Big Blue Disk 10/bbd10new.zip/BLUENOTE.TXT

Text File | 1987-05-21 | 15KB | 299 lines

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^C^1Blue Notes

Dear ~3|9Big Blue^0:

Enclosed is my file of high scores for Movie Mogul, I hope they are among the
highest.

I am enjoying your work on Big Blue Disk, keep up the good work. Please let me
know if I am one of the winners. Thanks!

^RRichard L. Butts
^RSterling Hts., MI

^1> The entries to our Movie Mogul contest have been pouring in.  We should have
^1> the names of the winners, and the winning scores, in the next issue.
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Dear Sirs,

I picked up your disks last week and have been having a blast with them ever
since.  I have taken it into work and run it on our office computers during
lunch.  I now know why my staff never does anything right, they could not pass
the reading test with any degree of accuracy.  Several of my staff have P C s
at home and plan to pick up your disks themselves.  I just sent off my
subscription and am looking forward to the next issue.  I have also sent in my
scores for MOVIE MOGUL.  I am sure some one has toped my $207,743,000 profit or
2114% return, but who knows.

^CYours truly,

^RWilliam White
^RSacramento, CA

^1> Thanks for your compliment.  As we stated above, you'll find out next month
^1> how your scores stacked up to the competition.
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Editor:

I have been buying Big Blue Disk for three issues now.  I really like what you
are doing with your magazine on disk... everything from the serious to the
games.

I am returning Disk 2 from Issue 6 in hopes you will put a new label on it and
return it to me.  The label that is on it sticks in my floppy drive.  I am
afraid it can cause trouble down the road.  The label came as is on the disk.

^1> We have replaced your disk free of charge, in accordance with our policy.

I have been saving my original disks and putting the information on my hard
disk.  I have to look up on the disk each time what to look for when changing
the #1 or #2 on the disk so I can use it on the hard disk.  Would it be
possible to print the information on the yellow instruction sheet that comes
with the disk?  I use Norton to find the number to change.  The last time I had
Norton look for May 1987.  It couldn't find it.  I needed May, 1987.

^1> We are presently considering doing this as part of our revisions of the
^1> paper enclosures.

I am enclosing my high score from Movie Mogul.  Maybe I'll get lucky.  The Issue
7 had a very interesting version of Solitaire.  I spent hours at it until I
finially completed a game.

I am finding that when copying various items with your copy feature that all of
the files are not included to copy.  Also it would be easier for me if all the
commands were the same to start a feature once it is copied from Big Blue.
Maybe this is not possible for the limited space you have.  For instance Kalah
and Streets use pasrun and then the name of the feature.  The stock quiz used
quiz stock.dat to begin the program.

^1> Since we publish programs in several different languages, it is sometimes
^1> necessary to have different startup procedures.

I found with Kalah that your copy feature did not copy Kalah.sav.  The stock
quiz copied return.chn instead of return.exe and did not copy brun 20.exe at
all.

^1> Whoops... I guess we goofed and listed the wrong files.  Sorry.

This whole experience in using Big Blue is valuable for me.  I got my first
Tandy 1000 as partners with someone else last July.  I found that I liked
computers and sharing one did not give me enough time on one so I purchased a
Kaypro 16.  I like the portability of the Kaypro.  It is in the shop and I am
using an Epson right now.  I don't know if I will be able to let this one go
back or not.  This has a color monitor and I really like accessing Big Blue in
color.

Thank you for a fun experience in reading Big Blue.

Sincerely,

^RLinda Nabholz,
^RWaterloo, Ia.

P.S.  I copied the Blueline files to drive a: and tried to access the program.
I could get as far as "enter" to create the comments.txt file but my computer
would hang up after I pushed enter.  I went back to the Blueline on the hard
disk and created this letter and then copied the file to a:.  I added this P.S.
on the a: drive.  Don't know what went wrong when I copied it with your copy
feature.  I tried twice to access it on drive a: before I resorted to creating
the letter on the hard disk.

^1> Beats me.  Perhaps some random "glitch" occurred during the copy process.
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Dear Editors:

   I just received your issue of Big Blue Disk #7.  I really enjoy all your
programs & news items.  My husband and I are only novices on the computer (we
have a Tandy 1000).  Being novices, we mainly play the games.  In issue #7,
Streets and Alleys seemed very interesting at first.  However we soon found a
problem.  There are 2 cards of the Two of Hearts and no Seven of Clubs.  We are
wondering if this is on every disk or just ours.  Please let us know.  Thank
you very much.
^CTruly a fan
^RLuba and Katsumi Sato
^RBronx, NY

P.S.:  I know this is not as important as some of the other users' problems,
but it is very important to us.  We have subscribed since issue #2.

^1> Your problem is important to us.  As we mentioned last issue, we are aware of
^1> this bug, and are working to fix it.  We'll let you know as soon as we find
^1> a solution.
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Dear Friends:

   I recently received issue number 7 in the mail and must say that I enjoyed it
as much as the previous six issues.  I was not thrilled with the new colors you
added to the text screens though. Magenta is too bright to be comfortably read
in either dark or light mode.  Please go back to something more readable.

   Enclosed on this disk is the file with my high scores from Movie Mogul.  I
think they are pretty good, and I loved the game.

   To finish up, let me offer a small tip for hard disk users that may extend
the life of the hard disk.  On the IBM Diagnostics disk there is a file called
SHIPDISK.COM that parks the heads on the drive.  While it is intended for use
when moving the computer, we have copied it onto the hard disk and invoke it
just before we turn the computer off, every time!  This way, the heads never
touch the surface of the hard disk and it is protected in the event the
computer is jarred or there is an earthquake.  If we decide we want to continue
computing, a warm reboot (Ctl/Alt/Del) brings the system back easily.

   In summary, thanks for all the fun and keep up the good work. You'll
probably be hearing from me again.

                                Sincerely,
^REdward R. Shoulta
^RMemphis, TN
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Dear Big Blue:

   I was over to a friends house just after he bought his ~3|9Big Blue^0.  He showed
it to me and let me run off an order form so I could order the disk shipped to
my house.  It looked so good to me that I will enclose a order for two years.

   I just have to answer the letter James Williams wrote to you about his BBS.
He is not running it with the best BBS program around.  I have that, and it is
TBBS. This the most powerful program around.  I can redesign my BBS in a matter
of minutes and have it back up and running and running right.  I have E MAIL and
several other messages bases on line.  I have 115 megs. of online storage at the
present time.  About 50 megs of public domain programs in my download area.  I
support the Atari, Apple, IBM, C-64, Amiga, CP/M, and the TRS 80 computers.  I
get over 50 calls a day a lot of the time.  Hopefully I will be hooked up to net
mail in the near future and be multi-line.  Also, I have several online games
you can play.

   If you care to write me to learn how to order the best BBS program and some
of the tricks of running your own bulletin board, here is my address.

^C^1JERRY SCHERER
^C^15944 JONES
^C^1WICHITA, KS 67217

   If you care to call my bulletin board, here is the number.

^C^1316-529-2213
^C^1300/1200/2400
^C^18,N,1

   I use a IBM compatible with a 1.2 meg floppy.  I don't know if it's possible,
but would you consider putting ~3|9Big Blue Disk^0 on a 1.2 meg floppy for the high
density floppy users?  It would be nice to read the whole magazine without
changing disk.

   If readers ship you public domain programs, will you include them in your
disks?  Sorry I got carried away but I have been ordering from Load 80 for the
TRS-80 and I pay over a hundred dollars a year for it and it is not near as
good. I will quit them and hope you keep up the good work.  It sure looks good
to me.

   How do I get all of the disks that you have written?  I would like to have a
full set.

^CYours Truly,
^RJerry T. Scherer
^RWichita, KS

PS. I am including a disk with this letter on it so it will be easier for you
to read and edit.

^1> Normally, including your feedback on disk is very helpful to us.  However, in
^1> your case, the file was in some peculiar format with imbedded control charac-
^1> ters and other weirdness.  Please, if you wish to send text files for us to
^1> consider for publication, use standard ASCII text files with no more than 80
^1> characters to a line, and no imbedded formatting characters other than the
^1> usual carriage return and linefeed at the end of each line.  Our ^1BlueLine
^1> editor creates such files, as does ^0PC-WRITE^1 (our Blue Plate Special in issue
^1> #4).  Some other word-processors do not use standard ASCII, and thus are not
^1> appropriate for submitted files.  Others will save as ASCII if you specific-
^1> ally tell them to.  We don't mean to be picky, but files in any of the many
^1> non-standard formats used by various word-processors are a real nuisance for
^1> us to deal with when putting together our issue; that is why we must insist
^1> on standard ASCII.
^1>
^1> As for your other points:  We don't currently publish public-domain stuff;
^1> we would prefer submissions of your own work.  As for high-density disks,
^1> the market isn't big enough to justify distributing our product in that
^1> format.  However, you can copy the contents of both disks onto one of your own
^1> high-density disks, then manually alter the STATUS.DAT file as follows: change
^1> the number "1" or "2" right below the month and year into a zero (0).  Now
^1> you can run it on one disk with no swapping.  This trick will also work for
^1> hard disks, RAMdisks, and 3 1/2 " disks.  Finally, all back issues are
^1> available from us at cover price; see the enclosed order form.
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Dear Editor:

A friend of mine showed me or should I say loaned me BIG BLUE DISK #3 (January
1987).  I was very much impressed with the contents and will be subscribing to
it this month.  But I would like to send my comments via disk before I enter my
subscription.

Would it be possible to have some sort of margins on the print out? When I
printed each page and wanted to place them in a binder, there was no room to
punch the holes on the left side nor room at the top for stapling. This depends
on what you wanted to do.  Also, I found that there was no paging and this
presented a problem.  Now it could be my equipment or me as the operator.  The
equipment (computer) I own is a TANDY 1000SX with color monitor and two
printers (EPSON FX and TANDY DMP 130).  I operate on the MS-DOS with two disk
drives.  (Hope to get a 40meg Hard disk later this year)

This is a new world for me and want to learn all I can.  Most of it is on my own
and from reading plus questions.  I spend a total of 20 to 30 hours a week on
the computer and enjoy every minute of it.  Now I want to write programs with
lanuages other then BASIC.  Prehaps some articles on this subject would be of
some help for those of us that want to write programs for pleasure or profit.

Oh I almost forgot, is it possible to have page numbers at the bottom and have
it so it could be in booklet form??

Thank you for your time.
^RHerbert G. Bronner
^RWallace, NC

^1> A couple of months ago, we added page breaks to the printout.  Margins for
^1> binding are something we might consider in the future, although that would
^1> require us to re-format our text to less than 80 columns per line.
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Dear Big Blue,

   I am writing to tell you how delighted I am with your disk magazine.  The
first issue I purchased was Issue 4 and I immediately ordered a 6 month trial
subscription.  I am so satisfied that in the next few weeks I shall add another
year to the subscription.  Big Blue was the first disk magazine I have ever
seen.  I have now seen three others.  In my opinion, Big Blue is still the
best.  I did decide to subscribe to one other magazine because they had a couple
of features you did not have.  This particular magazine offered an education
section and in the next four issues will be explaining DOS.  This magazine also
offered an exceptional review on current software.  If Big Blue could offer an
education section explaining, for example, different aspects of programming,
and if Big Blue could offer reviews of current software, then this would make
an already-excellent disk magazine even better.

   Big Blue's April issue with PC Strife was hilarious, exquisitely done.
Ironically, I had just finished viewing the real thing the day before Big Blue
arrived.  Full appreciation can only come from seeing the real one and then
seeing PC Strife.  I hope other Big Blue readers had the same opportunity as I
for this enjoyment.
^RMyra Bunin
^RAkron, OH

^1> Thank you for your comments.  We're glad you enjoy ~3|9BIG BLUE DISK^1, and we hope
^1> you continue to enjoy it.
^1>
^1> Our BITS 'N PC'S column often contains information of interest to programmers.
^1> So does the ongoing Video Tutorial.  We run software reviews and demos from
^1> time to time as well.  However, our major focus is complete, ready-to-run
^1> programs; that's what a disk magazine can do best.  Large amounts of text are
^1> best presented on paper, so we limit the amount of text-only material here.