Letters Page
It's always right, even though its quite..er...it's the RISCWorld letters page.
Hugh Jampton dons his waterproof keyboard and answers this months letters.
Dear Sir,
I Just wanted to say that I've really enjoyed my first year of RiscWorld, and will certainly resubscribe for year 2, but..... a little plea? Any chance that you could consider using ink on the CDs that actually dries? (Is this a Florida humidity problem?) Either the text smudges and looks messy, or (worse!) my pedigree, show-champion, sealpoint Birman cat sits on the disk (well-known method of cats adsorbing information) and ends up with a bum that "... is published and distributed by APDL..."
I suppose if that's the only complaint I can come up with, you're doing well! Thanks for all the hard work in producing a good and useful magazine.
Dr Andy Cartlidge
Thank you Andy, we at RISC World strive to produce the best possible magazine, using the best writers that low wages can buy. The ink is a bit of a problem. We have now changed ink suppliers and hope that that will fix the problem. I can imagine that a feline sitting on non smudge proof ink could be a bit of a catastrophe. Another suggestion from Aaron was to fix the ink on the CD using hairspray before the cat sits on it.
And now Eric Dobson has been having a spot of bother....
RE Risc World 1_5CDFS Editor's Rant
Dear Sir,
If you want the public at large to buy Risc machines in millions, or at least a few per cent of the tens of millions who use MSPCs, you must expect confusion by the public who are trying to get to grips with, to them, an alien system. They will expect that, if they buy a system said to work, it will work! I am also, unfortunately, one of them. Wanting to upgrade from PC700 OS3.6 I bought OS4 but did not dare fit it (wife rather unhappy that things may go wrong). Am I glad that I have still not tried fitting it.
I Went to Epsom, Castle persuaded me & wife to buy latest machine as it would do all that a MSPC will do with internet, mail, news, sending and receiving MS docs using Easiwriter. Nightmare ever since! Oregano pathetic (used to use WebsterXL, slow but worked), mail still not working properly and cannot get into news groups after nine weeks of trying. I get Christmas message that if I want to use EasiWriter for MS docs I must spend 60ukp on the upgrade. Not the sales blurb at Epsom.
Castle say "dont contact us, we dont support anything of the internet package except Oregano, and Castle already know bookmarking does not work, saving web sites does not work, and why should I expect using mail and news to be ready to go?"!!
I had planned to buy Risc computers for the family on the basis of Castle's confident sales blurb; it is without doubt now MSPCs only. CDs will not run. Castle say it is the fault of the CD supplier as the CDFS is up-to-date and working properly (or that is implied). The CDs all work on the PC700. TextEase CD will not run properly without crashing - Softease do not understand. I thought I would look at the RiscOS site in your "Editor's rant" - it can not be found I am told by Oregano.
Am I being unreasonable in thinking that the top-of-range KineticPC delivered at the middle of November would have been fully checked with a CDFS that has updates included. How can a non-Risc expert find out in any case what standard has been installed? Setting up the internet package is a job only for Risc experts.
This is my rant - an extension of yours - why do not the Risc suppliers make sure that what they sell as working really does work, or give straight forward guidance on what the purchaser may need to do and where to find out?
So, from Risc World, any guidance on how to get this wretched machine to work as was promised and where I can go (I keep onto Castle to their obvious irritation) for any more useful help. With your rant about CDFS, please, is there any chance of help so that I might finally get CD-ROMs to run without crashing?
Eric Dobson
This is a difficult one. The computer doesn't seem to be working correctly. Castle may well be correct that CDFS is up to date, however the latest version is quite possibly the worst! If you can't get to the RISC OS Ltd website using this machine that is unlikely to be a CDFS fault. However I would suggest getting a friend with a PC to download the CDFS replacement and put it on a floppy for you. Installing that may fix the TextEase problem. As for the newgroups and internet problems what modem are you using, and is it set up correctly? As for expecting a new machine to be set up correctly and working, then yes it should be, but machines seldom are. If you think you have had a bad experience then you need to tell Castle. However just wait till you but a shiny new PC and discover the drivers aren't loaded! Then you you load them you find they are out of date, so you have to go the manufacturers website and get new versions, which then clash with something else on the machine.
I have forwarded your e-mail to Castle but have not had a response so far. Now a little website problem...
Your website looks magic but I cannot find a way to directly subscribe to RISC World?
Being a typical Scot I am looking for a bargain and would like to get the special offer.
A T (Sandy) Morton
Thanks for the comments about the website. You can subscribe to RISC World by clicking on the "Subscribe" button at the top of almost every page.
Hi Aaeron,
I have just got issue 6 of Risc World and after using it I find accessing, moving files or doing anything it asks to insert CDROM::Hard after checking at the command line and doing a cat it shows the wobble directory.
It may be after running that demo and escaping it has changed my filing system default from ADFS.
Will there be a Risc World cat for all of the discs??!!
Cheers Peter
Well I have spoken to Aaron (watch it - ED), there was a slightly awful bit of code in the !Run file for !Wobble that set the CSD (Current Selected Directory) to inside the Wobble application itself. The version on this CD is corrected. In future we will make sure things use proper directories (such as wobble$dir, sorry it was my fault - ED). This edition of RISC World includes a searchable index for the entire first seven issues.
Last issue we had a letter from Barry Punchard who had a problem running the RISC World CDs....
Dear Aaron,
Thanks for the changes made to the current issue of the RISCWORLD start up software. I write to confirm that these have got rid of the problem I reported above.
It now works fine.
Thanks, Barry
Just what we like a satisfied customer, and to quote a famous comedy show "We should have him stuffed". But which show was it?
And finally a nice little comment from Mike Wilson of the Wakefield Acorn User Group after a posting we placed on CSAA announce...
"If your Acorn User subscription is up for renewal then why not consider subscribing to RISC World. RISC World is the subscription only CD based magazine for RISC OS users.
Delivered bimonthly every issue is packed with reviews, features, hints and much much more. A years subscription is only 17.90 ukp in the UK and 19.90ukp for outside the UK."
And you do get RiscWorld as soon as it is published. I can't say the same as a subscriber since issue 1 of Acorn User :-(
Mike Wilson.
Gosh thats actually two satisfied customers, we could mount a display....
Well thats this letters page over with (thank heavens -ED) I will see you next issue which of course will be volume number 2. So if you have not re-subscribed like Dr Cartlidge now would be a good time to do it. And as a final little surprise here is a photo of Errol the cat after having had RISC World washed off his bum.
Now how often do you get an upside down cat in Acorn User.
Hugh Jampton