¢ o=o=o=o=o=¢¢ "Minutes" of OHAUG-LIAUG Joint Meeting¢ 4/3/98¢ by Alan Sharkis, Editor¢¢ April Fool!¢¢ Well, 4/3/98's joint meeting had so¢ much to offer that we decided not to¢ set up the OHAUG tape recorder and¢ write formal minutes. I can tell you¢ what did transpire, however.¢¢ The joint meeting was well-attended¢ by members of both user groups.¢ LIAUG President and OHAUG member¢ PATRICK MULVEY opened the meeting and¢ welcomed the OHAUG contingent. OHAUG¢ President JACK GEDALIUS waived the¢ formal OHAUG business portion of the¢ meeting, but Editor ALAN SHARKIS¢ conveyed a list (still growing!) of¢ OHAUG members' e-mail addresses to¢ secretary RON FETZER.¢¢ LIAUG did discuss some business.¢ Vice-President, Treasurer and¢ Webmaster MARK GLICKSMAN announced¢ that LIAUG's treasury was in the¢ black and that all banking business¢ had been taken care of. Some time¢ was spent going over the LIAUG Web¢ Page and how to improve it. Mark is¢ taking a vacation in a couple of¢ weeks. At that time, he is confident¢ that he'll be able to make the¢ desired improvements and¢ simultaneously make the page more¢ text-friendly.¢¢ There was a lot of discussion on the¢ topic of using 8-bits for Internet¢ access. It was stimulated by my¢ discovery that the Nassau Library¢ Internet System, also known as¢ NassauNet AND contrary to their¢ publicity, _CAN_ provide text-based¢ access and lower baud rates.¢ Therefore, it can be accessed by¢ Nassau County residents with more¢ mature computers, including Atari 8-¢ bits.¢¢ While we couldn't actually dial out¢ to demonstrate how this access works,¢ we did get enough of ITAY CHAMIEL's¢ Ice-T Terminal Program on the screen¢ to show that it's 80-column font is¢ quite readable, even on a color¢ composite monitor.¢¢ I went over the features of the 800¢ version (1.0) and the XE version¢ (2.72) of Ice-T and also those of¢ FlickerTerm. Both Ice-T and¢ FlickerTerm can handle 80 columns on¢ the screen at a time. This is very¢ important because menus and other¢ screen displays would be very¢ difficult to interpret with the 40¢ columns presented by BobTerm and¢ others of that vintage. In addition,¢ Ice-T and FlickerTerm have VT-100¢ emulation, which is necessary for Web¢ browsing with Lynx. Lynx is a text-¢ based Web browser that resides on (or¢ is accesed from) the library's¢ system. NassauNet also provides¢ Internet e-mail and access to many¢ newsgroups including the¢ "comp.sys.atari" series, but NOT the¢ "alt.binaries" series. Nassau County¢ library patrons need only present¢ themselves, their library card and¢ another form of identification and¢ fill out a form. Login names and¢ passwords are generated by the system¢ and are supplied to you within a¢ month. The service is free. Members¢ of LIAUG who already belong to the¢ Suffolk Library System's Internet¢ facility were able to tell a little¢ about that system, too. I stated¢ that my tests revealed that the¢ Nassau system would go as low as 1200¢ baud, but one Suffolk resident¢ claimed that their system would¢ actually work at 75 baud!¢¢ LIAUG Newsletter Editor and ST¢ Librarian HARVEY SCHOEN asked why¢ ICE-T and FlickerTerm have to be¢ individually configured for each¢ user. I explained that in the 8-bit¢ world, some users have direct-connect¢ modems and some have conventional,¢ "external" modems that work through¢ interface units. Some, but not all,¢ of the interfaces have an RS-232¢ handler in firmware, which has to be¢ "called" by DOS before the terminal¢ program starts up. A short machine-¢ language program does this. Other¢ interfaces and the direct-connect¢ modems have no such handler, and one¢ has to be loaded from DOS before the¢ program can run. To complicate¢ matters even more, each 8-bit DOS has¢ its own handler-loading programs.¢¢ I also spent some time talking about¢ the potential of the Nassau system to¢ set up both "personal" and "global"¢ mailing lists, and that the "global"¢ list might be a vehicle for mass¢ mailings to members of either or both¢ user groups.¢¢ PAT MULVEY spent some time reviewing¢ his attempts to install and learn RED¢ HAT LINUX, a freeware UNIX clone for¢ PCs.¢¢ Pat also spent his lunch hour and¢ beyond, with the able assistance of¢ TERRY MADDEN, diagnosing problems in¢ a series of 1050 drives brought in by¢ a visitor who wished to revive his¢ son's old 8-bit BBS. While Pat¢ demonstrated to us that he could¢ determine that the drives had¢ functioning mechanisms, there were¢ multiple problems with their¢ controller boards that Pat coudn't¢ fix on the spot. He suggested a¢ likely component for replacement, and¢ the visitor agreed to try that and to¢ contact Pat if it doesn't work.¢¢ After a lunch break at the local¢ pizzeria, we watched portions of a¢ videotape made in 1983 at a LIAUG¢ meeting of a demonstration of the 8-¢ bit VIRTUOSO program. This program¢ allows interactive creation and¢ control of music, graphics, and¢ animation. Indeed, the action of any¢ one element can control the actions¢ of all the others. Of particular¢ interest was the program's¢ modification to allow it to simulate¢ LORAN, the navigational system used¢ by vessels. The tape was supplied by¢ SAM COREY, who'd like to find out¢ what happened to the designer of¢ Virtuoso and would also like to¢ obtain a copy of the program. We¢ thank Sam for the tape. It was most¢ interesting.¢¢ The joint meeting concluded at 4PM.¢¢ o=o=o=o=o=¢¢¢