service to you via existing phone lines (and more folks
have phones than cable!). The system does not have the bandwidth limitation of
cable modems - tho it is somewhat slower, depends apparently on how much you
are willing to spend. The big deficiency of xDSL is a severe limit on how far
the signals can be operated from the central office, with something like 3
miles (by wire, not by crow flight) being that limit!
Note: if you currently have web access, you can check on the potential for xDSL
for your home. Connect to the Bell-Atlantic website (www.bell-
atlantic.com/infospeed/). On this webpage, you'll be given the opportunity to
enter your phone number - then you'll get a message indicating whether or not
xDSL will be in your area any time soon. For example, one of my home phone
numbers should have xDSL available before the end of the year. Whether my
actual home connection will be possible is not clear - likely we will hear
something from Bell-Atlantic (they want our internet business!).
Are any members using any of these high speed access routes (or others that I
have not mentioned)? If so, we'd like to hear about your experiences - please
bring your feedback to the next meeting.
***************************
June was another joint session of all the attendees to catch the discussion and
demo of CD-ROM "burning" presented by member John Murphy. His namesake, who is
frequently responsible for all kinds of difficulties for presenters, stayed
away - and everything worked. John did the demo with his trusty laptop -
feeding the big screen TV for folks to see.
John gave a good discussion of the various facets of this technology -
including its capabilities for data storage, formats, software, tips on
choosing media and the hardware capabilities that need to be in place to
successfully make your own CDs.
He has been successful with a CD-R drive that runs off the parallel (printer)
port of his computer(s) and reported that it works well - tho this is NOT the
speediest way to burn CDs. But with this type of drive, you can take it around
and use it with different systems. If you need to produce many CDs, you'll
likely want to investigate internal drives that run much faster off the system
buss.
Our thanks to John for a well done - and successful - demo!
---------------------------
[by Emil Volcheck]
Had an interesting encounter a couple of weeks ago with a Dell PC that was
donated where I work. It is three years old, in beautiful condition and
operates like a charm!
Why was it donated? Well, the hard drive was only 1 GB and space was getting
low. So, the decision was made to upgrade to a faster machine with a bigger
hard drive.
When I started to check it out, I learned an interesting tidbit.
The PC had the hard drive as a single partition - the C: drive. When I ran
chkdsk on it, I was told that it had 32K clusters - I wondered why so big.
With clusters that big, the drive was likely wasting 25-30% of its space -
quite a few MB!
So, I partitioned it into C: and D: drives - each a tad under 512 KB in size.
This dropped the clusters down to 8K and wastage probably to around 10%. The
simple partitioning picked up 150-200 MB of useable disk space.
The root of the problem was that the drive had somewhere around 1,085,000,000
bytes of space. BUT, a GB is 1,073,741,824 bytes or around 13 MB smaller. As a
result, the OS had to use 32 K clusters instead of 16K that would be proper for
a "true" GB. Those 13 MB cost the user over 100 MB in useable space - dang
numbers!
Since the PC is running Win95, one could convert to FAT32 and drop the clusters
to 4K. But, it's not urgent for me to do so right now
***************************
[by Emil Volcheck]
Last month, I reported on the process that I went thru to replace the 100 MB
SCSI internal Zip drive on my home PC with one of the new 250 MB internal
ATAPI/IDE zip drives.
Having done so, I was now in possession of this excess SCSI zip drive; so I
installed it in the MLCUG club PC. Now, the club PC is working fine with its
(relatively speaking) new internal SCSI Zip drive.
Unlike the complicated process I described last month, this installation was
very straightforward!
You'll recall that the club PC already had an Adaptec SCSI card, with internal
connector on it, installed (we did that late last year to have capability to
attach both SCSI and parallel port external accessories). Charles Curran just
mounted the Zip drive in one of the empty bays, plugged in a waiting extra
power connector and attached the SCSI cable to the Adaptec card.
After the PC was shutdown and then powered back up, the new SCSI Zip drive was
recognized and ready to use - drivers provided with Win95 handled it nicely.
Updated drivers were downloaded off the Iomega website and installed on the PC;
so we should be good for awhile.
Having this new accessory should make it easier for our presenters to set up
for demos and handle the increasingly larger files that are the norm these
days!!!
In June the Amiga SIG joined with the rest of the group for John Murphy's presentation on CDROM writing-burning. For a summary discussion of that meeting look for a write-up elsewhere.
For our July meeting we'll step back to followup on a few previous meetings. Specifically we intend to cover the Amiga Radiance program from Aminet as a followup to Peter Whinnery's excellent presentation of Radiance running on a Linux platform. We'll also follow through on Amiga networking and cover some significant topics there. Beyond that we will be open to a general question and answer session with the emphasis on helping each other resolve specific problems or learnings we may be having around the Amiga platform.
HTML CODING OUR NEWSLETTERS
During the past week or so I've been busy coding our old newsletters for the club's website. There are still many newsletters left to code, and we are still looking for volunteers to help ease the burden of the process. My experience has been that it takes about two hours to code each newsletter into a "picture perfect" condition.
GENERIC HTML TOOLS
For those who might consider helping with the HTML coding, I thought I might give you some idea about my methodical approach to the process.
Let it be known that I use simple tools to make the conversion. All I use is an old post formatting wordprocessor and a browser. I do all the conversion using my Amiga, but almost any computer has the tools needed for the process, even the C64/128 has some excellent post formatting wordprocessors, especially in TWS (The Write Stuff). However, viewing your handi-work is a problem on the 8-bitters. On other platforms, a post formatting wordprocessor would be most desired, but lacking that, either an editor or wordprocessor capable of saving ASCII could be used. Obviously, browsers on these other platforms would be more than adequate to the task of proofing the HTML documents.
AMIGA SPECIFIC HTML TOOLS
On my Amiga, I use an old wordprocessor called Transwrite produced by Gold Disk Inc. To proof my work, I use the AWeb browser as it seems best at presenting HTML code the way Netscape's Navigator would. The real nice advantage of AWeb over the other Amiga browsers is that once the basic HTML headers and footers are in place in your document, you can load the document into AWeb and then export it to a predefined editor. Changes made in the editor can be saved, and AWeb will then automatically reload the revised document. Specialized HTML editors are available, but I find the AWeb plus Transwrite combo to be easier to use for this conversion process.
STEPS OF THE PROCESS
Here are the steps I use to make the conversion.
"&" --> "&"
Ignore the quotes. I use them only for demarcation here.
<HTML>
Change the Title Line as needed to suit.
Here's the footer I use at the end of the HTML document:
</BODY>
<B>THIS MONTH'S CONTENTS</B>
Above, "<UL>" & "</UL>" mark the beginning and end of the list, and "<LI>" indicates the beginning of each Line Item where a text bullet will be placed in the HTML presentation.
<a href="#anyname">Anyname visible description</a>
and the link point identifier elsewhere in the document:
<a name="anyname">
<P>
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.
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
HTML CODING NEWSLETTERS
ANNOUNCEMENTS & COMMENTS
########################################
RE-INKING
V-Tech
1487 Sumneytown Pike
Lansdale, PA. 19446
215-362-3300.
The E-Mail address you can write to is: vtech@adelphia.net
Computer Messages
GOTCHA!
Mini-Tip!
----------------
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
$ TRADING POST $
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
HIGH SPEED INTERNET
64/128/PC/Amiga MEETING
***************************
BURNING CD-ROMs
GOTCHA #2 !
ZIP DRIVE UPGRADE
MAIN LINE AMIGA USER HAPPENINGS
by John Deker
When all editing is done, I check the appearance of the code in two or three different browsers just to make sure everything looks good. Not all browsers display HTML code exactly the same. That's why I use multiple browsers for the final check of my handi-work.
">" --> ">"
"<" --> "<"
<HEAD>
<META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Amiga TransWrite by Gold Disk Software">
<TITLE>MLCUG Nov 1998 Newsletter - Issue 198</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<B><H2>Main Line Commodore Users Group Newsletter</H2>
<H3>Supporting : Amiga - C64/128 - PC/Linux</H3></B>
</HTML>
<UL>
<LI> <a href="#toc1">Creative Micro Designs - Final</a>
<LI> <a href="#toc2">Announcements</a>
<LI> <a href="#toc2">1998 RENEWAL TIME!</a>
<LI> <a href="#toc4">Internet Searching Tools</a>
<LI> <a href="#toc5">Trading Post</a>
<LI> <a href="#toc6">64/128/PC meeting minutes</a>
<LI> <a href="#toc7">Boot/Emergency/Rescue Disks - I</a>
<LI> <a href="#toc8">AMIGA & The Year 2000 problem</a>
<LI> <a href="#toc9">MAP/Masthead/Meeting schedule</a>
<LI> <a href="../memberform.txt">RENEWAL & Membership Form</a>
</UL>
John Doe<BR>
000 Anystreet<BR>
Anytown, PA 19444<BR>
<P>
======================================
_ __ _ <>_ __ _
/\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\
/__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\
/ \\_| \/ ||_||_ \__//_/ \\_
======================================
FUTURE MEETINGS
----------------------------------------------------------
/128/PC/Amiga Meetings 1999 Steering Committee Meetings
July 10 * July 14 **
August 14 * August 18
September 11 * September 15
* = 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