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HARDWARE REVIEW: ICD ADSPEED ST......................John Damiano STIK-GRIPPER........................................Press Release ATARI TT WITH TOS 3.1.......Christian Strasheim & Michael Schuetz ST-PLUG UPDATE......................................Press Release A STORE IS BORN...............................John King Tarpinian PUBLIC DOMAIN UPDATE................................Keith Macnutt Z*NET CANADA......................................Terry Schreiber Z*NET GERMANY ============= by Michael Shuetz Gute Besserung (News) ATARI GERMANY LOWERS PRICES FOR TT MODELS Effective on December 1st, 1990, Atari Germany announced that the list prices for the 32 MHz TT models are to be lowered. The price reduction comes right in time for the Christmas season and at a moment where a shortage of Mega ST2 and Mega ST4 models exists in Germany. The last 300 or 400 'regular' Mega models in Germany are believed to have been shipped from the Atari Germany Warehouse to the dealers in the country a few weeks ago. Here are the new official retail prices for the TT models in Germany: Atari TT with 8 MB: DM 5.298.- (~US$ 3.500) Atari TT with 6 MB: DM 4.798.- (~US$ 3.100) Atari TT with 4 MB: DM 4.298.- (~US$ 2.800) Atari TT Color Monitor: DM 998.- (~US$ 640) Atari TT 19" Monitor: DM 2.198.- (~US$ 1.400) All prices for TTs including the 48 MB harddrive and without monitor. (The dollar equivalent for the German prices are based on the current exchange rate for the DM: 1 US$ = ~ 1.55 DM.) Note: These prices are only effective in Germany. US prices will as far as we know vary. Furthermore Atari Germany scheduled a major press conference for Wednesday, December 12th, 1990. The event will take place in the city of Munich. It is obvious that Atari will present the new Mega STE models, that were already shown at Comdex in November in the United States, to the German Computer Press. No official release date for the sale of the Mega STE models is known at this point, but certain signs seem to indicate, that the first units might become available around Christmas (1990 that is). SC PLUS/286 EXPANSION FOR SUPERCHARGER Beta Systems AG, the German developer of the popular SuperCharger MS-DOS emulator for the ST, announces a new expansion-kit for the SuperCharger, after presenting the SCplus/NET networking expansion for easy integration into Novell PC networks this fall. The new SCplus/286 expansion turn the SuperCharger into a PC/AT. The 286 CPU runs with 12 MHz on a real set of chips and comes with its own memory (1-4 MB). It offers real AT slots, allowing usage of standard PC expansion boards like VGA, Fax cards and interface cards. An optional 386SX-CPU will also be available. The SCplus/286 will be available in Germany in the first quarter of 1991. Beta Systems AG, Staufenstr. 42, 6000 Frankfurt, Germany Z*NET NEWSWIRE ============== APPLE NAMES CLIFF JENKS VP Apple Computer announced that Cliff Jenks has been named vice president Channel Strategy and Reseller Development for Apple USA. Jenks will be responsible for heading a new Apple USA organization charged with further developing channel capabilities and enhancing relationships with all U.S. channel partners --including resellers, education sales consultants, value added resellers (VARs), original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and other solutions providers such as systems integrators, and consultants. He reports directly to Robert Puette, Apple USA president. HP INTRODUCES FIVE SYSTEMS Hewlett-Packard introduced five business systems and servers that deliver mainframe-level performance at minicomputer size and price. The computers are designed for client-server and multiuser applications. Submicron CMOS technology allows HP to design extremely dense chips that greatly increase processor performance. PA-RISC allows HP to build systems that are less expensive than comparable systems using traditional architectures. HP has 92,000 employees and had revenue of $13.2 billion in its 1990 fiscal year. HAYES SUIT GOES TO TRIAL Hayes announced that a trial date has been set for Jan. 4, 1991, in US District Court, Northern District of California, San Francisco. Hayes is pursuing patent infringement actions against Ven-tel Inc., Prometheus Products Inc., Omnitel Inc., and Everex Systems Inc. Hayes is seeking an injunction against further manufacture of modems that infringe the Heatherington U.S. Patent No. 4,549,302 as well as damages for past infringement, attorneys' fees, prejudgment interest, and treble damages for willful infringement. APPLE INTRODUCES HYPERCARD FOR IIGS Apple introduced HyperCard IIGS, a user-focused toolkit of information management software for the Apple IIGS. The product will allow IIGS users to create their own custom software and personalize the way they store, explore and present information. COMPUTER FREEDOM CONFERENCE The first Conference on Computers, Freedom and Privacy will be held March 26-28 in San Francisco with a keynote speech by Harvard University professor Laurence Tribe. The conference will have sessions on freedom of electronic speech and assembly, law enforcement practices, computer surveillance and data collection. If you want more information contact the CPSR national office at 415-322-3778. PACIFIC RIM COMPUTER AND COMMUNICATIONS SHOW January 14,15,16th in Vancouver B.C. Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre * Sharp Electronics will present its Color PC-8501 Laptop computer. The industry's first 20MHz 386DX laptop with VGA - Thin film Transistor, active matrix and multi-color LCD display. * Abacus from Comsoft will present its newest release in accounting software. Abacus, a Canadian company, has G.S.T. tracking facilities on both the payable and receivable side. * Atari Canada will be in attendance with the full line of products including the new TT and Mega STE. SPLIT PERSONALITIES ON ELECTRONIC BULLETIN BOARDS ================================================= by Rangott Spliekin, Soviet News Agency TASS Translated from PRAVDA Translation (c) 1989 by Yves Barbero During my brief visit to the United States in the fall of 1989, I was able to study certain specialized cases of split personalities. While they are considered harmless and perhaps tolerably eccentric by the American psychiatric establishment, it is acknowledged that it is a growing problem among young technicians. Frustrated by a lack of popular recognition which continues to be focused on earners of large income (The "bottom line" as it is popularly called), these young geniuses are beginning to talk to themselves. But unlike the ramblers and murmurers we find here in Moscow, they use the technology available to individuals in America: the home computer. A network of electronic bulletin boards exists in the U.S., connected by commercial telephone lines and available to almost anyone who has a computer and a telephone connection device known as a "modem." Individual subscribers can then sign in and talk to other, similarly uninspired individuals. The system was developed for the quick transfer of information but has degenerated into a remote, arms-length communications system. In fact, anyone who can afford to have their home computers occupied most of the time can establish such a board with "free" software provided by generous programmers. When I suggested to an official of a conglomerate telephone company that it was they who created the software to keep technicians occupied instead of productive and to increase the profits of the telephone company, the charge was denied. But I digress. I interviewed Dr. George Sands of the Institute for Abnormal Electronic Behavior in Berkeley and he acknowledged that there is a growing problem am ong young technicians (which he insisted on calling "users") as the amount of bulletin boards continue to grow. "There are actually more bulletin boards than users in the Bay Area [San Francisco and environs] and they kept talking and arguing with the same people. Some were clearly showing symptoms of boredom. A few clever ones signed on these boards under several names, taking on a new persona for each name. They would call under one name and answer under another name. "In one case, a man in his mid-fifties had as many as six personas and possibly as many as eight. One of the personas was actually promoted to assistant system operator." "How could that be?" I asked. "The operator had never actually met this man. Nor heard his voice. In fact," he chuckled, "one of those personas was a woman. Now that couldn't happen if he had ever spoken to him on a voice line." Dr. Sands dismissed my contention that the bulletin board system was dehumanizing, explaining that that was what was said about telephones when they were first developed. "Americans have too little history to take it seriously. They much prefer playing with their tools which they often mistake for toys. Ships were redesigned, in the Nineteenth Century, for quick, commercial, and sometimes revenue-evading, trips to all parts of the world. Soon afterwards, Americans were racing them for sport. The home computer is just another misused tool." The real danger, he went on to say, is that more individuals will become isolated from their fellow men. "Home computers are much more entertaining than even T.V. and television has created a whole generation of stay-at-homers, referred sarcastically by some commentators as 'couch potatoes.'" If anything has staved off this horrible eventuality, he went on to say, it is the fact that more training is required to operate a home computer than a television set. At the moment, only "the best and the brightest and the most eccentric" falling prey to this problem." I asked the good doctor how such people can be spotted and institutionalized for their own good. He gave the following indications. 1. Their homes lack most furniture, having only the bare essentials. 2. Everything is spotlessly clean except for the television set which will have a layer of dust on the screen. 3. The bed is never made. 4. There will be six or seven phone lines to the home. 5. Only computer manuals will be present, no other books. 6. The men will be almost universally divorced (no women have fallen prey to this yet despite the fact that some of the pathological personas are women) or be on the verge of divorce. 7. Their children, if any, will have run away from home. No very young victim has had any children. 8. Sexually, they will be inactive. At least, they won't reproduce. 9. As with alcoholics, they will be scrupulously careful to report to their jobs each day but they will be uncreative and rarely be promoted to positions of responsibilities. Not because of lack of abilities, but because they will evade the extra time necessary to accomplish these goals. 10. The refrigerator will contain only spoiled potato chips and half- opened cans of beers. Many of these users drink soft-drinks because of the high sugar content. One institutionalized case had not eaten in six days. He was found by the police in a small grocery store, after closing hours, with open bags of chips and six-packs of Cokes lying about, laughing hysterically and trying to dial out on the computerized cash register. When they saw the thick glasses and the plastic pen holder in his pocket, they notified Dr. Sands. The United States government has tried unsuccessfully to introduce electronic bulletin boards in the Moscow area so our geniuses are similarly engaged in fruitless labor. The great Pavlov once pointed out that to hypnotize a chicken, you merely need to draw a chalk line along pavement, place the chicken so its legs are on either side of the line and it will freeze. Human beings require a more complex hypnotic tool and television has served the state well over the years. Now, such a hypnotic tool has been found for the intelligentsia. It's even got them talking to themselves. Z*NET MAILBAG ============= COMPUTROL INDUSTRIES by Duane A Charter I am writing to warn your readers about Computrol Industries. They advertise memory upgrades for Atari computers. In April, I contacted Computrol Industries and inquired about their upgrades. They convinced me that I should also get TOS 1.4 and a Turbo 16 accelerator and promised a 24 hour turn-around with a six month warranty. Convinced, I immediately mailed my computer to them overnight UPS. Two days later I called back to check if my computer had been shipped, and was informed my computer was lost somewhere in the store. After two more days of looking, my computer was found and sent to me by UPS overnight (at my expense). Immediately upon turn-on, the computer began to experience intermittant lock ups. I called Eugene at Computrol and was told to return the computer to him. He would repair it and have it back within 72 hours. I returned the system by overnight UPS. Here the trouble started. Conversation with Eugene informed me that the Turbo 16 was defective and being replaced. The Turbo 16 was checked by Jim Allen of Fast Technologies and returned with no defects found. When the computer still failed, the Turbo 16 was replaced. Repeated conversations with Eugene resulted in my being informed my computer would be shipped the next day. The computer was never shipped. I contacted the New York States Attorney and the New York Better Business Bureau in regards to my problem. Computrol never answered their requests for information. I also contacted the Visa card company in an effort to stop payment on the charges. Finally in June I was informed that my computer was fixed and had been shipped Federal Express overnight. When the computer did not arrive the next day I again called Computrol. I was promised the computer had been shipped and was given an Airbill Number. A call to Federal Express revealed that the Airbill number had never been received. I again call Computrol and was assured that the package had been shipped and it was a Federal Express problem. I again called Federal Express and was informed that Computrol was a Cash Only account and that no packages had been shipped by them. For the next three days the phone was off the hook (verified by the operator). When I again reached Computrol I was informed that the label had fell off at the Federal Express office and that the problem was corrected and the package was shipped. I was given another Airbill number. Again, Federal Express informed me the Airbill number was invalid. I called Computrol and was assured it was shipped and even given the adress of the Federal Express office where he personally took it. Another call to Federal Express confirmed that NO package had been received from Computrol and the Airbill number was invalid. For the next week the phone was again busy. When I again reached Computrol I was informed that my system was lost. When pressed on where my computer could be, I was told "maybe in our truck on the way to the UPS office". About this time I was informed by the bank that the charges had been reversed and my account had been credited with the full amount. At least I was not out a computer and $873. The next time I called, Eugene questioned if I had requested a "charge back" from the bank and admitted he had been lying because he had not been able to fix my computer. He said he had lied because he did not want to give me bad news. It was his highest priority and would be shipped within 3 days. A call the next day resulted in being told my computer had a bad Turbo 16 and would be shipped the next day. A telephone conversation three days later revealed the new Turbo 16 was also bad and my computer would be fixed within the week and returned to me. Three days later my computer was repaired, and would be shipped the next day. A call the next day resulted in being told the computer had been shipped. He questioned what to do about the charges. To get my computer back I agreed to allow the reposting of charges. I finally got my computer back. Unfortunately, it still did not work. Because the malfunction was blamed on the Turbo 16, Mr Jim Allen of Fast Technologies (designer of Turbo 16) generously offered to repair the machine for free. He informed me that there were some major problems with the modifications that Computrol had done. I cannot recommend Turbo 16 or Fast Technologies enough. Very few developers would back their product to this extent, especially one that had been so badly modified by a third party. Mr. Allen spent many hours fixing a computer he had no liability to repair. I want to publicly thank him. Thanks Jim! In an effort to prevent others from suffering at the hands of Computrol, please publish this information. I made detailed transcripts of all conversations with Computrol, and even recorded some. I can document all the above statements and will stand behind what I have said. I will accept all liability. More information can be found on GEnie in Catagory 4, Topic 19. Additional information will be provided upon request. Editors Note: We have published this information and made one attempt shortly before publication to contact Computrol for a statement. We were not successful. We did confirm the story through the New York Better Buisness Bureau who stated that there were concerns on record about Computrol. If you have a problem with any mail order company, please contact your local Better Business Bureau. They will make attempts to research your complaint and keep a record in their file. Some areas have a Consumer Affairs Division that will also run interferance in these matters. HARDWARE REVIEW =============== ICD'S ADSPEED ST by John Damiano, Transierra Technology Captured from GEnie ST Roundtable What is it? Its a 68000 Accelerator for the Atari ST line of computers. And it cooks. I decided to buy this hardware accelerator for my Mega 4 computer while talking to ICD at the Glendale Atari Show. I purchased it on the spot but it took a while to recieve it. It finally arrived last week and I finally found the time to install it today. Installation was somewhat truamatic but not difficult. My advice would be to take ICD up on their offer and send your computer and $40.00 to them. However, if you want to do it yourself here are some recommedations. Tools you should have on hand are a phillips screwdriver, small small sharp sidecutting dikes, some needle nose pliers, a 25 watt soldering iron or battery powered soldering iron and small diameter solder, a solder sucker, and some patience. A static suppression wrist strap is also a good idea but not mandatory. First you take apart your computer, a somewhat time consuming task consisting of removing the plastic covers and shielding, power supply and disk drive. You kind of feel your way along if you have never done it before. It's a logical operation. Disassembly of a 1040, 520 or Mega is a similar procedure. If you are going to upgrade to TOS 1.4 now is the time. I did this and also added a moniterm driver board. Really pushing my luck, I suppose. Before touching anything on the board itself touch your hand to the ground plane around the edge. This SHOULD put your body at the same potential as the ground or common. If you move, get up, etc. do it again. Also, be aware that some of the cheaper soldering irons use an ungrounded tip and can generate static discharges. Having ICD do it is starting to look better..no? With the PC board loose you simply cut off the 68000 by cutting each pin next to the chip body. (note which way the notched end of the 68000 points) I had to also eliminate the small daughter board on top. This required adding a single jumper. Their instructions make it quit clear. You now have 40 legs sticking up where the 68000 used to be. Take the small iron and grab each leg with the small dikes while heating the connection. Wiggle the leg gently and pull it out when the solder holding it softens. If you get a tough one, go on and come back to it. I got all but 6 out easily. Some of those 6 were bent over on the bottom and some were attached to a large metal ground plane. I had to remove the solder from the bottom before I could get these last ones out. Now you have to get the solder out of the holes. Take some very small diameter solder and add it to each hole. Although this may seem redundant, it will allow you to use the solder sucker more easily as the solder pool will transfer heat to the connection quickly. I sort of cheated on solder removal. I own an avionics business and so had an expensive PACE solder removal tool available. It made solder removal quick and easy but, I am sure with some patience, I could have cleaned the holes with a cheap solder sucker such as sold by Radio Shack. I did not test this theory however. After all the holes are clean you install the supplied socket paying attention to getting the notch on the same end as the 68000 you removed. Now just hold it in place while you tack a couple of corners from the back side. Now solder the rest of the connections. Use plenty of solder as it needs to wick through the holes and solder the other side as well. Inspect all connections for shorts between pins. I cleaned the board of flux with some flux remover so I could see the connections a little better. Isopropal alcohol and an old tooth brush (or even your wife's toothbrush) works fine. Next you reassemble the computer up to where you put the top cover on. Now take the ADspeed itself and line it carefully up with the socket. If the pins don't line up exactly you should make sure they do so none get bent while pushing the unit into the socket. It did not push in easily. I had to exert a lot of pressure. This is normal with a new socket. Start one end then go to the other end. You kind of work it down into place. That's it. You can add a hardware switch if you like at this point. This involves soldering two wires in place of a jumper and running them to a SPST switch. You have to drill a hole somewhere to add this and I choose not to do so at this time. The switch allows you to change from 8 MHZ to 16 MHZ speed easily. You can do the same thing using the ACC they supply or a 16/8 speed set program. Using Deskmanager or Superboot you can configure the system at boot up for whatever you are going to do. I may add the switch later if events warrant it. Once the computer is reassembled you have to test it. I always dread this part. What if I have taken a perfectly good computer and turned it into a perfectly dead one. No problem this time. It booted up totally ignorant of the fact I had just given it a heart transplant. After it booted up I copied the ICD supplied software to the auto folder and root of the boot disk. I rebooted and it came right back up. Gosh, twice in a row! I set it up to run in 16 Mhz mode and it flies..it really does. It's like having a new computer. Except it's still the friendly ST I have grown to know and love. I have not found anything that is imcompatable with it so far. I will keep checking but I am not going out of the way to find something. If it shows up in routine use I'll let ICD know about it. The one I received was supposed to be a gamma release (whatever that means) but it seems flawless so far. I would expect nothing less from ICD. They have shown that their standards are very high by the quality of their other products. ADspeed works as advertised. Buy it and support ICD. They have another winner. Price: $299.00 suggested list, I believe. I paid somewhat less since I was so bold as to accept the dreaded gamma edition. Time to install: 2 hrs. I could do it in 1 hr but hate to rush something like this. Where to buy it: At this point only directly from ICD ICD Inc 1220 Rock Street Rockford Il 61101-1437 Phone: 815-968-2228 voice or 815-968-2229 BBS STIK-GRIPPER ============ Press Release *-------------------------------------------------------------* * *PRESS RELEASE* *PRESS RELEASE* *PRESS RELEASE* * *-------------------------------------------------------------* Duggan DeZign Inc. proudly announces the release of another fantastic new product directed at anyone who plays games on any personal computer! It's called 'THE STIK-GRIPPER T.C.S.' (Total Control Stand) and it will bring the fast and furious arcade action into your home! THE STIK-GRIPPER T.C.S. is a rugged, three piece plastic stand which you easily mount your Joystick to thru the use of the large Velcro pads provided or the Suction cups on your Joystick! Here's how it works: Simply place the T.C.S. on any chair with your legs over the base of the stand (see below). This will firmly hold your Joystick front and center of you where you need it! This product is excellent for Flight Simulators as it gives the true 'Flying by the Stick' feel! It also allows you to use the Keyboard and the Joystick at the same time which can be life saving at crucial moments! The STIK-GRIPPER T.C.S. O ____|____ Joystick --> |_________| --------- <- TOP PLATE | | Your | Your Leg | Leg ---------------- <-BASE ------------------------ | | Chair | | | | | | THE STIK-GRIPPER T.C.S.TM is very versatile as just about any Joystick can be mounted to it. Even large Joysticks such as the Gravis SWITCH STICK and MOUSE STICK; the FLIGHT STICK from CH; and the BeeShu HOT STUFF can be mounted to it. Smaller Joysticks such as the Suncom SLIK STIK and the Atari 2600 Joysticks also work excellent with this product. THE STIK-GRIPPER T.C.S. also adds Tremendous value if your Joystick has Suction cups as you can stick them to the top of the T.C.S. instead of have to secure it to a table! Best of all, the THE STIK-GRIPPER T.C.S. is ergonomically designed for long, comfortable play. It eliminates hand fatigue from holding the Joystick and allows you to rest your arms and hands while you play! THE STIK-GRIPPER T.C.S. has a Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price of only $19.99 and will be available on December 1st, 1990 at computer dealers everywhere or send a check or money order to: Duggan DeZign Inc. 300 Quaker Lane, STE # 7 Warwick RI 02886 Phone (401) 823-8073 FAX (401) 826-0140 For further information, contact Duggan DeZign Inc. ATARI TT WITH 32MHZ AND TOS 3.1 =============================== By Christian Strasheim & Michael Schuetz Copyright 1990 - ATARI PD JOURNAL As already previously stated the TT once again was shown in Duesseldorf this year. All TT machines at the Atari booth were running with a clock speed of 32 MHz. So the rumours that had been floating around since June now finally have been officially confirmed. The TT also is for sale now.. (at leasthere in Germany). The first units were sold after the show and small shipments arrived at German dealers shortly later. But the biggest surprise was the new TOS version that was already running with a German version of the new desktop. The casing of the new TT is the same as with the 'old' 16 MHz versions. Currently there are three different 32 MHz machines available. They only differ in RAM size. (4, 6 or 8 MB). All models include a 48 MB harddisk. But Atari officials say that other harddisk configurations will be available soon, too. The general technical specifications of the TT are already general knowledge for some time. So we will just cover those specs briefly: The CPU of the TT is the 68030 processor from Motorola, the right now most powerful, in quantity available processor in the 680XX series. The 68030 is a true 32 bit processor, which turns the TT also into a true 32 bit machine. In order to prevent a slowing down of the working speed the TT contains two caches for inctructions and data. The CPU gets additional support from a mathematical coprocessor of the type 68881/68882 and several other custom chips. Within the main memory of the TT there are three different kind of RAMs. The ST RAM can be used freely by any software just like the RAM of the ST models, for example for DMA-data-transfer, as screen memory or to play back music. The Fast RAM on the other side is exclusively reserved for the CPU and the SCSI-DMA. Therefore programs run within the Fast RAM naturally much faster than within the ST RAM. The VME RAM is accessed through the 16 bit wide VME bus of the TT, which makes it just as fast as the ST RAM. The TT offers six graphic resolutions: ================================================== Modus Resolution Colors -------------------------------------------------- ST Low 320 x 200 16 ST Mid 640 x 200 4 ST High 640 x 400 2 TT Low 320 x 480 256 TT Mid 640 x 480 16 TT High 1280 x 960 2 ================================================== Just like the STE the TT can choose its colors out of a 4096 color range. All modes except the TT high resolution mode can be run on the TT color monitor. Right now the official TT color monitor is the TTC1434. As an alternative Atari will soon present the model TTC1426 which can also be used as VGA monitor on PCs. For the TT high resolution mode Atari will also soon sell a modified version of the 19" big screen monitor SM194, that will be able to support the 1280 x 960 pixels. By the way - the ST high resolution mode 640 x 400 on the TT is not a black & white but a duochrome mode. This option allows you to choose your own two colors. Soundwise the TT is equal to the STEs stereo sound, that is created through the DMA port. The registers of the TT in that matter use the same addresses and functions as the STE does. The sound from the TT comes just like with PCs out of the computer itself and not like with the STs out of the speakers of the monitor. Now lets focus our attention on the new desktop, that was presented in Duesseldorf. The Drop-Down Menus contain many new features and almost all functions can now also be called up instantly through key commands. You can display for example the directory of drive A just by pressing ALTERNATE-A. Also up to seven windows can now be open at once. A search option allows you to preselect directories. But also optically the new desktop has been severly improved. Much more icons are now available and with the help of Resource Construction Sets own icons can be created easily. The used icons are saved in a so called resource file that is loaded during boot up time. It is now even possible to take file-icons out of the folder and place them on the desktop. You can even pull data files on top of program files with the result that the program is started, automatically loading the data file. Additionally up to 20 programs can be started with the help of the fuction keys (F1 to F10, Shift-F1 to Shift-F10). These are just a few of the many new features that the new TOS 3.1 offers. It would be most interesting to see such a desktop also on the ST. Asked about this matter, Richard Miller, system developer for Atari Corp in Sunnyvale, just gave us the meaningfull (or is it meaningless ?) answer... MAY BE. Note: If you liked this article and are looking for more. Check out CATegory 18 of the Germany RT (type: GERMANY). In this category we (the editors of the German computer magazine ATARI PD JOURNAL) will give regular insights in German and English about what's going on over here in Germany Atari-wise. ST-PLUG UPDATE ============== Press Release PRESS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE ST-PLUG 1670 Heron Road, Box 22026, Ottawa, Ontario Canada K1V 0C2 BBS (613) 731-2779 * * * PRESS RELEASE * * * December 1, 1990 Product: ST MUSIC MATRIX Description: MIDI DISK MAGAZINE FOR ATARI ST Purpose: TO AID THE ST MUSICIAN TO UNDERSTAND AND WORK WITH MIDI. Philosophy: TO AIM TOWARD NEW HORIZONS FOR MIDI MUSICIANS ST-PLUG has obtained the North American distribution rights to 'THE ST MUSIC MATRIX'. Based in Fife, Scotland, THE ST MUSIC MATRIX is published bi-monthly at a price of $20.00 per issue (in US or Canadian funds) or $75.00 for any 4 issues. Subscriptions are available at the rate of $75.00 for 4 issues. WHAT IS THE ST MUSIC MATRIX? The ST Music Matrix is a disk magazine. However, the Matrix is a disk mag with a BIG difference for musicians. The Matrix can put together, for the first time, Coloured or Mono Graphics, Text, Sound, Score and Software data. Musicians can now PARTICIPATE in the playback of other musicians material. This has been called INTER-ACTIVE MUSIC. They can learn arrangement and composition and they can examine the score, study the progressions, bass-lines and drum tracks from the data supplied on the Matrix disk. The Matrix has many other things to offer the musician, both beginner and pro. The study of Algorithmic Composition (or as we prefer to call it algoRHYTHMIC composition) is now maturing from its early beginnings and several pieces in the Music Matrix are dedicated to this arcane study. As a value for money exercise, the Matrix always has a LEADER ARTICLE. This is usually a Synth Editor, or Banks of Synth Voices, and in some cases Sequencer Demos or even COMPLETE USABLE SEQUENCER SOFTWARE. These leaders are usually worth more in value than the cost of the complete Matrix issue! Most of the Matrix is copyright and produced at some cost in the time of the professional musicians who support it. We would like to point out why the MATRIX is so named. The MUSIC MATRIX is intended to be a set of inter-connected musicians spanning the globe, supporting and encouraging growth of new musical styles. The Matrix is basically a teaching publication, and it is dedicated to expanding the knowledge of the new technology to all musicians. The incredible pace of the technological advance is INCREASING even as you read this article and some of the break-throughs that the Matrix foreshadows will be literally breath-taking. Soon, very soon, musicians will have TOTAL CONTROL over all aspects of music FROM THEIR ATARI ST CONSOLE! If you would like to hear more about THE ST MUSIC MATRIX then simply drop us a note or call our BBS. We'll be glad to hear from you. Available Back Issues of THE ST MUSIC MATRIX Issue 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 & 11 Price: $20.00 each or 4 for $75.00 Korg M1 Special Disk: contains 500 NEW VOICES Price: $50.00 Please make your cheque or money order payable to 'ST-PLUG'. Sorry, we do not accept charge cards at this time. A STORE IS BORN =============== ST-JOURNAL REPRINT This feature is a reprint from the December/January 1991 ST-JOURNAL MAGAZINE, presented here by permission. THIS ARTICLE MAY NOT BE REPRINTED IN ANY OTHER PUBLICATION OR NEWSLETTER WITHOUT EXPRESS PERMISSION FROM ST-JOURNAL, 113 West College Street, Covina, CA 91723, 818-332-0372. Individual copies of ST-JOURNAL are available from the above address. by John King Tarpinian I have heard a lot of talk recently about the shrinking Atari Market, that Atari dealers are closing left and right and some major cities don't have any Atari dealers. Well, this month I am going to tell you about the opening of a new Atari store near me. This is not intended to be an ad for this store, but an article telling about how a store gets its front door open. A few months back, a friend contacted me to say that he and two associates had decided to open an Atari dealership. They sought out my council because I was an accountant and could tell them if they had a ghost of a chance to make it before they got in too deeply. I agreed, out of friendship, and they offered me a free meal. We met at Sizzler (so much for the Peking Duck) and started out with them giving me what they thought were realistic profit and loss figures. I added a few numbers of my own and fine-tuned some others. They had the general idea as to what-was-what and were not going into this venture with their eyes closed. They had knowledge, but not enough experience to run a retail operation. I suggested they contact a fourth party to manage the retail end. Luckily for them, a very experienced person was available and took them up on their offer. They now had all bases covered. All they had to do was find a retail store front that was affordable, become an authorized Atari dealer, purchase product, get the word out about their opening, etc., and so on... They looked and looked for a retail store. A broker was also secured to find the perfect location. The store-fronts were either too small or too expensive. But, as luck would have it, a "drive by" found the perfect location. In fact, this store-front was the second location of the store from which, ten years ago, I had bought my Atari 800 and met one of the principals. They secured the lease. They spent most of a month making the store in their image. They built the counter, tore down walls, built walls, and moved walls. They painted everything, put in carpet, and added new lighting. Just like magic, the store was ready for product and customers. Let me digress and give the qualifications of the four principals who run the store. They are Mark Krynsky, Tony Lee, Brian Celano, and Rick Vonk. Mark has managed or worked for computer stores that sell Atari products for almost six years. He manages the retail end of the operation. He also does the ordering, gets pricing, and is the person most people meet first when they come into the store. Mark turned down an offer to manage an Egghead computer store for this opportunity. He believes in the Atari community. Tony Lee manages the repair center, which will be offering both in-store and on-site repair and service. He had been repairing Atari computers for almost ten years, and managed the repair center at a store for which Mark was co-manager. He also did the repair and maintenance for Hybrid Arts, and still does work for them on a contract basis. He even repairs equipment for prominent Atari employees, past and present. Tony is also in his last semester of getting a degree in Electrical Engineering. Bryan Celano worked with Tony at Hybrid Arts. As Director of Product Support, he was a product specialist and published all printed literature, including product catalogues and manuals. He's in charge of the vertical-end market of the store, which will be offering in-store and on-site classroom training, sales, and set-up. Most of all, Bryan is the store's MIDI expert. He has a dual degree in Computer Science and Music and also many friends and contacts in the music business. Rick Vonk is the fourth principal of this partnership. Rick is the jack-of-all-trades. He helps out at the retail end, service, installation, and repair. Both he and Tony were members of my computer club, H.A.C.K.S. He's also in his last semester of getting a degree in Electrical Engineering. Now, back to the future. These four have already opened their doors for business. In fact, they used the Glendale Atari Faire to let people know they were open. They also had a grand opening which was attended by local developers, along with Bob Brodie and Wayne Smith. (Atari does support its dealers when asked and whenever logistics allow.) In summation, these four have talent and connections. They defined the market they wanted and are now ready to go after it. And, while they know it's not going to be easy, they know it's out there and they know that they can make it. They're willing to compete against the IBM and the MAC. They also know that when somebody comes into their store, they can convince them that an Atari is a viable alternative. Again, this article was not done to promote a specific store; it was written to let you, the Atari community, know that there is hope. Don't just listen to the doomsayers. We have a viable machine that fits perfectly in its niche. Atari is going to make it and will be around for a long, long time. PUBLIC DOMAIN UPDATE ==================== by Keith MacNutt Little Green Selector V1.8B CHARLES F. JOHNSON P.O BOX 1250 PACIFIC PALISADES, CA 90272 Little Green item selector is a complete replacement for the selector found is TOS. The program can be either installed from the desktop or placed in the auto folder of your boot drive. Once installed the difference between the TOS version and Little Green Selector is like night and day. Suddenly changing drives, folders or looking for files becomes a joy instead of a pain. Only in versions 1.4 and 1.6 of TOS did some of these feature get included. Once loaded all program calls that would normally bring up the GEM selector now displays LG item selector. This allows the user a host of features, from displaying only files with certain file extensions (like arc files) to changing drives, and you can even pick a default path from a list of 18 that you can assign and change at anytime. DRIVE BUTTONS Once loaded and accessed through a program, the user will notice that on the right hand side of the pop up window there are 16 drive icons, with only the installed drives in dark print, all others are in a light shaded color. To change drive paths you only need to click on that drive letter and the window will update to show files on that drive (LGSelect displays 16 files instead of the usual 9). SORT BUTTONS Just under the drive buttons there are located different choices for sorting your files. Files can be sorted by name, extension, size, date or unsorted if you like(nice if you need to know in what order your programs in the AUTO folder are going to run). PATH BUTTONS Clicking on Paths allows you to access, by a dialogue box, a list of up to 18 different paths and 20 different default extensions. To set the path for each line you need only left click the mouse on that line and select the drive and your path choice in the LGSelect window. To delete the contents of a line you only need to right click and answer ok in the pop up window. Selecting the file extension (like arc files) to be displayed for that path, is as easy as clicking on one of the 20 listed in the lower left hand corner. When you next select that path option only those file extensions will be displayed in the item selector. To customize this list of file extension, you will need to edit one or more of the 20 in the list to reflect your personnel choices and click on the save button. Also within this window you will find other buttons labelled... 1) SHOW HIDDEN FILES- files that are hidden usually are not shown from the desktop, but in this case will be in light type to distinguish from hidden and un-hidden. 2) SAVE- saves the current paths and file extension choices to the LGSelect program as defaults. 3) CLEAR- clears all path lines and extensions so the user can reinstall other selections. 4) FILENAME.EXT- displays the present three letter extension that was passed by the program accessing the window. 5) EXIT- returns the user to the main LGSelector screen. FILE DISPLAY OPTION At the bottom of the main LGSelector window is a area that is bordered by two arrows. This box displays the number of files in the directory and the arrows are used to scroll the display to show the size and date when the file was last modified. THE CLOSE BOX Just like the GEM selector, the LGSelector has in the upper left portion of the file window a button that backs the user out one level at a time. One other nice feature is the ability to back all the way out to the root level by either double left or single right clicking the mouse on this button. UP AND DOWN BUTTONS Right clicking on the up or down scroll buttons will take you instantly to the top or the bottom of the present window, while using the left will scroll the window one file at a time, but much faster then the regular GEM one. PASSING A TITLE This feature is used mainly by programmers whose wish to inform the user what files they may load (using an un-arc program would display that the program wants you to select an arc file to work on). SELECTING A FILE To select a file you may either click once on the file name and then click on OK, or double click on the file, or right click once to exit the window and run the program. OTHER FEATURES LGSelector will show up to 300 files in any one directory and if more files are present the selector will crash( because of a bug in the operating system). Unlike the GEM selector, LGSelector allows "type ahead" input while the window is being redrawn. POSITIVES LITTLE GREEN SELECTOR is in my books, one of the few indispensable programs that no ST user should be with out. The added features over the GEM equivalent make it so easy to move around the file system, that in no time at all you wonder how you could have ever lived with out this program. NEGATIVES One of the few features missing on this wonderful program is a way to call it up at anytime while you are on the desktop or within a program. It would be nice to be able to access it from the desktop as a desk accessory like it's counterpart UIS_III. SHAREWARE PLEA Many hours have gone into a program like this, with updates every few months. All that is asked is a $15.00 donation to register and the user will be informed ahead of time when and how to get an advance copy of the new update. CHARLES F. JOHNSON has written other shareware programs like DESK MANAGER, ARC SHELL and PINHEAD which are first rate programs and have no commercial rivals for ease of use and solid performance. It would be a shame if CHARLES stopped writing and updating these and other programs just because the ST community couldn't find a few dollars each to reward a great programmer for all the work he has done in making the ST one of the easiest and powerful systems available today. Z-NET CANADA ============ by Terry Schreiber A CHRISTMAS WISH Z-Net Canada wishes all the very best over the holiday season. Looking back over past year we have seen many things change in the world as we know it. The Middle East Crisis is probably the one single event that has effected all our lives. Please remember to give thanks this Christmas to our people over there trying to bring justice, democracy and peace once again to world. Christmas is the time of year to be good to your fellow man. I would like to take this opportunity to remind our readers not to drink and drive over the holiday season. Please, call a taxi or use a designated driver if you are going to drink. Many companies in recent years have hired drivers for their office or company parties but even more common practice is the company will pay for taxi service. Please check and see if your employer has such a service in place, if not, why not suggest it. It would be much cheaper than training a new person to fill a vacant position left open by a drunk driver and much easier on the conscience as well. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Z*NET Atari Online Magazine is a weekly publication covering the Atari and related computer community. Material contained in this edition may be reprinted without permission except where noted, unedited and containing the issue number, name and author included at the top of each article reprinted. Opinions presented are those of the individual author and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the staff of Z*Net Online. This publication is not affiliated with Atari Corporation. Z*Net, Z*Net Atari Online and Z*Net News Service are copyright (c)1990, Rovac Industries Incorporated, Post Office Box 59, Middlesex, New Jersey 08846-0059. Voice (908) 968-2024, BBS (908) 968- 8148 at 1200/2400 Baud 24 hours a day. We can be reached on Compuserve at PPN 71777,2140 and on GEnie at address: Z-Net. FNET NODE 593 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Z*NET Atari Online Magazine Copyright (c)1990, Rovac Industries, Inc.. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~