*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*¢¢MINUTES OF THE NOVEMBER 1991 MEETING. ¢-------------------------------------¢¢GENERAL MEETING:¢¢NEW MEMBERS:¢¢CURT VENDEL is one of two new members ¢of our club. He lives in Staten ¢Island. He is a collector of Atari ¢equipment. He has some very unusual ¢Atari equipment which he said he will ¢bring to the January, 18,1992 ¢meeting. CURT welcome to the club.¢¢Also welcome to the club is WILL ¢ROTH. Bill, we know you are closer to ¢ATARI CORP. from your home in ¢Woodland CA., but we are very glad to ¢have you as a new member, joining our ¢many other out of the area members.¢¢The GENERAL AGENDA for our meetings ¢is as follows: (not always followed ¢due to unforseen circumstances)¢¢11:30 - 1:00 PM Set up & Hello'S¢ 1:00 - 1:05 Welcome & Intro new ¢Members¢ 1:05 - 1:20 Committee Reports¢ 1:05 - 1:20 Including Treas/Newslt¢ 1:20 - 1:50 Read min./Corresp.¢ 1:50 - 2:10 Coffee & Cake¢ 2:10 - 2:30 Question & Answers¢ 2:30 - 3:00 Business Meeting¢ 3:00 - 4:45 Demonstrations¢ 4:45 - 5:00 Police up Area¢ 5:00 Meeting adjourns. (SHUCKS)¢¢CORRESPONDENCE:¢¢A letter from HORST DE WITZ about the ¢BIT BYTERS meeting in Germany. He was ¢the lead off speaker. He conveyed our ¢greetings and presented ABBUC with ¢the PROGRAMMING KIT, the latest of ¢our NEWSLETTER on disk and a DISK ¢FULL OF PROGRAMS. This prompted a ¢long ovation for OL' HACKERS from the ¢members. He further presented gifts ¢from ATARI INTERFACE, JACE, NAPCO, ¢CURRENT NOTES and greetings from BOB ¢PUFF. ABBUC sends their best wishes ¢to all of us. There were 7 or 8 ¢vendors displaying their ware. Most ¢interesting was a FLOPPY INTERFACE ¢making it possible to run a 3.5 ¢floppy drive with the XL/XE using ¢MYDOS or SPARTA DOS. This was made by ¢a member. After 6PM the meeting broke ¢up and some went to a GASTHAUS for ¢some refershments. Horst told them, ¢he could not understand the ¢documentation for MAGIC PLAYER ¢therefore he could not translate ¢them. Some members of ABBUC had the ¢same problem. They have decided to ¢rewrite them in a more understandable ¢fashion. They are considering a ¢weekly network hookup of LIAUG'S (OL' ¢H. members are given full validation ¢on the BBS) and ABBUC'S BBS. Language ¢on the network would be English. ¢HORST said that this is his last ¢report as the international ¢correspondent because his 8-Bit ¢equipment is falling apart. We are ¢sorry to hear of this and we hope he ¢gets his equipment going again.¢¢CURT VENDEL our newest member ¢introduced himself. He has been with ¢Atari since 1982. He used to run a ¢BBS in Staten Island. He is a ¢collector of Atari equipment. Curt ¢has some very exotic Atari equipment. ¢He promised to bring some of his ¢equipment to the January meeting. ¢Thanks Curt, for getting involved in ¢club activities right away.¢¢NEWSLETTER:¢¢The SAN LEANDRO JOURNAL has a full ¢page article on the PROGRAMMING KIT. ¢They had a meeting with all the big ¢wheels of Atari Corp. and lo and ¢behold the OL' HACKERS PROGRAMMING ¢KIT was demo'd, and The OL' HACKERS ¢got honorable mention.¢¢From the XIO GARDEN CITY ACE, CANADA ¢NEWSLETTER: They complimented us in ¢their newsletter as a very active 8 ¢Bit club. Our Newsletter was made the ¢Disk Of The Month (D.O.M.).¢¢From STATUS Newsletter Sep/Oct they ¢also mentioned our Newsletter and the ¢article COLOR PRINTING IS FOR ¢EVERYONE by Ron Fetzer. Also an ¢article on Shareware from CALAMITY ¢JANE which was from a previous ¢newsletter. BYTES and PIECES by ALEX ¢PIGNATO was also mentioned. Way to ¢go!¢¢The SAGE SCROLL from the SPECTRUM ¢ATARI GROUP, EIRE PA. They commented ¢on the very high quality of our ¢newsletters. Our newsletter will be ¢featured at their next meeting ¢according to Bob Buman, Editor.¢¢From the HUSTON ATARI COMPUTER ¢NEWSLETTER a review by HAROLD GAILEY ¢of PIC PRINT HIGHLIGHTS from AIM. He ¢had the same problem we had, a lack ¢of docs. HAROLD got hold of the docs ¢from the author and we asked him to ¢send us a copy. We enclosed a disk ¢from our library for HAROLD.¢¢We seem to be receiving favourable ¢mention from many different quarters, ¢for our NEWSLETTER ON DISK!.¢¢CORRESPONDENCE:¢¢JIM CUTLER our member from ENGLAND, ¢wrote to ALEX. He liked the ARC file ¢disk that ALEX sent him. He said the ¢NEW ATARI USER MAGAZINE from PAGE 6 ¢is deteriorating fast. He said he ¢will not subscribe to it anymore if ¢it continues this way. He said he ¢will send us a copy, which ALEX said ¢was received with thanks to ol' ¢faithfull JIM CUTLER. JIM CUTTLER has ¢enriched our P.D. Library, as he has ¢sent us a load of stuff from England ¢and Europe which we would never have ¢received without him. JIM thank you ¢very much on behalf of all of us. JIM ¢also went out of his way to purchase ¢and send us the magazine NEW ATARI ¢USER. This magazine mostly carries ¢articles on XL/XE with a little bit ¢for the ST. They also feature a type ¢in section. We also received the disk ¢that goes with the magazine.¢¢ALEX wrote a letter to BEN POEHLAND ¢the 8-BIT editor of C.N. (CURRENT ¢NOTES magazine), and he photo copied ¢parts of the NEW ATARI USER and sent ¢them to him, as per his request.¢¢Another letter to BEN POEHLAND from ¢HORST DE WITZ about the lack of 8 Bit ¢material.¢¢We got a letter from WILL ROTH in ¢WOODLAND CA. He said he wanted to ¢become a full member of our group and ¢he ordered the 3 disk PROGRAMMING ¢KIT.¢¢NIEK VANDERLEE sent us a postcard ¢from Holland, where he is ¢vacationing. He says he couldnt find ¢much in the stores for the 8 BIT.¢¢We decided to make a contribution to ¢LIAUG and the BBS of $50.00. It was ¢approved by the membership. JIM ¢HARRIS said that BBS is there and for ¢us to use it. LIAUG and the OL' ¢HACKERS always had a special ¢relationship and that also extends to ¢the BBS. ALAN SHARKIS made a motion ¢to contribute $50.00 to LIAUG for the ¢maintenance of the BBS. ALLAN ATKINS ¢seconded the motion. The motion was ¢carried unanimously, by the club ¢members.¢¢ALAN SHARKIS made up forms for ¢members to order any of the many old ¢and new Newsletter from other ATARI ¢clubs, that they might want to read. ¢A great idea.¢¢JIM HARRIS the SYSOP of the BBS said ¢that it cost him approximately $30.00 ¢a month in phone and related bills to ¢operate the BBS. RON FETZER suggested ¢we pay $50.00 and that constitutes ¢the contribution of $15.00 a month ¢for 3 months until 2/91. As described ¢above, it was voted at this time to ¢make a one time contribution. We will ¢take this up around the February or ¢March 1992 meetings.¢¢DEMONSTRATIONS: (NON ATARI DEMO!) ¢(ALEX demonstrated a small audio ¢device to be used at appropriate ¢times to liven up a meeting. You had ¢to be there to appreciate it! grin.)¢¢ALEX showed a program that on a ¢unmodified 130XE seemed to show that ¢it had a RAMDISK D8 of 1410 Sectors ¢and DUP.SYS and MEM.SAV with MYDOS. ¢We could not believe our eyes, and ¢neither could he, which is why he ¢brought it to our meeting. HAROLD ¢PEGLER will investigate it further, ¢and keep you informed¢¢"APAC LOAD"- a program loaded with ¢pictures. It will go into the ¢library. The loading program for ¢pictures is on the disk with FINGERS ¢to autoload it¢¢From PAGE 6 a label program. A very ¢versatile label program. ¢"LABELPG6.BAS" is the name of the ¢program.¢¢ALEX demonstrated a very interesting ¢STOCK MARKET GAME. You can become ¢very rich playing it, or loose ¢without pain.¢¢An EPSON CABLE PRINTER TEST program ¢was demoed. It is called ¢"PRINTEST.BAS"¢¢A program which will compare 2 ¢versions of a file was shown. It is ¢called "SUPERCOMP.BAS", might be very ¢helpful to see if one program has ¢changes from the other.¢¢From PAGE 6 NEW ATARI USER DISK. You ¢will need the magazine in order to ¢understand all the programs on the ¢disk.¢¢"BATCH 6" from JACG is a disk full of ¢music on side #1. On side #2 it has ¢graphics and other programs. It will ¢be in the library.¢¢From England a program that makes ¢labels. You can use P.S. Icons, you ¢can save your own and design your ¢own. You have a picture viewer, a ¢graphic cataloger, a border ¢cataloger, font cataloger, transfer, ¢undelete, rename, book mark, coupon ¢maker and set up. It is a great ¢program.¢¢DOOR PRIZES:¢¢STAN SCHENFELD ALLAN ATKINS RON ¢FETZER CURT VENDEL (never fails, new ¢members somehow always win on their ¢first visit. Truly amazing!!! JACK ¢GEDALIUS¢¢JIM HARRIS and MARK GLICKSMAN from ¢LIAUG both came to our meeting. JIM ¢brought a modified XF551 drive with a ¢3.5 drive on top of it. With this ¢modification you can use both the ¢XF551 and the 3.5 disk drive. He made ¢a new ROM for the disk drive. He put ¢both operating systems in the new ¢software ROM. The 3.5 formats in 80 ¢tracks rather than 40 tracks. He ¢modified the power supply so that ¢both drives receive power all the ¢time eliminating switching. He also ¢incorportated a D.C. brushless fan to ¢cool the drive.¢¢The 3.5 disks are much hardier, than ¢a 5.25 floppy. JIM threw one on the ¢floor and stepped on it. It was still ¢O.K. You can get 720 K of information ¢on one 3.5 disk this is the same as 8 ¢single density sides. You must use ¢SPARTA DOS or MYDOS with this system ¢to get the full benefit of the ¢extended range. If you use DOS 2.5 it ¢will format only to 720 sectors. JIM ¢said it takes him approximately 10 ¢hours to make this modification and ¢he is experienced in electronics. JIM ¢showed us all the parts that go into ¢making an upgrade. There are about ¢$110 worth of parts that go into the ¢modification. JIM demoed the upgrade ¢and showed us a directory of all the ¢SPARTA DOS UTILITIES ever written. ¢The directory was a mile long. If you ¢can get the parts yourself the ¢upgrade would cost you between ¢$60-$100. If you do not have the ¢parts the upgrade would cost you ¢$200. You of course have to supply ¢your own XF551 disk drive.¢¢JIM HARRIS also does computer repair ¢and disk drive repair. If you have ¢any repair call him at 516 234-2925. ¢He lives in Central Islip. His prices ¢are very reasonable, for all the ¢effort he puts into his repairs.¢¢JIM and MARK, it was a great having ¢you present, and JIM, thanks for the ¢demo, it was very much appreciated by ¢all.¢¢Submitted by¢ Ron Fetzer¢ >>>>>>>>END<<<<<<<<<<<¢
