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================================================================= The $ R / O R E A D O N L Y -=( June 1987 Issue )=- The monthly news magazine of the DataCOM Super Systems(tm) ================================================================= News and reviews of programs, hardware, and peripherals for users of microcomputers with CP/M, MP/M, MS-DOS, PC-DOS, or TurboDOS multi-user operating systems. ================================================================= Steven L. Sanders - Editor (Sysop) ================================================================= The DataCOM Super Systems(tm) is a "state of the art" multi-user remote database with 150mb of files online. An annual fee of $40.00 is required for access, an application may be downloaded by calling (813) 796-5627 at 300/1200/2400 baud, or send a SASE along with your request to: DataCOM Super Systems(tm) 2643 Cedar View Court Clearwater, FL 33519 -==( DISCLAIMER )==- Articles and reviews of microcomputers, hardware, software, and other peripherals reflect currently advertised prices as released by the distributors and are included here for YOUR INFORMATION ONLY. The TBKUG/DataCOM Super Systems(tm) is NOT being paid to advertise these products and we cannot be held accountable for the actual retail price and/or performance of said products. -={ DISTRIBUTION NOTICE }=- The Read Only magazine may be freely distributed on other remote systems as long as all copyright notices and this title page remain intact. We eagerly solicit articles, news. tidbits, or any worthwhile text for inclusion in future issues (subject to editorial review, of course.) ================================================================= VENTURA Deserves a Good Look ---------------------------- This month's (printed) magazine owes its good looks to the Xerox VENTURA Desktop Publishing system. If you're in the market for one of the BEST desktop publisher packages, check out VENTURA, it's a definite winner! I was impressed right from the start with Ventura's easy installation on my hard disk. All you do is put the #1 disk in the A drive and enter VPPREP, it will prompt you after that which disk to insert according to your equipment requirements. VENTURA is distributed as an 11-disk set which includes support for Epson dot-matrix printers (and clones), Hewlett-Packard LaserJet, Xerox 4045 Laser, and Apple LaserWriter printers. Image digitizers such as the DEST and MicroTek scanners are also supported and you can import files from AutoCAD, Mentor Graphics CAD, Lotus 123, GEM Draw/Graph, PC Paintbrush, and GEM Paint. VENTURA runs on the IBM PC/XT, PC/AT, or compatibles. Any type of IBM monitor display may be used, monochrome, color graphic, or enhanced graphic and it's sensational on the new Wyse 700 or Amdek 1280 super hi-res 1280x780 monochrome display. Graphics, line art, and images can be placed anywhere in your page by first inserting a "frame" outline and then importing the data from disk. You can stretch or shrink your artwork to fit almost any shape and VENTURA will do most of the work without even asking. Text is automatically wrapped around graphic and picture frames and your text flows from one column to the next. VENTURA lets you design your own Style Sheets which determine the font sizes used in different types of paragraphs which you later referrence by a LABEL name. You can easily change any of the paragraph's special features "on the fly" and your changes will instantly appear on the screen. Let's say you have formatted your entire 20-page newsletter in 3-column style and then decide that you now wanted a 2-column style instead. No sweat, just pull down the PAGE menu and change from 3 columns to 2 columns, presto, the whole document is now re-formatted. VENTURA uses the WYSIWYG ("what you see is what you get") interface and is truly a publisher's dream come true. I found it best to create your entire document with an editor like Wordstar. Put each title or byline credit or beginning of a new paragraph on a seperate line, this makes for easy "tagging" later to add the special font and/or type styles. Imported text is automatically hyphenated and justified as it is read-in and Ventura accepts text from the following editors: Wordstar, Multimate, MS-Word, Writer, and Word Perfect. Ventura also has its own text editing capabilities for on-screen additions and changes to existing or new text. Ventura is ideal for multi-page publications which use the same page format throughout the entire document. Headers and footers can be used when desired and may include any text you want plus automatic page numbering. Even chapter numbering for those designing an entire book. Sample style sheets included show various page layouts for pamphlets, books, magazines, newsletters, invoices, letterheads, and others. I wasn't sure of the need for a multi-buttoned manually directed digitizer (aka "mouse") on my system, but after 5 minutes with VENTURA and its GEM operating environment I'm now convinced that it's the only way to go. Of course now I want every program I have to work with the mouse and have acquired the rest of Digital Research's GEM Desktop system. GEM is very similar to Microsoft's WINDOWS and is an icon-based (ala Apple Macintosh) system that really depends on a mouse for on-screen manuevering. I purchased a Microsoft Mouse which came with the PC Paintbrush program and have had great fun designing different pictures and graphs which are later imported into the finished pages. Needless to say, I'm having a ball with the new VENTURA package. Designing the page layout of the magazine has now become "fun" and I actually look forward to doing it. It does become incredibly hard to decide which format to use for the finished product when the choice is so numerous. You can spend hours trying all the different combinations of columns and type sizes with the end result being that each looks better than the last. The printed output quality of course depends entirely on your printer. When I first got Ventura all I had was a Citizen MSP-10 dot matrix printer but was amazed at the finished pages, they looked great. It did seem to take forever to print the pages but that's not unusual as it uses the uni-directional graphic mode of the Citizen. Most of my finished pages took around 4-1/2 minutes to print so now I have purchased an Okidata Laserline 6 page printer. The Okidata printer uses the Ricoh engine (6 pages per minute) and pumps out camera-ready pages (up to 300 dpi resolution) every 10 seconds! I have found the absolute best source (so far) for the Okidata Laserline 6 printer, only $1299 from PC Connection in Marlow, New Hampshire. They'll take a credit card order through 800-243-8088 or you can get additional info by calling 603-446-3383 direct. It comes with 128k of RAM and is expandable to 512k internally. Also be sure to buy the Hewlett-Packard Laserjet parallel Personality Module (another $159) for the ultimate in software compatibility. The next major expenditure will be a page scanner! I have seen the AST Turbo Scanner which was truly impressive until I noticed the $2100 price tag. I also saw a Princeton scanner for $700 that the salesman couldn't make work, I was not impressed. I want to next check out the Cannon IX-12 scanner, several vendors have it listed for around $750 with an optional OCR (optical character reader) unit for an additional $450 or so. There are two types of page scanners available, one type accepts only single sheets of paper up to 8-1/2x11 and the other type is an open-top design similar to photocopy machines and accepts books, magazines, and other non-flat media. VENTURA at $695.00 retail is a fantastic deal and I've already seen it for less ($585 to be exact) by several mail order outfits that advertise in the back of Info World. If you edit a newsletter, magazine, brochure, or almost anything that requires a professional typesetter, give VENTURA a serious look, you might just find that you can do all your own work inhouse. MULTI-USER COMPUTING AT BUDGET PRICES ------------------------------------- By: Gregg Platt Many of us who've been around the computer industry for a year or two and use micros as our computing mainstay have wished for ways to squeeze more productivity out of our PC's. Some of us have taken our search toward faster speeds; while others have sought the ability to run more than one program at a time. Still others have become "high memory junkies" piling program after program into our 640k PC's or our 64k CP/M systems in hopes that we might be able to add useful features to our favorite programs. For most this search is an expression of our frustration that our computers don't do things fast enough -- or that they aren't flexible enough to meet our changing needs. After all, how many of us ever really work on just one project at a time? The truth is we're OFTEN doing three things at once and we'd like our computers to be as dynamic and responsive as we are. In response to this quest the industry has produced a wide range of solutions from the tried and true high-memory utilities like SideKick, SmartKey and ProKey to the more ambitious endeavors like Handyman, Homebase, Back Grounder, DoubleDos and DesqView. Of course each of these products deserves an entire column to describe, but one of the most ambitious and impressive efforts in this arena comes to us from the folks who created CP/M - Digital Research, Inc. The product is called Concurrent PCDOS and each new release of it is more impressive than the last. The story behind "Concurrent" is a long one but suffice it to say that our old friend CP/M-80 grew up to become "CP/M-86" on the PC and compatibles and later evolved into Concurrent CP/M-86, then Concurrent PCDOS, and most recently Concurrent PCDOS-XM. By the time you read this article, the latest and greatest version of Concurrent will be version 5.1 and it should include many features not available in earlier releases. (Check with Digital Research for details.) Concurrent PCDOS merits special attention because it is the only DOS- compatible multi-user and multi-tasking operating system available for the IBM-PC and its cousins. At $395 the retail version of Concurrent is able to support up to three user terminals all sharing access to a single PC and with the addition of expanded memory boards Concurrent can run up to six 384k programs all executing concurrently in your computer. Imagine, if you can the possibility of having three secretaries sharing a single PC for word processing or database work or of having three cash registers in a retail store all tied to one PC for access to customer files, point-of-sale invoicing and real- time updates to inventory; and you'll begin to see the possibilities Concurrent offers. In addition to its "multi-user" capabilities, all versions of Concurrent including the "retail" version sold by DRI and several "reseller enhanced" versions support up to four tasks running concurrently from the main console. At least one enhanced version also supports two tasks running from each terminal. If you purchase one of the "XM" (eXpanded Memory) versions (5.0 or later), each program running in the system can use up to 384k of memory if you've added an "EEMS" memory board to your computer. One thing to keep in mind in considering Concurrent PCDOS is that you must select your software carefully. There are at least two major categories of DOS programs which either don't run under Concurrent or must run in a restricted manner. The most notable among these are such popular "high memory" programs as SideKick, Smartkey, or Homebase. However, since Concurrent supports true multi-tasking (several programs running at once from a single terminal), this isn't nearly as big a restriction as it might seem. After all, when you can run your word processor, your spreadsheet, your database AND your favorite application program all at once, why would you fret about being able to run SideKick?? My first reaction to this limitation was to object to it - but I soon realized that HomeBase was no great loss when I could replace it with WordStar, dbase, AND Lotus! [Ed Note: For you software novices, this family of software is commonly referred to as "Terminate and Stay Resident" (TSR) programs. They are excluded from support by Concurrent because they often violate the rules of good software etiquette playing strange games with the hardware and operating system which can cause serious trouble in a multi-tasking environment.] The second category of PCDOS programs which are somewhat restricted under Concurrent are those which attempt to "speed up" performance by going around DOS and writing direct to video memory. The most notable of these is Lotus-123. Since DOS is notoriously slow in writing data to the screen, many software authors take the approach of bypassing the operating system and writing direct to the video controller's on-board memory. While this is quite fast and works fine in a single-task environment, it creates terrible headaches in a multi-tasking world. If you can picture the confusion of having four programs all updating your screen simultaneously, you'll begin to see the problems "direct video writers" can cause. Fortunately, Concurrent offers a "suspend" feature to control such programs. Using this option you tell Concurrent to "freeze" your unmannerly programs when you leave them and start them again when you switch to their "window". This works fine for most users and allows anti-social programs like Lotus to run quite satisfactorily. Of course, there are other multi-user solutions for the PC environment (the Unix and Xenix operating systems and networks being three of the options); but the trouble is these solutions are often too expensive. A three-user Xenix system, for example, will set you back around $12,000 and Novell or one of the other networks costs about the same. On the other hand, I've put together multi-user Concurrent systems for less than $5,000. After pricing several systems for local clients, I've found that even "Cadillac" Concurrent systems complete with four or five users, industry specific software, large hard drives, multiple printers, tape backup units, expanded memory, and fast processors rarely cost over $10,000. Now, please understand Concurrent is NOT a panacea. Though its compatibility with PCDOS increased dramatically with version 5, there are still some programs which won't run or will only run in a limited fashion. On the other hand, if you're looking to put together a true multi-user computer system on a budget Concurrent PCDOS offers a VERY attractive alternative. Concurrent PCDOS-XM is AT LEAST as capable as Unix or Xenix. It is - in most respects - faster than PCDOS. It runs eight out of ten DOS programs without difficulty. It comes with its own menu manager, rolodex program and print queue manager and includes numerous other features like fifty definable function keys per task, and full support for CP/M-86 and PCDOS disk formats. My advice is to find a qualified dealer or consultant and pay them a few bucks to talk with you about your needs. As one who configured his first multi-user computer in 1976 (at a cost of $200,000) I must emphasize that buying a multi-user computer is a VASTLY more complex task than buying a single-user system. The optimum solution to a multi-user and multi-tasking computing need can vary greatly from one business to another. Smart buyers will hire a pro to evaluate their needs before making a final decision. If you can't find a consultant or dealer who isn't pushing 5- digit solutions (they make their money on equipment you know), consider posting your questions on DRI's Compuserve SIG (Type: "GO DRFORUM" from the CIS prompt). The folks who spend time on the Forum are an incredibly helpful lot and the DRI technical support team backs them up with answers to most questions. Another excellent source of information is the Concurrent User's Group (CONUG), P.O. Box 734, Marina, CA 93933 (voice: 408-384- 6797, modem 408- 384-5575). They publish an excellent bi- monthly newsletter for $25/year and offer free modem access to newsletter subscribers. Other alternatives worth considering are two books available from Prentice-Hall and McGraw-Hill respectively. Their titles are Concurrent PCDOS and Using Concurrent PCDOS. Though they are expensive ($20+ each) these books give a good introduction to the subject. If all else fails and you can't find Concurrent, drop me a check for an hour of my time ($75) and I'll be happy to call you at my expense to discuss your needs in detail. Sorry but I can't offer consulting for free. I gave THAT up in my New Year's resolutions... My address is P.O. Box 863263, Plano, TX 75086. Be sure to specify that your check is for "Consulting Time" and don't forget to include your phone number! Mr. Platt is a computer consultant based in Dallas. He as devoted over 19 years to the development and installation of computer systems for small to medium sized businesses using mainframes, minis, and micros and now specializes in micro-based multi-user systems and networks. NOTICE This review may be copied and distributed freely so long as no charge is made for such distribution. For questions concerning republication contact the author at P.O. Box 863263, Plano, TX 75086 or thru Compuserve mailbox # 74726,2013 WHATSNEW - IBM Shareware ------------------------ by: Steve Sanders PUTPASS1.ARC PUTPASS v 1.0 Copyright (C) 1987 by Danny Cornett and John Harrington. PUTPASS is a program that adds code to an executable file so that a password must be supplied before the executable will be executed. At the present time, only .COM files are handled. PLANIT.ARC "The Daily Plan-It" A Smart Date-Parsing Filter. Copyright (c) 1986 by David W. Burleigh. Plan-It is a tool for keeping track of important dates with the least possible effort. You create a file in which you store messages to yourself. Each message begins with a date code that tells Plan- It when to display the message. The power of Plan-It comes from the ways you can express dates. It's easy to build up a message file that keeps track of your important obligations and reminds you before it's too late. Simply use your favorite text editor to build and maintain your message file, and let Plan-It review it each day by including a command in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. GALXY210.ARC GALAXY Version 2.1 Distributed by OmniVerse Copyright (c) 1985, 1987 by Steve Schauer and Bob Foster. GALAXY is a fast, RAM-based word processor that offers a wealth of features designed to make the program powerful yet extremely easy to learn and use. GALAXY offers users a choice of using pull- down menus or quick keyboard commands for all of the major program functions. With GALAXY you're never stuck with a cumbersome menu system for commands you already know, and you're never stuck with a confusing command based system for commands you use less often. GALAXY requires an IBM PC or close compatible with 192K, one disk drive, a color/graphics or monochrome card and monitor, and a printer. LIST62A.ARC LIST Version 6.2a (c) Copyright Vernon D. Buerg 1987 You use LIST to display files on your monitor, line by line with the aid of scrolling, positioning and filtering commands. Using LIST is fairly straight forward. You type the command LIST at the DOS prompt, followed by the name of the file that you want to see. Once the file is displayed on your screen, you may use the cursor positioning keys to move around and see different parts of the file. Because files contain different kinds of data, there are several commands to tell LIST how to display the data. The process that LIST uses to make the file data readable is called filtering. The filters in LIST can: Replace non-text and control characters with blanks, expand TAB characters, display line drawing characters, change 8-bit Wordstar DOC files to readable 7-bit text, display the hexidecimal values for each character, and remove "junk", such as control codes and backspaces LIST was designed to display ASCII files. That is, files which contain text, and not binary or control codes. Text characters usually range from a value of 32 to 127. To view binary files (COM, EXE, etc), the alt-H (hex dump display) command is available. HOW-BIG.ARC HOW-BIG by Rip Toren 7 May 1987 This is really a very simple program. It will display the amount of disk space that is taken up by each sub-directory under the current directory. It will also display the percentage of slack space that has occured due to DOS cluster sizes. In addition, the cummulative amount of disk space for all sub-directory beneath this one is shown. You should be able to tell where all of your allocated space is going. SAF.ARC Select-A-Font adds nine type styles to your IBM Graphics Printer. You can choose from three type sizes, nine character widths, and two print densities for each type style. Select-A- Font also provides basic formatting control, such as: Centering, Indenting, Justification of text, Line skipping, Tabulation, and Underlining. With Select-A-Font, you can create attractively printed and formatted document covers and transparencies for presentations. P-OPT.ARC P - OPT v. 1.0 "Power Tools for Power Users" By Gizmo Mike (C) InfoSoft, 1987. P - OPT is a PROCOMM command file optimizer and a whole lot more! What it will do for you is read a PROCOMM command file and optimize it for speed at runtime. As procomm executes a command file, it reads ever single byte much as an interpeter would. While using the 4 letter abbreviations would speed up execution, it makes lengthy source code harder to read and modify. P-OPT will allow you to comment liberally in the original command file, then optimize it for speed. This leaves you with 2 "versions" one with comments and such for future modifications, and another streamlined for fast, Fast, FAST, FASTEST execution at runtime. BKCK.ARC BKCK.EXE Version 1.0 10 April 87. BKCK is a program to check the archive attribute bit for every file on a disk and report the names and the number of files that have the archive bit set; which means the file has not been backed up by a backup program. The report gives the total number of files on the disk, the number of directories (including the root directory), the number of files that need backing up, and the total number of bytes those files represent. BUFFIT.ARC BUFFIT a screen text capturing program by: D.T.Hamilton. How many times have you done a 'dir' and had the top few filenames scroll off the top of your screen and wished you could get them back? Or you are working in debug and you have just traced 10 more instructions and wished you could see what the registers were before you traced the 10 instructions? How about when you 'type' a long text file and want to re-read one of the first lines after they are gone? To solve these and other problems I have written a program called BUFFIT. BUFFIT becomes memory resident and can be invoked whenever a program is awaiting keyboard input by typing Alt-F9 (hold down the Alt key and push the F9 function key). BUFFIT will capture all text output through DOS but not text output directly to the video buffer or through Interupt 10H (a future version will have an option to capture INT 10H). Once BUFFIT has been invoked you may move through the captured text a single line at a time or a page at a time. You can also go directly to the top or bottom of the capture buffer. There are options to clear the capture buffer, print the capture buffer and toggle the capture state on or off. Help for the exact keys that perform these functions may be obtained by typing a ? when BUFFIT is invoked. To return to your application where you left off ESC will leave BUFFIT. PCLOCK.ARC Pop Clock is a memory resident program for the PC/XT/AT that allows the user to display (pop-up) the time in the upper right hand corner of the screen. The program also allows the user to set an alarm to beep at one of two tones for a given time. The program is self-checking to ensure that it is not installed more than once, but the method of checking for prior installation may be disrupted by the installation of other memory resident program(s) after Pop Clock has been installed. RECIPE.ARC Meal-Meister is a menu-driven database system specially created and tailored to manage your recipes. With Meal- Meister, you can store, update, and print your recipes in a variety of formats. You can search for recipes using any combination of Title, Category, or Ingredient criteria. And you can have Meal-Meister automatically up-scale and downscale recipes to get the number of servings you need! Meal-Meister not only replaces the dog-eared, disorganized collection of index cards found in most kitchens, it gives you an invaluable tool for meal selection and preparation! DD20.ARC DoubleDir (DD.EXE) Release 2.0 (4/87) Shows two directories side by side, sorted by name. Each directory can be paged (scrolled) separately. The dirs are printed side by side. Wildcards can be used, exactly like the DOS "dir" command. Various sort orders Alters file attributes, Copies files, Dumps files, Erases files, Moves files between directories without copying them, Renames files, supports 43-line mode when an EGA card is detected, DOS access without exiting, supports color. NSWPPC19.ARC NewSWEEP v1.09 (c) 1985,86,87 by Dave Rand Absolute best all-round file maintenance utility ever for DOS! It must be used to be fully appreciated as it has so many features rolled into one semi-small program. Access your directories in a circular fashion, point at a file and then do any one of several functions like COPY, REN, DEL, MassCOPY, MassDEL, MassREN, un- ARC, Print, View, create new directory, temporary exit to DOS and return via EXIT command. NSWP always alphabetizes all dirs before displaying the filenames and you can "J"ump to file by number or "F"ind a file by a partial filename scan NSWP was always the best utility for CP/M and it is even more powerful now that it has been ported over to DOS. MSTRKY17.ARC The Master Key Utilities Version 1.7b Copyright (c) 1987 by R. P. Gage, all rights reserved. The Master Key Utilities consist of the programs named Master Key, Fill Disk, Un Format, and Zero File. The Master Key Utilities require an IBM PC/XT/AT or true compatible computer running under MS-DOS version 2.0 or later with at least 128K of free memory, a monitor using a Monochrome or Color/Graphics display card, and, at a minimum, one floppy disk drive. Each of The Master Key Utilities can work with and use any MS-DOS disk your system has. This includes 160k, 180k, 320k, 360k, and 1.2MB floppy drives; hard disks drives; RAM disks; and physical or virtual disk drives accessed by a device driver. Currently, The Master Key Utilities have successfully run under the TopView, Microsoft Windows, and DESQview operating environments. In all cases, The Master Key Utility programs run in a separate window allowing simultaneous use with other programs. The Master Key Utilities are a collection of four programs designed, simply put, to open the doors into your MS-DOS disks. Master Key: a disk editor, a file editor, a file manipulator, and much more. Fill Disk: designed to write any message, up to 128 characters in length, on all of the free sectors on a disk. Un Format: another method of safeguarding hard disks. If used regularly, it protects hard disk users from accidental hard disk formats. Zero File: a utility that completely wipes out any trace of a file's data from a disk. Qmodem "SST" Version 3.0 Copyright (c) 1984, 85, 86, 87 The Forbin Project One of the "premier" modem communications program in the IBM world. Qmodem is not "Free", non-registered users are granted a limited license to use Qmodem to see if it is appropriate for their needs. Qmodem requires an IBM PC/XT/AT or close compatible with at least 256K, a Color Graphics or Monochrome card and monitor, and a serial port and modem. There is now an additional ARC file called QMSEXTNL.ARC which contains everything you need to add KERMIT, BATCH YMODEM, ZMODEM, and WXMODEM file transfer protocols to Qmodem SST. QMODEM's host mode is now written entirely in the Script Language. MOVIES.ARC THE MOVIE DATABASE (c) 1985 The Balkan Group Edition 1: 4/14/85 Welcome movie fans! This ARC contains a database of nearly 2000 movies, all of which are currently available on videotape. Did you ever wish you had a list of Debra Winger's movies or director John Carpenter's movies or could remember what movie Sally Field and Jeff Bridges made together or which movies based on Alistair MacLean stories are available on videotape or.... A search of The Movie Database can answer those questions and many more like them. The typical entry in this database consists of: Movie title, MPAA rating, date of release, major cast members, director, scriptwriter, and original story author, if not an original screenplay ================================================================= AS ALWAYS - ALL FILES ARE AVAILABLE ONLINE THE DATACOM SUPER SYSTEMS. ================================================================= Government Sponsored BBS Systems -------------------------------- For those of you who would like to know what Uncle Sam does with our tax dollars, here's a listing of a few government agency bulletin boards currently in operation. Most of these boards will allow first-time callers to access without preregistration, some will require registration with the Sysop, details on each are included. The Economic Bulletin Board --------------------------- Operating agency: U. S. Department of Commerce Contents: Current economic news from DoC Economic Affairs(EA) agencies including press releases, economic indicators, official DoC summaries of economic news, information on how to obtain data tapes, and summaries of reports and studies produced by EA agencies. Also included are press releases issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Audience: Open to the public without charge. No preregistration required. Operations: 24 hours a day, except when being serviced. Telephone: (202) 377-3870 or (202) 377-0433 Communications parameters: Full duplex, no parity, 8 bit words, 1 stop bit, or Full duplex, even parity, 7 bit words, 1 stop bit 300 or 1200 baud. After connect, enter 1 or 2 returns to start Contact: Ken Rogers, Office of Business Analysis, Telephone (202) 377-4450 State Data Center Bulletin Board -------------------------------- Operating agency: Bureau of the Census Contents: News about new Census Bureau programs, Census publications, reference material for State Data Center personnel. Audience: For use of the Census Bureau staff and all State Data Center Components, including affiliates. Preregistration required - call information contact below. Operations: 24 hours a day, except when being serviced. Communications parameters: Full duplex, no parity, 8 bit words, 1 stop bit, or Full duplex, even parity, 7 bit words, 1 stop bit 300 or 1200 baud. After connect, enter 1 or 2 returns to start Contact: John Rowe or Larry Carbaugh, Bureau of the Census, (301) 763-1580 Population Estimates Bulletin Board ----------------------------------- Operating agency: Bureau of the Census Contents: Information and news about population and demographic projections. Audience: For use by members of the Federal-State Cooperative for Population Estimates and members of the Federal-State Cooperative for Population Projections. No preregistration required. Operations: Usual hours of operation 5:00 PM to 6:30 AM Monday- Thursday, 24 hour operation from 5:00 PM Thursday to 6:30 AM Monday. Communications parameters: Full duplex, no parity, 8 bit words, 1 stop bit. 300 baud only. Telephone: (301) 763-5225, after connected, enter "RUN" to start. Contact: Fred Cavanaugh, Bureau of the Census, (301) 763-7722 CMIC Electronic Bulletin Board ------------------------------ Operating agency: Bureau of the Census Contents: Microcomputer news, software and hardware reviews, public domain software, training programs for Census and Commerce personnel. Audience: General microcomputer users; primarily internal Census Bureau personnel. No preregistration required. Operations: 24 hours a day, except when being serviced. Telephone: (301) 763-4576 Communications parameters: Full duplex, no parity, 8 bit words, 1 stop bit, or Full duplex, even parity, 7 bit words, 1 stop bit 300 or 1200 baud. After connect, enter 1 or 2 returns to start Contact: Nevins Frankel, Bureau of the Census, (301) 763-4494 Microcomputer Electronic Information Exchange (MEIE) ---------------------------------------------------- Operating agency: Department of Commerce Contents: Information on the acquisition, management, and use of small computers. Other files containing sources of information on topics such as: conferences, Federal publications and activities, user groups, other bulletin boards, etc. Audience: General microcomputer users. No preregistration required. Operations: 24 hours a day, except when being serviced. Telephone: (301) 948-5718 Communications parameters: Full duplex, no parity, 8 bit words, 1 stop bit, or Full duplex, even parity, 7 bit words, 1 stop bit 300 or 1200 baud. After connect, enter 1 or 2 returns to start. If you do not receive a carrier after two rings, you should hang up and call again. Contact: Ted Landberg, National Bureau of Standards, (301) 921- 3485 Climate Assessment Bulletin Board --------------------------------- Operating agency: National Weather Service Contents: Historical climate information - daily, weekly, and monthly, heating degree days, weekly climate bulletins Audience: Analysts using historical meteorological data. Operations: 24 hours a day. Preregistration required. Call information contact below. Communications parameters: Full duplex, no parity, 8 bit words, 1 stop bit. Contact: Vernon Patterson, Climate Analysis Center, (301) 763- 8071 East Coast Marine Users Bulletin Board -------------------------------------- Operating agency: National Weather Service Contents: Marine weather and nautical information for coastal waterways. Information includes data for bays and sounds, coastal waters, and offshore waters; tropical storm advisories; tidal information, and important weather, nautical, and fishing news. Data are primarily about the middle Atlantic region. Audience: Commercial fishermen and other users of coastal waters. The bulletin board is open to the public and free of charge. Users must preregister by calling information contact below. Information about similar bulletin boards for other regions may also be obtained by calling the information contact. Operations: 24 hours a day. Telephone: (301) 454-8700 Communications parameters: Full duplex, 8 bit words, 1 stop bit. 300 baud Contact: Ross Laporte, National Weather Service, (301) 899-3296 Wendin-DOS Update ----------------- (taken from June 1987 Computer Shopper) Wendin, Inc., previewed their new operating system, Wendin-DOS, at the West Coast Computer Faire in Moscone Center, San Francisco, held March 26, 1987. Steve Jones, co-developer of the product, stressed that this is not a formal product release, but a preview of "things to come." Wendin-DOS is the first product in a series of operating systems that will compete directly with MSDOS. Wendin-DOS is a self-bootable MSDOS workalike that is multiuser and multitasking. These capabilities are the two key features that Microsoft has promised to deliver in DOS 5 and DOS 6, still several years away. According to Jones, Wendin-DOS is a "first" in the multitasking operating system arena because it doesn't run under MSDOS. It is a self-bootable replacement for DOS unlike products such as Topview, which are actually DOS shells. Since almost all PC users are familiar with MSDOS, Wendin has designed their system to support all MSDOS commands. Consequently users do not need to learn a new set of commands to upgrade to Wendin-DOS. Wendin-DOS will run virtually all DOS applications, including major packages such as Wordstar, Lotus 1-2-3, and dBase III. Because the file structure of Wendin-DOS is fully compatible with MSDOS, it can be utilized on any IBM PC/XT/AT or compatible. It also runs on 80386 machines. Jones points out that Wendin-DOS fills a void left by Microsoft Corporation. "Wendin is providing features that Microsoft has only promised to deliver at some time in the future. Wendin-DOS leapfrogs both DOS 5 and DOS 6, and it will be available in just a few months," said Jones. Wendin has generated a great deal of interest from PC users who want a more sophisticated and powerful operating system than DOS 3.2. Advances in PC technology have created the need for new capabilities in operating systems that will handle the features of new and future machines. Interest is also high among clone manufacturers who currently package MSDOS with their system. They view Wendin-DOS as a less expensive, yet more powerful, MSDOS replacement. Wendin-DOS is based on the solid software architecture of the VAX/VMS operating system kernel. This open architecture facilitates both flexibility and expandibility. For instance, the current version of Wendin-DOS can easily support such options as multiuser shells. This expandibility also provides for long term future growth. When market needs change and additionalcapabilities are required, they can be incoporated without creating a top-heavy system such as Microsoft's. Wendin- DOS automatically configures itself to support additional terminals through the TERMINAL = command. Features such as swapping - which allows more applications to run than canfit into memory - are enabled with additional CONFIG.SYS statements like SWAPFILE =. Another such feature is compatibility with any version of MSDOS via the VERSION = statement. This allows all version dependant DOS software to run under Wendin-DOS. Wendin will be shipping Wendin-DOS to OEMs in June of this year. It will be available for retail sales in July. For more information contact: Wendin, Box 3888, Spokane, WA 99220-3888, 509-624-8088. The DataCOM Super Systems (813) 796-5627 modem 300, 1200, or 2400 baud, 24 hours. System Configuration -------------------- I am frequently asked to describe the equipment used on our multi-line BBS system. For those of you who are interested, here it is! The DataCOM Super Systems is a multi-user PC-AT computer system using the following hardware and software: INDTECH 5170 PC-AT clone, 8mhz 80286 CPU, 1024k RAM, 230-watt power supply, 12 slot mainframe - THE BEST! Advanced Digital PC Slave 16 slave processors, 512k RAM, NEC V20- 8mhz CPU, and 2 serial ports each. (These slave cards are like having a Turbo XT computer on a card.) Alloy/ADC NTNX v1.6 Novell Network Executive Software, full file and record locking for up to 31 users per network. Two Priam-Vertex V-185 (80mb) 28ms (FAST!) hard disk drives with a MFM Western Digital HD controller yielding 144mb formatted. Archive Scorpion 60mb internal streaming tape back-up (the only way to go when you have more than 30mb of hard disk!) Three U.S. Robotics Courier 300/1200/2400 baud modems. (The Courier modem is the #1 choice of BBS Sysops across the country and is one of the most reliable modems I've ever used.) PCBoard(tm) Premium BBS software, version 11.8/E 3-nodes (c) 1986, 1987 by Clarke Development Corp. (PCBoard is one of the most popular BBS systems in use today on IBM-based computers.) ======================= We'll be happy to integrate a PC/XT, PC/AT, multi-user PC-AT, or 80386 system for you, call us for quotes, we specialize in small business computer systems. (813) 791-1938 ======================== We're also now in the desktop publishing business and use Ventura Desktop Publisher and an Okidata Laserline 6 printer for some very professional looking "camera ready" copy. We'll do up your company's or user group's newsletter, business forms, menus, or anything that needs typesetting before copying. Our equipment is capable of 300 dpi resolution - we will also have image scanning capabilities very soon. Call us for a quote on your typesetting, we're very reasonable and we do quality work. Until next month ... ne semi-small program. Access your directories in a circular fashion, point at a file and