Archive Magazine CD 1995/Archive Magazine CD 1995.iso/text/products/volume_04/issue_11

Text File | 1995-02-16 | 8KB | 141 lines

•   Arc Recorder − Hybrid Technology have produced a very cheap system for
sound sampling (£27.95 + £5 p&p +VAT). It consists of a microphone with
a switch and desk stand linked to the computer via the printer port and
desktop software that generates samples which can immediately be used in
other desktop applications. (This is NOT the same product as produced by
Oak Solutions despite the same name.)
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•   Cartoon collection is the title of a four disc set of cartoon type
paint format clipart from Micro Studios. The price is £19.95 or £18
through Archive.
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•   DeskJet 500 − We’ve had so many good reports from readers about the HP
DeskJet 500 printer that we’ve worked out a special deal with our
distributors. We can offer them to Archive subscribers at £395 inc VAT &
carriage.
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•   Econet test box − ALSystems have produced an Econet test box which
should greatly reduce the time and effort needed to rectify faults on
Econet networks. It can detect broken cables, short circuits, cross-
connected cables. It measures cable resistance. It has LED’s for
monitoring clock & data signals, a terminator tester and a filestore
clock test facility. The price is £75 +VAT (+£2.35 p&p).
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•   Eizo 9080i utility − If anyone has an Eizo 9080i and wants to use it
on the Archimedes, GL Consulting Ltd produce a utility for just £10
which makes it possible. For more details, see the 9080i review on page
39.
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•   JISys is a journal indexing system (also available for IBM and BBC B)
which allows you to create your own journal article database. It allows
search & retrieval and cross-referencing. It has an on-line manual,
password for data protection and will cope with an index of up to 10,000
articles and authors. The price is £75 inclusive from KAS Software.
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•   LBP4 laser printers − There was a huge response to the special offer
last month on LBP4 laser printers (on the back of the Price List). We
had bought two printers from the distributor on their end of year
clearance but these were sold by about 10.00 a.m. on the day after the
magazines left this office! We could have sold them several times over
that day and the next. The good news is that, because of all the
interest, we’ve been able to arrange a semi-permanent special deal with
the distributor. We can now sell the LBP4 with an extra 1Mbyte ram
(useful when not using the Laser Direct interface) for just £875. This
price does not include the 250 sheet paper feed tray, but the printer
already has a 50-sheet tray, so it’s not essential. If you do want a
paper feed tray at the same time, add £90 (instead of the normal price
of £105).
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When you add the CC Laser Direct interface at £380 to the LBP4 at £875,
you get £1255 (my arithmetic was £100 out last month!) which is not that
much more than the cost of the 300 d.p.i. Laser Direct Qume and as well
as having the advantage of 600 d.p.i., you get a printer that will run
on other computers and can even be connected via the serial or parallel
interfaces (all standard on the LBP4) to other computers − or indeed to
the same computer. You can then use the front panel switches to select
which interface you use. This is useful if you want to use the printer
in direct printing mode from, say, First Word Plus or from Basic.
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So, by comparison, why should anyone want to pay £1560 for the LBP8
Laser Direct since it can only be used with the Archimedes and not on
other computers? Well, it is faster in terms of pages per minute (8
instead of 4) even though the page preparation time will be the same on
both. Secondly, it looks to me to be a more robust printer which could
be useful, say, in a school situation.
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The third point is that it has a straighter paper path. The LBP4 has an
S-shaped paper path feeding into an output hopper but you can open a
flap and make it C-shaped though it doesn’t then go into the hopper. The
LBP8 on the other hand normally has a C-shaped path. (This is useful
because it drops the sheets face down so that page 1 of a multi-page
document is at the top of the pile when you take it out of the hopper.)
If you fold out the catch tray at the opposite end to the input tray,
you get a completely straight paper path, if you are printing onto
labels or card so there is less chance of jamming and if you are
printing acetates, there’s less danger of them getting curled up. The
advantage of the S-shaped path though is that the printer is more
compact as a result. (See diagrams opposite.)
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Paper trays are a little confusing with the LBP4 but I think I have got
it sorted out now. Provided, as standard, with the printer is an
integral tray which takes about 50 sheets at a time. As an alternative,
you can buy a paper feed unit and cassette (Archive price £105). This
forms a base under the printer and takes a removable paper cassette
which carries about 250 sheets of paper. You can also get spare
cassettes for the paper feed unit so that you can have different types
of paper in different cassettes. (Archive price £57)
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•   Mandelbrot Set − Explore Mandelbrot sets in mode 15 with this C
program which goes to magnifications of 100 million. Partial or
completed sets can be saved and re-loaded. The price is £12.95 inclusive
from KAS Software.
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•   PC Connect − DT Software have produced an interesting new piece of kit
for the Archimedes. It consists of a podule plus a board to go in a PC
(or compatible) plus the appropriate high speed interconnection. The
idea is that the two computers can then share peripherals including
comms, printers and hard drives and you can even run the PC from the
Archimedes’ keyboard. The cost is just £169.95 +VAT.
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•   PC Emulator upgrade − To get your PC emulator upgraded to version 1.60
which we mentioned last month, you need to send the PC emulator disc to
Acorn Direct in Wellingborough with a cheque made payable to ‘Acorn
Direct’ for £34.08 (£29 + VAT). However, Learning Curve owners can get a
free upgrade! If you talk to the dealer from whom you bought your A3000
or Archimedes Learning Curve, he should have a form you can fill in and
send, with serial number and proof of purchase, to Acorn Direct and they
should send you a free upgrade to 1.60. (However, as I write (19/7/91)
it hasn’t actually appeared as a stock item!)
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•   Panasonic printers − The KXP1124 printer has now been superseded by
the KXP1124i which we can sell at an Archive price of £299 inc VAT &
carriage. We still have a couple of the older KXP1124’s which we can
sell at £235. (The Archive price was £281.)
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•   Saloon Cars is here! 4th Dimension’s new racing simulator is available
now − Archive price is £23.
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•   SCSI hard drive price drop − The prices of most of the Oak Computers
hard drives has dropped − see the Price List for full details. There
will also be some big reductions to clear existing stock. These are
listed on the back page of the Price List.
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•   Shareware Nº41 − Under the heading of ‘education’ are an animation of
a four stroke engine, a control language for use in GCSE and a biology
program relating to Mendelian inheritance. There is a floating point
assembler Basic library and a desktop assembler test bed. The range of
utilities includes: a comms utility, a utility which reads BBC tapes via
an RS423 link to a BBC micro, a converter between ArcText, DOS, VAX and
FWP files, a disc cataloguer, an Edword- ASCII converter, a utility that
displays the current filing system, a filetype guesser and a desktop
file loader. Finally, there is a superb golf game which, on its own,
makes the disc worth the £3.
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•   STEbus interface − Intelligent Interfaces have produced an interface
which allows the connection of up to four STEbus interfaces to fitted to
be an Archimedes computer (only 2 on an A300 series or 3 on an A540)
providing access to a wide range of I/O devices including A/D, D/A,
parallel I/O, serial I/O, networking interfaces, stepper & servos
controllers etc, etc. The interface costs £495 +VAT.
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