****** ¢ MINUTES OF THE MAY 1994 MEETING¢ ===============================¢¢ NEW MEMBERS¢¢ JOSEPH BELIN, who resides in¢ Manhatten, joined our club. JOSEPH¢ could not attend the meeting so his¢ wife ANN substitued for him. The¢ BELIN'S are new to the Atari 8-bit.¢ ALEX showed ANN how to operate the¢ computer. He showed her how to load¢ DOS, load a file, save a file, file¢ management procedures etc. ALEX gave¢ an extensive lesson on computer usage¢ to ANN. I think ANN and JOSEPH will¢ now have a good foundation of the¢ capability of the Atari computer.¢ VALERIO CORAZZIN from Varese,¢ Italy joined the club. VALERIO saw one¢ of our newsletters and wrote to us and¢ joined. I think you will have a good¢ time in the club.¢¢ CORRESPONDENCE:¢¢ A letter from our Scottish member¢ STUART MURRAY To RON. He thanked RON¢ for the "TREASURER'S REPORT" program.¢ A letter to RON from ROWLAND¢ GRANT in B.C. in Canada thanking him¢ for the "TREASURER'S REPORT" program.¢ He said they are using ATARI BOOK¢ KEEPER program to print their reports.¢ He said he gave my program to their¢ treasurer for evaluation. He tells us¢ that their ace programmer JOHN PICKEN¢ has now debugged his XL-2 program and¢ will release it as shareware. JOHN¢ wants to create an INTERNATIONAL ON¢ LINE 8-BIT MAGAZINE if ATARI CLASSICS¢ folds.¢ JIM HOOD and BOB WOOLEY of SLCC¢ club plan to continue to publish ATARI¢ CLASSIC as a club activity. They want¢ to keep the 8-Bit magazine alive. It¢ will be continued as a publication in¢ California at a cost that allows it to¢ be published at less than a 500¢ subscriber base. They feel the quality¢ should be as good or better and the¢ production cycle should be shorter.¢ They plan to mail the copies in an¢ envelope to protect them better. Stay¢ tuned!¢ We received a postcard from STEVE¢ HOFFEE. STEVE and family were the hard¢ workers who copied the 300 A.C. disks¢ every othr month. He ha been ill. He¢ tells us that he is recuperating and¢ feeling better.¢ Good news from BILL SMINKEY from¢ California. He advises his operation¢ was a success, and he is recuperating¢ slowly. BILL has the honor ofbeing the¢ oldest member of the club.¢ A letter from our member BEN¢ POEHLAND. He tells us about the¢ closing of A.C. and the distribution¢ of the remaining subscriptions. The¢ club voted to support SLCC with the¢ disk mailing if they ask us to do so,¢ under the same terms we had with A.C.¢ A letter from our member DANE¢ STEGMAN of N.Y. He tells us that his¢ PAGE 6 disk will be fixed. He is sad¢ to hear that A.C. is stopping¢ publication. He tells us he bought a¢ JAGUAR. He is very happy with it. DAN¢ is a game player and he liked the last¢ issue of the N.L. because of the games¢ we had on it. ALEX said on the JUL/AUG¢ N.L. there will be two games. What¢ they will be? It is a surprise, and¢ ALEX won't release th names!¢ A letter from JIM CUTLER our¢ member in England. JIM was told he can¢ pay his dues in POUNDS, hereafter.¢ European members can now pay in their¢ own currency for any item they order¢ form us. JIM sent us 10 disk with 8¢ sides of SPARTA DOS UTILITIES. He¢ warned us against the danger of the¢ SCOTTISH SPIRIT WATER. He just¢ indulged in the IRISH version a bit¢ himself on his vacation.¢ JIM CUTLER our member from¢ England also writes us that a new BBS¢ is going up called "THE LAND THAT TIME¢ FORGOT". He is a member of it. He is¢ also connected to internet. He is¢ still reading the book on internet.¢ A letter from our member RUDY¢ DiGIOSAFFATTE of N.J. He tells us that¢ he is very happy being a member of the¢ OL' HACKERS. He also is in contact¢ with our member SAM CORY of N.J. He¢ mailed us a disk of LINE DESIGNS for¢ the 1020 PRINTER PLOTTER and an¢ article for two of the programs. The¢ disks will be put into our library. He¢ has a modem problem. He uses a SX212¢ modem and his telephone company said¢ he needs DEC VT100 or higher, 8 BITS,¢ NO PARITY, and 1 STOP BIT. He has 850¢ EXPRESS and BOB TERM. I suggested he¢ use the P.R. connection with a modem¢ cable. He wants to direct connect the¢ modem. Anyone have any other¢ suggestions? He is looking for a¢ terminal program that has these¢ parameters. Write to RUDY at 44 Forest¢ Dr., SUCCASUNNA, N.J. 07876.¢ ALEX wrote to our member VALERIO¢ CORAZZIN in Italy. He welcomed him to¢ our club. ALEX wrote one paragraph in¢ Italian and then translated it into¢ English just in case the Italian was¢ not understandable. ALEX has not used¢ Italian since he was a school boy (and¢ that was a long, long time ago. -grin)¢ A letter from DALE WOOSTER from¢ Phoenix, AZ. He suggested because our¢ two clubs seem to be the most active¢ in the USA he said he has some 8-Bit¢ material that is very important and we¢ might consider putting it on our¢ newsletter disks. He feels the A.C.¢ and TEXTPRO, and SPARTA DOS 3.2f are¢ the hottest topics and he encouraged¢ us to use his articles. ALEX said he¢ will use some of his article in the¢ next issue of our newsletter, in order¢ to "spread the word!"-SEE OTHER PARTS¢ OF THIS DISK. Alex also mailed him a¢ special disk! ¢ A letter from our member in¢ England NORMAN WILLIAMSON. He thanked¢ ALEX for the stamps. He saves stamps¢ and his son in Hong Kong saves them¢ also. So we have mailed some of our¢ used postage stamps to NORMAN. He¢ thanked us for the disks that we¢ mailed him. He printed out the¢ complete list of our library. It is¢ now 68 pages long and he has one more¢ side of the disk to go. HAROLD PEGLER¢ our librarian not only lists the files¢ on the disk but he ALSO give a¢ description of each file. A Super¢ Duper job by HAROLD and the only 8-Bit¢ librarian who does this. NORMAN also¢ told us that he had a disk drive that¢ did not work and was very noisy. What¢ he did he SPRAYED IT WITH WD-40.¢ Wonder of wonders the drive works fine¢ now and is so quiet that he cannot¢ hear it. One caveat. Cover the¢ read/write head with some paper so it¢ does not get oily.¢ Fine Tooned Engineering¢ distributed on the BBS the 8-Bit Atari¢ products now available from them. SEE¢ elsewhere in this newsletter the list¢ and the prices. The 8-Bit is still¢ alive! The phone number is 408-GET-¢ REAL.¢ We received a picture card from¢ our member DANIEL CARRODANO of France.¢ He draw an arrow to show the house¢ where he lives. We needed a microscope¢ to locate it(Grin).¢ JEAN BROKAW of the PACE¢ SETTERS, Atari users group in Largo,¢ Florida wrote to ALEX and asked him if¢ we had a program for making masks.¢ ALEX mailed them them the MASK MAKER¢ PROGRAM post haste. ALEX complimented¢ them on their great newsletter.¢ Our member STUART MURRAY from¢ Scotland, writes us that one of these¢ days he will show up at our club¢ meeting. We dare you STU! (grin) He¢ also asked for copies of some disks,¢ which were sent to him for his¢ library.¢¢ DEMOS:¢¢ JACK GEDALIUS demoed the ANITC¢ SAMPLING PROCESSOR (ANTIC FEB/MAR 1990¢ page 11). You can digitize your voice¢ or music and it sounds really great.¢ The project is easy to build and all¢ the parts are available in RADIO¢ SHACK. The software that comes with it¢ is also really great and very¢ flexible. You now can add your voice¢ or music to your programs and no other¢ device is needed to play it back. The¢ program samples several thousands¢ times the voice and digitizes it.¢ Because of the high sampling rate an¢ awful lot of the disk sectors are used¢ up.¢ JACK digitized ALEX'S voice and¢ it was amazing how clear and true to¢ life the voice replayed through the¢ computer. If you want more information¢ write to JACK GEDALIUS.¢ ALEX came up with a real WINNER.¢ He showed us one of the GREAT-GREAT¢ utilities for Atari Basic. The program¢ is called CUSTOM.BAS. It is in the¢ form of a DOS and it is called¢ EXTENDED ATARI BASIC Ver 1.1. It is¢ relocatable also so it can be used¢ with TURBO BASIC etc. The menu shows:¢ A. LIST VARIABLES, B. VARIABLE VALUES,¢ C. CHANGE NAME, D. CROSS REFERENCES,¢ E. DELETE LINES, F. RENUMBER, G. CHECK¢ PROGRAM, H. NEW OUTPUT FILE, I. RETURN¢ TO BASIC, J. GO TO DOS. This disk is #¢ 475 in our library. If you do ANY¢ programming then you need this disk!¢ We saw the RENUMBER FUNCTION - it¢ almost instantly renumbered a long¢ program. On the CROSS REFERENCE¢ function it not ONLY shows you the¢ variables but also on what line they¢ appear. A great time saver when you¢ program!. On CHECK PROGRAM it looks to¢ see if there is a GOTO number for each¢ GOTO and a RETURN for each GOSUB. On¢ the VARIABLE VALUES it showes the¢ value of the variables after you run¢ the program. On DELETE LINES is¢ deletes a whole set of lines at once,¢ POOF!¢ RON showed a GREAT new program he¢ wrote. It is a QUICK GUIDE TEMPLATE¢ for the 1st XLEnt Word Processor. The¢ template fits over the keyboard of¢ your 130XE and it has ALL the docs on¢ it. Now everything is right in front¢ of you. No more looking it up in the¢ manual. The program prints out the¢ template. You glue it on a stiff piece¢ of cardboard. You need a size 9 X 14¢ inch, or 23 X 35.5 cm. piece. A¢ corrugated piece of cardboard from a¢ box is OK. I used a red styrofoam¢ board from a stationary supply house.¢ You glue the template onto the STIFF¢ backing with rubber cement and cut out¢ the spaces for the keyboard and¢ console keys as well as the power¢ light. Use a utility knife or a razor¢ blade. All the cut outs are clearly¢ indicated. I made my board 1/2 in.¢ larger than indicated so I now have a¢ red boarder all the way around. I also¢ covered it with some SELF-ADHESIVE¢ PLASTIC PROTECTOR SHEETS. The board¢ fits perfectly on the 130XE. All the¢ mounting instructions are on the¢ printout. The template can also be¢ used with the 800XL. You just cut out¢ the keyboard space and trim it a¢ little on the right side for the¢ console keys of the 800XL. Not only do¢ you have all the wordprocessor¢ commands in front of you all the time¢ but you also get a better hand rest¢ because of the template and the¢ computer looks much better. I leave¢ the template on all the time since it¢ does not interfere with the operation¢ of the computer. If you use the 1st¢ XLEnt W.P. this is the program you¢ need. This program will be printed in¢ our newsletter. If you want the¢ complete disk it is #476 in our¢ library.¢ For the 1020 plotter. The¢ programs by our member RUDY¢ DiGIOSAFFATTE were put into the¢ library #477.¢ A DOM from the San Leandro Club-¢ (SLCC), April 1994. Our library #478.¢ This disk has 55 files on it. 5 games,¢ one utility, one demo, one graphic.¢ Games such as ANTIC BUFF, CRAZY EIGHT,¢ CURRENT BASE, DANDY, MEET THE COWS,¢ PIC FLICK.¢ Next we saw the DOM'S (DISK OF¢ THE MONTH) from D.A.C.E. DACE DOM¢ 3/93. Our library #479. We had a bad¢ copy. We did not see it.¢ Next we saw a disk with games by¢ JOE CHIKO. There were card games and¢ other games. If you have an 800XL you¢ need 256K RAM. It is library #480.¢ Next we saw a great disk from our¢ English member NORMAN WILLIAMSON. It¢ was his MENU'S disk. It has GREAT¢ sound and great graphics and you can¢ put it on any disk. We loved it! It is¢ library #481.¢¢ DOOR PRIZES:¢¢ JOE LEBER¢ ANN BELIN¢ JACK GEDALIUS¢ HARRY TUTHILL¢¢ Written by RON FETZER and edited by¢ ALEX PIGNATO.¢¢ >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>END<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<¢
