<><><>¢ MINUTES OF THE APRIL 1993 MEETING¢ =================================¢¢ NEW MEMBERS:¢ CHRIS HENDRICK of Huntington¢ Station N.Y. came to our meeting. He¢ liked what he saw and joined the OL'¢ HACKERS. LES BRADO of Groveland, N.Y.¢ liked what he read about the club so¢ much, that he joined us for 2 years¢ (to December 31, 1994). Welcome to¢ the OL' HACKERS. I think you will get¢ more quality time from your 8 BIT,¢ and make many new friends. We are a¢ very friendly bunch!¢¢ NOTE:>>>>>> MEETING PLACE CHANGE¢ On June 26 the library will be¢ closed for renovation. ALAN SHARKIS¢ has graciously invited us to his¢ house for the meeting. He will demo¢ the MIDI as well as the SIO2PC. ALAN¢ lives at 43 Rose Drive, East Meadow,¢ N.Y. 11554.¢¢ DEMOS:¢ RON FETZER demoed the YEARLY¢ CALENDAR MAKER. This is a great new¢ program that 1) Prints out a yearly¢ calendar. 2) Highlights selected¢ dates on the printed copy. 3) Prints¢ a description of what the highlighted¢ dates are. 4) It puts your name on¢ the calendar. 5) You can save and re-¢ print the calendar. 6) It has a¢ fabulous new directory listing.¢ This program was worked on by¢ TOM ANDREWS our member from upstate¢ N.Y., and ALEX PIGNATO and RON FETZER¢ from the OL' HACKERS. We took a¢ plain vanilla program and 3 membes¢ changed it into a GREAT and very¢ useful program for every one. The¢ program is fully documented on the¢ back of the disk.¢ We were not satisfied to give¢ you just one great NEW program on¢ this disk but we added another¢ fantastic utility to it - MAGIC¢ CATALOGER. It is a disk cataloger¢ program. This program reads your¢ disks, sorts them prints them in 5¢ columns on a page. You can manually¢ add files, erase files, etc. It is so¢ easy to work that you will say¢ EUREKA!!(See later demo). It is fully¢ documented. The menu on the¢ MAGIC CATALOGER is as follows:1) AUTO¢ ADD 2) MANUAL ADD 3) DELETE 4)¢ DISPLAY 5) SEARCH 6) SORT 7) PRINT 8)¢ LOAD 9) SAVE 0)ERASE. ALEX showed how¢ to AUTO ADD disks into the program.¢ You just put in the disk one after¢ the other. It reads the files,¢ numbers and stores them in the¢ program. You can have 1,200 files¢ before you run out of memory. If you¢ have more files than that you make¢ another category and repeat it. You¢ give your disks a 3 digit number. It¢ is suggested you start with 100. If¢ you use 1,2,3 etc then a number sort¢ may not be correct. The program tells¢ you what your last disk was that was¢ cataloged - it gives you a reminder.¢ IT BLOWS AWAY ALL OTHER CATALOGERS!¢ All these goodies, on one disk, are¢ AVAILABLE TO ALL OUR 8BIT FRIENDS for¢ 3.00, CHECKS PAYABLE TO RON FETZER¢ which includes shipping/handling.¢ Write for it, to:¢ HAROLD PEGLER, Librarian¢ 129 KETCHAMS Rd.¢ SYOSSET, N.Y. 11791¢ For "YEARLY CALENDAR/CATALOGER" disk.¢¢ We saw another one of STUART¢ MURRAY'S (SCOTLAND) FUTURA DISKS #5,¢ JAN/FEB 93. It will be # 264 in our¢ library. These disks are absolutely¢ great. We have these Scottish disks¢ from #1 to #6 in our library. This¢ disk has a game on it called GUMBALL.¢ You play against the computer. If you¢ get stuck with the last gumball you¢ lose the game. BE WARNED - you WILL¢ lose often. Another game was QUEST¢ FOR HEART (similar to bolderdash).¢ You pick up the hearts but be careful¢ you don't get squashed. There were¢ much more things, including text, on¢ this disk, that we did not have time¢ to show. On the back we have a¢ graphic interface with drop down¢ menues. A great disk to own.¢ FUTURA DISK #6 from Scotland.¢ This disk had some great programs on¢ it also. Side B was in TURBO-BASIC.¢ Surprise!! - several of my (RON'S)¢ programs had traveled to Scotland¢ over time and now appeared on the¢ FUTURA DISK. You never know where¢ your children will show up! Another¢ great disk to get, even if I (RON)¢ say so myself (grin).¢ ALAN SHARKIS brought his MIDI¢ KEYBOARD and interface to the club.¢ He said he was going to do 3 things.¢ 1) Explain what a MIDI is.¢ 2) Have some fun and lay down some¢ tracks.¢ 3) Explain the software that came¢ with the system and its ability to¢ take an AMS file and use it.¢ MIDI stands for MUSICAL INSTRUMENT¢ DIGITAL INTERFACE. With digital sound¢ you have the ability to save¢ recordings on computer equipment. You¢ are now able to interconnect many¢ digital devices into the MIDI. A MIDI¢ sends out a clock pulse 24 times¢ every quarter note. The speed of¢ transmission is 31.5 K baud. So it is¢ very fast. The transmission is serial¢ but because it is so fast it sounds¢ as if it's sending parallel. The 8BIT¢ interface was made by WHIZZTRONICS.¢ They are still in business and¢ selling the interface. Unfortunately¢ because of a loose conection it didnt¢ receive a signal from the MIDI andthe¢ demo did not work-Normal ALAN-happens¢ every so often to the best of them.*¢ ALAN SHARKIS has invited the club to¢ his house for the JUNE 26 MEETING.¢ ALAN lives at 43 Rose Drive, East¢ Meadow, N.Y. 11554. ALAN will then¢ demo the MIDI as well as his SIO-2PC¢ interface. The SIO-2PC connects a 286¢ I.B.M. P.C. to an ATARI 800XL. The¢ P.C. acts as the slave to the Atari¢ 8-Bit, and its partitioned RAMDISKs¢ all serve the 8 BIT!¢ ALEX showed a sample page of¢ JOHN MC GOWAN'S program PAGE LAYOUT.¢ It was very impressive. Great for DP¢ and newspaper work.¢ We then demoed the VCR PLUS¢ program. A great utility if you have¢ a setup with your VCR to use it. It¢ comes from JOHN MC GOWAN. JOHN is¢ another great friend of OHAUG, and a¢ great programmer.¢ JAN & FEB & MAR. 93 A.I.M.¢ DISKS. They are all ARCed. They have¢ many interesting programs on it. They¢ will be in the library.¢ MAGIC DOM JAN 93. It has the¢ ATARI OIL DEMO on it, BACKGAMMON,¢ minutes of their meeting and AMS¢ songs. Side B has a game called¢ CIRCUS, K-BERT, and more.¢ We saw a PAGE 6 disk NAVAS BASIC¢ ROUTINES, from England with many¢ utilities on it. If you are into¢ programming this is the disk to get.¢ It is for intermediate and advanced¢ programmers.¢ JIM HARRIS next showed how a¢ LASER PRINTER is connected to an 8-¢ Bit computer. JIM brought the laser¢ printer to the meeting and showed how¢ it worked. JIM started a business¢ called ARROWHEAD ELECTRONICS where he¢ does repairs and set ups. His number¢ is (516) 234-2925. Give him a call if¢ you have a problem. He uses the EPSON¢ ACTION LASER PRINTER II. This printer¢ also allows you to emulate the 9 PIN¢ and 24 PIN EPSON COMMAND SETS. JIM¢ showed us avery beautiful sample font¢ print out of the printer, and a four¢ section PRINT POWER announcement with¢ great graphics. It accepts standard¢ HEWLET PACKARD FONT CARTRIDGES that¢ are available everywhere. He showed a¢ program listing. This Laser printer¢ can be connected to your 8- Bit with¢ a standard interface such as the 850¢ or the P.R. CONNECTION. It really¢ shines when you use it with DESK TOP¢ PUBLISHING and WORD PROCESSING. You¢ can do transparencies or envelopes¢ etc. He bought itat SEARS for $650.00¢ He installed a 4 MEG upgrade in it¢ and it still cost less than $1,000.00¢ You can access the HEWLET PACKARD¢ fonts by typing in the escape codes¢ for the fonts or writing a printer¢ driver for those fonts. ONLY at¢ the OL' HACKERS can you find out the¢ newest things for your 8-bit. This¢ was another great demo by our member¢ JIM HARRIS. THANKS JIM!¢¢ CORRESPONDENCE:¢ A letter from N.W. Phoenix,¢ Ariz. Club. They have problems. The¢ president and the vice president of¢ the club quit. They were tired of¢ doing all the work in the club. The¢ librarian, and newsletter editor,¢ JOHN COLLINS will take over, till new¢ officers are in (It can happen to¢ any club!) He sent us COLORSQUASH, by¢ one of their members CLAY HALLIWELL,¢ that takes a RGB picture & compresses¢ it into one file so it can be viewed.¢ DALE WOOSTER, the president who¢ retired wrote that he got tired of¢ doing everything. He said if members¢ become more active, then he will also¢ become active again.¢ A letter from ALEX to DAVID¢ EWENS our member in England. ALEX¢ complimented DAVE for the great¢ issues of the TWAUG newsletters. ALEX¢ said that the articles are of great¢ diversity and reach out to all 8-¢ bitters. He complimented DAVE and his¢ merry men for their hard work.¢ A quote from our Scotish member¢ STUART MURRAY. "HOW MANY ATARI CORP¢ EXECUTIVES DOES IT TAKE TO SCREW IN A¢ LIGHT BULB? Answer: Three. ONE TO¢ SCREW IN THE BULB. ONE TO HOLD THE¢ LADDER. ONE TO CUTOFF THE ELECTRICITY¢ AFTERWARDS. "Atari Power Without The¢ Support!!!"¢ The library listing for his club is¢ on FUTURA DISK #6.¢ ALEX replied congratulated him on¢ his imminent College graduation, and¢ his newsletter.¢ A letter to JIM CUTLER our¢ member in England. We once again¢ thanked him for the great disks he¢ mailed us. Disks that we might never¢ see otherwise.¢ A letter to DANIEL CARRODANO our¢ member in France. We thanked him for¢ the manual for the MINI TEL that he¢ sent. We thanked him for his great¢ TEXTPRO DISK with DDIII on it.¢ DANIEL CARRODANO asked for the¢ name and address of our Italian¢ member and he wants CC8 PROGRAMMING¢ LANGUAGE from the UNIVERSITY OF¢ MICHIGAN. Any member help is¢ appreciated. Please send it to ALEX.¢ NOTE:¢ We will soon come out with Library¢ Disk #2 that HAROLD PEGLER is¢ currently working on.¢¢ DOOR PRIZES:¢¢ ALAN SHARKIS¢ JOE LEBER¢ ALAN SHARKIS¢ BOB ULSCHMID¢ CHRIS HENDRICK¢¢ Submitted by Ron Fetzer¢ >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>END<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<¢
