EXCERPTS FROM THE JAWS OF THE VICE¢ (PREZ) of WESTERN NEW YORK ATARI USER¢ CLUB by John Kasupski, V.P.¢¢¢ In getting my hard drive put¢ back together very recently, I made¢ a discovery. If you're having trouble¢ finding an Adaptec 4000A controller¢ card, you CAN take the Bios from a¢ 4000A and put it on an Adaptec 4010¢ and use that instead.¢¢ ** This presupposes that the¢ problem with your old 4000A wasn't in¢ the Bios, and it may NOT work with¢ ALL drives and configurations.¢ However, it works fine on my Seagate¢ ST-225, a 20 Meg, 5-1/2" half-height¢ MFM drive. This discovery was made by¢ accident, because I ordered a 4000A¢ and received a 4010 instead. I had¢ previously been told that a 4010¢ WOULDN'T work, even if you swapped¢ the Bios (hence the caution above),¢ but I decided to try it anyway before¢ shipping the card back to California¢ and waiting another two weeks to get¢ my drive going again. Fortunately, it¢ DID work, so I am back in the hard¢ drive SIG again...FINALLY! ¢¢ ** YOU CAN'T DO THAT, PART 1 **¢ ------------------------- **¢ ** All this made me think about¢ some of the things I've been told¢ could absolutely not, no way, never"¢ be done. A few of them are: ** 1.¢ "You can't connect a hard drive to an¢ Atari 8-bit computer."¢ My hard drive doesn't believe¢ that. Neither do Technician's, or¢ WNYAUG's, or the HDs belonging to¢ most any SysOp.** ** 2. "Turbo BASIC¢ will never work with SpartaDOS 3.2¢ because they use the 16K of hidden¢ memory in the XL/XEs."**¢ You'd be amazed at the list of¢ well-known persons in the Atari¢ community who have uttered these, or¢ similar, words over the years.¢ Fortunately, there is a man by the¢ name of Tom Hunt, who thinks the same¢ way that I do but has a lot more¢ programming talent, with the result¢ that I can now run Turbo BASIC¢ programs from my HD under SpartaDOS¢ 3.2 in spite of all the expert¢ pronouncements to the contrary.¢ Thanks, Tom!**¢¢ ** 3. "The CX-85 keypad won't work¢ on the newer XL/XE machines."**¢ ¢ This was actually published in¢ a national Atari magazine.¢ Fortunately, I didn't read it before¢ I bought my CX-85 keypad. If I had, I¢ would never have bought the CX-85.**¢ The fact is that the CX-85¢ most certainly DOES work with the¢ XL/XE, only the driver for the¢ 400/800 that is on the boot disk you¢ get with the keypad doesn't work on¢ the newer machines. What you have to¢ do is get into DOS and use the¢ KEYPAD.OBJ file. ¢ There is also a public domain¢ utility to use the CX-85 with¢ SpartaDOS in case you're like me and¢ can't stand Atari DOS or any of its¢ clones like SmartDOS, MyDOS, etc.**¢¢ ** All the above just goes to¢ show that as soon as someone says¢ that something can't be done,¢ "absolutely not, no way, never",¢ there will be someone with the¢ inclination AND the expertise to¢ eventually prove them wrong. After¢ all, didn't they say that man would¢ never walk on the moon? Well, a guy¢ by the name of Neil Armstrong left¢ some footprints in the dust up there,¢ didn't he? So did Buzz Aldrin, and a¢ few other guys as well.**¢ We should be glad we have¢ people like Tom Hunt in the Atari¢ community in the first place. Their¢ accomplishments may not be on a par¢ with those of Armstrong and Aldrin,¢ but they make things a lot easier and¢ much more interesting for us Atari¢ users!¢¢ ** CHECK THIS BBS OUT!**¢ -------------------**¢ ** Speaking of Tom Hunt, whom I¢ mentioned above, I can't say this¢ enough lately: Check out his BBS,¢ Closer To Home. The number to call is¢ as follows:**¢ ** 419-368-4413 ** ¢ The BBS runs on BBS Express! Pro, and¢ supports 300/1200/2400 CPS. I highly¢ recommend it!¢¢¢ ** YOU CAN'T DO THAT, PART II**¢ --------------------------**¢ Did you know that it is¢ possible to connect two printers to¢ your Atari and have them both¢ printing at the same time? Even to¢ have them printing two entirely¢ different documents?**¢ Well, I've discovered that¢ this is possible, at least if you¢ have a MIO. The proof is right here¢ on my computer desk. My own Brother¢ M-1009 printer is connected to the¢ serial daisy chain on my 130XE, while¢ WNYAUG's Star NX-15 is connected to¢ my MIO.¢ The MIO is the key, because¢ the printer port on the MIO can be¢ configured as either P1: or P2: using¢ the MIO's printer configuration¢ options. I set the MIO printer port¢ as P2: which makes the Star P2: while¢ the serial printer, of course, is P1:¢ as is normal for a serial printer.¢ Also, you can use the MIO's¢ internal RAM as a print spooler the¢ size of which can be varied from 64K¢ to 256K in increments of 64K. To get¢ both printers printing at the same¢ time, I set up the MIO with a 64K¢ spooler and boot the XE version of¢ TextPro (I'm currently using version¢ 4.56).¢ Since TP lets you use the¢ extended RAM in a 130XE (or other¢ machine with compatible upgrade, such¢ as a Rambo XL) to load three separate¢ banks of text, I can load one¢ document into one bank and a second¢ document into another bank. I then¢ print the file in one of the Banks to¢ P2: and the contents go to the MIO¢ print spooler's RAM almost¢ immediately.¢ That leaves me plenty of¢ time to go to the other bank and¢ print that file to P1: which is the¢ serial printer. I can then sit back¢ and watch as one printer prints out,¢ say, a letter to a friend of mine,¢ while the other printer is producing¢ the hardcopy of the docs for the new¢ program I downloaded the night¢ before!¢ This doubles the productivity¢ of TextPro, and thus, the use of my¢ Atari computer system. If you have¢ a MIO and an extra printer sitting¢ around, you might want to pick up a¢ cable to connect one of your printers¢ to your MIO printer port so that you¢ can do the same. The only other¢ requirements are enough space in your¢ computer room for both printers to be¢ connected, a word processor (and a¢ DOS) that supports the P2: device¢ (the above was done using SpartaDOS¢ 3.2), and two text files that you¢ need to get printed out.¢¢ ** Just please don't go rub the¢ noses of all those poor Commodore¢ owners out there in this. They have¢ enough of an inferiority complex¢ already without us Atari ES users¢ rubbing it in! **¢ ***********************************¢ **¢ ¢¢
