==============================¢ MINUTES OF AUGUST 1992 MEETING¢ ==============================¢¢NEW MEMBERS:¢¢ WILLIAM R. FORBES from PA joins¢our club. Bill is a professor of¢Biology at the University of Indiana¢in PA. He is a devoted and lonely 8-¢BIT'er,in his neck of the woods. He is¢also a SYSOP on two IBM (ugh!)¢bulletin boards, THE ELECTRONIC ZONE¢412-349-3504, and THE WIGGLE WORM 412-¢357-4062. Call him and tell him you¢are an OL'HACKER too. He would like to¢hear from you!¢¢ FRANK M. FERRELL JR. from¢Wilmington DE also joined our club.¢Frank has also been working by himself¢without much (read "none") 8-bit¢support. Welcome guys. I know you will¢enjoy the club, and he SUPPORT.¢¢ITEM:¢¢ We saw BILL ROTH'S name, one of¢our members from California, in the¢FRANTIC newsletter (a very active¢Texas 8-Bit club.) It seems BILL is¢also a member of the their club. JOHN¢JOHNSON our member from Oregon is also¢a member of FRANTIC. Many of us are¢multiple members of 8-Bit clubs. I am¢also a member of the ACE OF SYRACUSE¢club as well as the WESTCHESTER ATARI¢USERS CLUB. The FRANTIC newsletter¢complimented us for a great¢newsletter.¢¢ HAROLD PEGLER passed out the¢updated version 2.0 of the LIBRARY¢DISK to the members. The disk has¢PRNTSTAR.BAS on it on the back side.¢You can call up a file and print it¢with this program. A great idea¢HAROLD!¢¢ CORRESPONDENCE:¢¢ From the JACG of New Jersey¢newsletter, of Aug. '92. They¢commented on the continued very¢vigorous growth of the OL' HACKERS¢while most other 8-Bit clubs are¢losing members.¢¢ JOHN KASUPSKI V.P. and the editor¢of the WEST NEW YORK ATARI USERS GROUP¢newsletter the POKEY April 1992 issue¢discusses how an IBM users saw EXPRESS¢PRO on a BBS and this IBM users said¢"perhaps someday we (IBM's boards)¢will have something like it for the¢IBM." This just shows you that we have¢many great programs that are not¢available to the IBM.¢ JOHN in that issue said that¢"their (referring to OL' HACKERS)¢newsletter is the best disk newsletter¢that I have seen to date". Thanks¢John.¢ A letter to MAGIC (another¢terrific 8 BIT disk newsletter) by¢ALEX. ALEX asked why we have not¢received their newsletter for a long¢time. We received a reply from BRUCE¢WILLIS, 8 BIT Librarian of MAGIC,¢saying that they had some trouble with¢equipment but that they will resume¢sending it to us. THANK YOU FELLOWS!.¢ ALEX wrote to MARK BENSLEY our¢new member. ALEX wrote for an¢evaluation of our newsletter disk from¢MARK. MARK is a super programmer and¢has written commercial software. ALEX¢reminded MARK if he has any material¢that he wants to have published in the¢premiere issue of ATARI CLASSIC¢MAGAZINE he can send it to us and we¢will forward it to BEN POEHLAND.¢ A letter from our member JOHN¢JOHNSON in Oregon. JOHN felt that our¢Data Base for mailing the newsletter¢does not like him. QUITE ACONTRAIRE -¢ John we do not forget you. its just¢that the newsletter does not get sent¢out the same time for every issue.¢Sometimes it is sent later in the¢month. So John - we love you and the¢Data Base has you listed. Your¢newsletter will come to you, and all¢our other non local members, every¢issue. Now to your suggestion that to¢come to the meetings seems a little¢hard. We understand that - after all¢there is no shuttle flight from OREGON¢CITY, OREGON to PLAINVIEW, N.Y., is¢there?¢ DANE STEGMAN our member from¢upstate New York writes us that he¢enjoys reading the newsletter every¢other month. He thanked RON for¢helping him with a hardware problem.¢We think that DANE is also a secretary¢of another club, right DANE?¢ A letter from LARRY TISHBEIN our¢LIAUG Newsletter Editor member from¢QUAKERTOWN PA. He tells us that he¢will write a small article for the¢newsletter. He sent it to us. If it¢gets a PULIZER PRIZE LARRY said he¢will split it with us. Oh boy! Lets¢plan on how we will spend it, send in¢suggestions!¢¢ By the way all correspondance is¢read at meetings, so if you want to be¢heard, just write!¢¢DOOR PRIZES:¢¢JACK GEDALIUS¢BOB ULSCHMID¢HAROLD PEGLER¢HARRY TUTHILL¢JIM HARRIS¢¢DEMOES:¢¢ RON for his demo, described how¢to change a pressure pad on your disk¢drive. This is the most cost effective¢improvement you can do to your disk¢drive. In order to protect the¢read/write head use a disk and put a¢piece of masking tape on the top of¢the disk opening. Put this disk in the¢drive. This will protect the read¢write head.¢ Over the read write head is the¢pressure pad. It is a round plug with¢a felt pad in it. Look at it. If the¢felt pad is worn then you must change¢it.¢ To change the pressure pad close¢the disk drive door and lift up the¢holder press the pad together and pop¢it out of the holder.¢ To insert a new pad put the plug¢under the holder and gently press on¢it until it pops into the hole.¢ New pads are available from BEST¢ELECTRONICS. For INDUS and 1050 drives¢they are $2.00. For 810 drives they¢are $.75. If you are going to order¢something from them you are urged to¢also order yourself a spare drive¢belt. They are very hard to get and¢this is the only source. They are¢$4.50.¢ In a recent issue of AIM¢MAGAZINE, there was a description on¢how to use the top end of a BIC PEN as¢a pressure pad. DO NOT USE IT. It fits¢O.K. but it ruins the back of your¢disk and you cannot use it as a FLIPPY¢DISK. It most likely will also deposit¢plastic on your READ/WRITE HEAD.¢ A tip from HARRY TUTHILL. If your¢rubber roller (platen) on your printer¢is hard and dried out] Here is a quick¢fix you can do. Put a little acetone¢on a rag (so it is almost dry - not¢too much) and rub the roller with it.¢Be careful not to get the acetone on¢the plastic parts. Use it very¢sparingly on the roller.¢¢ ALAN SHARKIS did a demo on SUPER¢ARC, SUPER UNARC and DISK.COM. ALAN¢gave out printed screen dumps of the¢menu sections of the programs. The¢reason we arc or compress a file is to¢send it over a modem, or to save space¢on a disk, or to keep it secret. BOB¢PUF'S ARC and UNARC are pretty¢universal in the 8 BIT computer world.¢The SPARTA DOS X ARC/UNARC does not¢work properly with BOB PUF'S ARC¢UNARC.¢ ALAN showed us how to arc several¢files. He showed us the menu and he¢explained all the menu selections. He¢started with files that equaled 480¢sectors. After arcing they were only¢half of the previous sectors.¢ ALAN then showed how to UNARC¢files. He explained all the menu¢selections and how they work.¢ ALAN then demoed DISK.COM. With¢this program you compress or¢uncompress a WHOLE DISK including DOS.¢DISK.COM does not compress that much¢but it makes the disk one file. THEN¢you can arc this file and compress it¢further. ALAN uses DISK.COM with a¢SPARTA DOS X cartridge. ALAN then¢showed and explained all the menu¢functions of DISK.COM. On option H¢"MAXIMUM SECTORS" the default is 720.¢If your disk is bigger you must change¢it so the program reads all the¢sectors. The extender for a DISK.COM¢file should always be .DCM. This is a¢universal notation. ALAN received a¢standing ovation for the fine¢presentation.¢¢ JIM HARRIS showed us some¢fantastic new product from Germany. It¢is a special disk drive controller¢completely finished on a PC board. It¢is for 3.5 inch disks drive. It uses a¢standard 1.44 meg 3.5 inch drive¢mechanism. It creates essentially a¢small removable hard drive. The speed¢of the drive is absolutely fantastic.¢It is fully compatible with the 8 BIT¢and plugs into the serial chain, it¢supports US DOUBLER, HAPPY, WARP¢SPEED. This drive is about 1/3 the¢speed of a hard drive with an MIO -¢ very, very fast. It can read and¢configure itself to the type of drives¢you are using. It is technically a¢masterpiece. The price is about¢$200.00. JIM said he is trying to buy¢the rights from the guy in Germany and¢produce it here. In addition, to this¢controller, you need a power supply¢and a 1.44meg 3.5 disk drive. It was a¢great presentation by JIM HARRIS¢¢ ALEX demoed EASY FIND a catalog¢of all ATARI MATERIALS and articles.¢It is a 6 disk set (7 if you want the¢TURBO BASIC modified MASTER DISK also)¢and it will be found in our library.¢ ALEX showed us the POKEY¢NEWSLETTER disk. A great newsletter¢disk. The POKEY NEWSLETTER DISK uses¢our newsletter format, but uses SPARTA¢DOS. All the POKEY NEWSLETTER disks¢are in the library. These are well¢worth getting. A ton of info on each¢one. The ddemoed ones are #201 to 203¢in the library.¢¢ ALEX showed the FEB 92 MAGIC DOM¢(DISK OF THE MONTH). It is another¢fabulous disk with many great¢programs. You can also get it from our¢library. We have most of the MAGIC¢disks. It is produced by the MIDWEST¢ATARI GROUP FORM IOWA. On this disk¢they give you a menu that you can read¢or print out with a short description¢of the files. It is #211 in the¢library.¢ #212 is MAGIC DOM April 1991. It¢has among other things how to go on¢GENIE. It also has a hardware mod. for¢1200XL for video improvement.¢¢Another great meeting is now a thing¢of the past. Darn it, I hate to wait¢another month for the next one!¢¢Submitted by¢ Ron Fetzer¢¢>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>END<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<¢¢
