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|//////////////////////////////////////| |//////////////////////////////////////| |//ST-REPORT ONLINE MAGAZINE ISSUE 22//| |//----------------------------------//| |//PUBLISHER/EDITOR|February 17, 1988//| |// RON KOVACS | //| |//////////////////////////////////////| |//////////////////////////////////////| |______________________________________| | Syndicate Publications | | Post Office Box 74 | | Middlesex, New Jersey 08846 | |______________________________________| |BBS Information Updated Next Week | |______________________________________| |///////////[-Contents-]\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\| |______________________________________| |*|Atari User Group List | |*|Installing an 80 Track FD55F Drive | |*|Commentary <Whats Wrong With Atari> | |*|Garbage On The Line <Review> | |*|Midtown Television Reports <News> | |*|Syndicate Newswire <BBS & News> | |*|BBS Software Update <Non-Atari> | |*|Unix BBS System List | |_|____________________________________| _________________________________________ User Group Listing ________________________________________ Here is a listing of Atari User groups. This list will appear in parts in future editions. If you would like your user group added to the ZMag listing. Please send me email with the information detailed below. ATARI COMPUTER CLUB OF ANCHORAGE P. O. Box 104343 Anchorage, AK 99510 CONTACT:KEITH STEENSMA FAR NORTH ATARI CLUB 17A Eureka Fairbanks, AK 99701 CONTACT:Steve LaFevers BIRMINGHAM ATARI COMPUTER ENTHUSIASTS 204 SECOND PLACE PLEASANT GROVE, AL 35127 CONTACT:WILLIAM SWALLEY COMPUTER USERS OF THE SHOALS UNA - Box 5050 Florence, AL 35632 CONTACT:David R. Curott Huntsville Atari Users Group 3516 Purdy Dr. Huntsville, AL 35810 CONTACT:Lamarr Kelly MOBILE ATARI USER GROUP 124 Mackenzie Dr. Mobile, AL 36609 CONTACT:Bill Cleveland MONTGOMERY ATARI COMPUTER ENTHUSIASTS 1212 HILLMAN ST MONTGOMERY, AL 36109 CONTACT:TED MATHER WIREGRASS MICRO-COMPUTER SOCIETY* 109 Key Bend Road Enterprise, AL 36330 CONTACT:William H. Brown FT SMITH A.U.G. 3405 Ramsgate Way Ft. Smith, AR 72903 CONTACT:Ernest Serrano LITTLE ROCK ATARI ADDICTS 28 JOHN HANCOCK CIRCLE JACKSONVILLE, AR 72076 CONTACT:Keith Steensma M.Y.S.T.E.R.Y. Route #5, 1210 Bert St. Mena, AR 71953 CONTACT:Mark E. Barron OBU ATARI USERS' GROUP 320 N. 7th Street Arkadelphia, AR 71923 CONTACT:Dr. McCardy RUSSELLVILLE ATARI MICROCOMPUTERS (RAM) Rt. 3 Box 394 Russellville, AR 72801 CONTACT:Perry Kearney CLUB DE USARIOS MAIPU 289-1704 RAMOS BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA CONTACT:GUILLERMO CONTENTO QUEENSLAND ACE P.O. BOX 17 ACACIA RIDGE, QUEENSLAND AUSTRALIA 4001 CONTACT:ROBERT LEEFLANG GEELONG ATARI USER GROUP PO Box 673 Geelong, Victoria 3220 Australia CONTACT:Brian Oates WESTERN AUSTRALIAN ATARI COMPUTER CLUB 19 WANDARRIE AVE YOKINE 6060 WEST AUSTRALA Australia CONTACT:ALFRED GAEBLER MELBOURNE ATARI COMPUTER ENTHUSIASTS* Box 340 Rosanna, Victoria AUSTRALIA CONTACT:David Philpott ADELAIDE ATARI COMPUTER CLUB* P.O. Box 333 Norwood, S.A. AUSTRALIA CONTACT:PRESIDENT NORTH WEST PHOENIX ATARI CONNECTION P. O. Box 36364 Phoenix, AZ 85067 CONTACT:Jeff Wood NORTHERN ARIZONA COMPUTER CLUB Box 122 Fredonia, AZ 86022 CONTACT:Mark Mackelprang PAYSON ATARI COMPUTER ENTHUSIASTS P. O. Box 919 Payson, AZ 85541 CONTACT:Dick Watson TUCSON ATARI COMPUTER ORGANIZATION PO Box 36112 Tucson, AZ 85740-6112 CONTACT:Jeff Johnston BAHAMAS USER GROUP OF ATARI & IBM P.O. BOX F-1170 FREEPORT, G.B.I. BAHAMAS CONTACT: STEP 4470 S.W. Hall Blvd #325 Beverto 97005 CONTACT:Vern Vertrees ANTELOPE VALLEY ACE 44746 SARAH LANE LANCASTER, CA 935352834 CONTACT:Gene Wallace Atari Anonymous A Users Group P.O. Box 1433 Upland, Ca 91786 CONTACT:Jay McCarthy ________________________________________ Installing the 80 Track FD55F ________________________________________ by SYSOP - TEKTRON BBS 918-835-5198 If you are one of those type folks that have trouble with minor "techie" stuff, you may want to stop right here and seek help in this installation. The other alternative would be to just go purchase an IB 5-1/4" drive assembly that is ready to plug in and use. I for one will not and can not take the responsibility for your mistakes or the chance of your making a vegetable out of your computer. Inside your computer you have a YAMAHA chip that handles most of the disk I/O and not so surprising is the fact that it is a non-buffered chip. In short, if the wrong wire is connected to the drive in the right place you will no doubt be drawing thoughts from Murphy and his collection of wit. I.E. "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong" or the ever popular "The probability of anything happening is in inverse ratio to its desirability." So with this said, enter this project AT YOUR OWN RISK. It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious. First of all, before you begin this project you need to ask yourself a question. "Why do I need this drive anyway?" For me it was simple. I didn't like the idea of using up the more expensive 3-1/2" disks to back up my hard drive. Too, the idea of having a disk drive taking up space in the hard disk case than the blank that was covering the hole seemed to make more sense too. After reading up on all the options of using a 5-1/4" drive on my ST it appeared to me that the only sensible way to go about this task and save a few $$$ was to acquire the necessary parts and perform the task myself. There are many articles and doc files available in a wide range of "I have been told this" and "according to this doc you can do that". If you want to avoid many hours of frustration and want a dependable drive without the need of a stepper program to "force" things to work do the following: 1> Order yourself an "IB" cable and save a ton of time cutting a standard ST drive cable in half and soldering a 34 pin edge connector to one end. This is a ready made cable so all you have to do is plug it into your external drive (520ST) or your computer (1040ST). I got mine from: BEST ELECTRONICS (for $20+Shipping) 2021 The Alameda, Suite 290 San Jose, Ca. 95126 or call them at A.C. 408-243-6950 2> Order a TEAC model FD55F 5-1/4" DS/QD drive. Do not let anyone sell you a FD55A (40 Track Single Sided) or a FD55B (40 track) or a FD55G (96 track) it will not be compatible with the scheme of things. There are several sources for these drives and many can be found in Computer Shopper. I purchased mine from Mendelson Electronics Inc. for $95.50 with shipping & handling charges complete. 3> Locate a suitable case and power supply. I didn't need either one of these since I could use the existing power supply and case that housed my half height hard drive. With a little ingenuity you could build your own case or you can consult Computer Shopper. Several companies can furnish cases and power supplies. If you are installing this FD55F in your hard drive case as I have done be sure you have enough power available to handle all the hardware. Different hard drives & controllers require different amounts of power. It would be a good idea to find out if your power supply can support the addition of the FD55F. Once again, if you are not sure if your power supply can support this addition seek help from an expert. Once you have located everything and are ready to install you need to make some IMPORTANT "strap" changes to the FD55F. Keep in mind that the FD55F was more than likely intended for installation in an IBM PC type computer. Therefore it has a "terminating resistor pack". This is an IC type package located at the rear of the drive positioned next to the 34 pin edge connector. You will need to remove this pack for use on your ST. You will also need to pull up one end of R13 or clip it out entirely. R13 is positioned next to the resistor pack socket. The only thing left to do is restrap the drive. You will need a total of four straps on the bottom of the drive: 1>.....Leave the one at PM 2>.....D1 (drive select) 3>.....HL (head load) 4>.....SM (stepper motor) Also it wouldn't hurt to make sure that the IB cable is wired as indicated below. You should get a pinout of the way the cable was assembled but I would check it just to make sure. 10 minutes of checking the cable can save you a ton of time and the expense of getting your computer repaired. For the 14 pin ST drive cable pin outs you can use your ST Users Manual that came with your computer. The EXACT pin for pin "NO SMOKE" connection that made my system work was: ST 14pin END 34pin Edge connector -------------- -------------------- 1..READ DATA.........30 2..SIDE SELECT.......32 3..GROUND............27 4..INDEX..............8 5..DRIVE SELECT 2....12 6..DRIVE SELECT 4....10 7..GROUND............19 8..MOTOR ON..........16 9..DIRECTION SELECT..18 10..STEP..............20 11..WRITE DATA........22 12..WRITE GATE........24 13..TRACK 00..........26 14..WRITE PROTECT.....28 I hope this clears up any grey areas that you may have had about adding this drive to your ST. I know I can really appreciate using the cheaper 5-1/4" floppies to back up my hard drive. And it can come in handy as a second drive in many cases. ________________________________________ Commentary ________________________________________ What's Wrong With Atari? by Robert E. Handley., President Central Illinois Atari Users Group As I start my Feburary President's report, I find myself looking back as well as forward. I find it hard to believe that time has gone by so quickly, that we are now in the second month of our second year. I ask myself this question: "Does Atari have a future?" And why do I ask this question? Well, let's look at some of the problems as I see them. Atari makes some great announcements of some fantastic new products, but where are they? Take for instance the publishing system they announced. Originally, this was going to be packaged with a four meg ST, and laser printer for $3000. Now it comes to market a year and a half later and the Mega ST selling for almost $3000 without the laser printer. And what about the laser printer? It comes out now at a price of $2000 without its own memory, without any fonts, and without PostScript - an industry standard. Since Atari had made this momentous decision of making a laser printer which can only be used with an Atari, other laser printers have become a much better buy. Take for instance the new AST Turbo Laser/PS which has 3 megabytes of memory, 11 PostScript fonts, and a Ricoh engine (a life of more than 3 times the Atari's). This printer retails for $3995 and can be found for under $3000. But look at the advantages. For serious desktop publishers, PostScript is a must: it's only effectively a $1000 more, can be used with any other computer, and would have a good re-sale value. Atari keeps pushing its "Power Without the Price." but I also find things missing. Take for instance the unfinished GEM -- How long does it take to finish it? I personally get a little tired of reformatting my hard drive twice a month because of corrupted directories due to their 40 folder limit and a hacker's program to overcome it which in turn foul up other programs. I would rather pay more for a system that works. I don't know who makes Atari's design decisions, but he must sit in a large room with all kinds of space to walk around the system. He must never, ever think of a logical configuration of this system he is designing for home or office. Let's start with a few little minor things. Take for instance the hard drive. It comes with a 14 inch cable to connect to the computer. If you try to put the hard drive behind the keyboard on the same level as the keyboard, the cable will not reach the computer, which means the drive must be to the left of the computer (in the way of the cartridge slot). By the way, Atari designers must have at least six or seven foot long arms, because they delight in putting the on-off switch and reset buttons in the back's of their products where you cannot reach them on a crowded desk. This problem is even worse on the Mega ST, where the CPU is separate from the keyboard. I now know why there are so many bugs: Atari designers must never have to use the reset button. Another mind boggling decision by Atari. I thought they really were starting to get on the track of things when they put the 520ST in a 1040ST case. They could save money on packaging (same shipping carton for both 520 and 1040), same shell for both computers, and I believe the same motherboard (with some modifications). Ahh, but here comes the glitch - they put in a single sided drive to keep the cost down. When I asked Neil Harris about this, he said Atari was directing the 520 to a different type of market. This customer, he says, is looking for something cheap and does not know what he wants. The way I read this, we have two types of people who buy Atari computers - Stupid and Educated. When the person I call "stupid" finds out more about about the system he just purchased, he will want to upgrade his memory and his drive. He now knows that it is going to cost him for the memory and he can't upgrade the drive (easily). He has two choices. He can spend more money than it would have cost to buy a 1040 to begin with or try and sell his 520 to another stupid person at a probable loss so he can now go and buy the computer he should have bought in the first place. He is now "Educated" and he is also very upset at how much more it cost him to become educated. This is not Power Without the Price, this is Stupid Bull**** and it doesn't win Atari any friends. I have talked to many people who have gone through this scenario. Most did not upgrade, they spent many more dollars and purchased another brand of computer. Is this the marketing plan of Atari? And talking about shooting one's foot, the winter issue of Atari Explorer was a peach. I have never seen so many Atarians feeling so low. There must not be any piracy in any of the other computing fields, because they were not mentioned in the article. If a program does not sell well, then it must be because of piracy. It could never be because there are no Atari stores or dealers to buy it from or that there's ten more programs just like it (or similar to) because the programmer decided when he got up that morning, that what the Atari world needed was another word processor that was even more limited than the previous ones. And it couldn't be because the program was just plain crap to begin with - it must be piracy. Well, I take offense, and so do a lot of other Atarians. I hear all the time about the pirates, who have hundreds of programs in his or her collection, and the thousands of dollars he is costing the software industry. It may not be right but I don't believe you should count money you would have never made in the first place. This type of collector or pirate never uses the software, they only collect it. If they were unable to get copies they still would not buy it, they are not users for the most part. They don't even know that over eighty- percent of the software they have in their collection is full of buggs, or just crap, the disk has more value blank. Where do you find Atari dealer's these days? I know of only one in St. Louis, only one in Milwaukee, and only one for all of Central Illinois. Atari has tried to set up "service centers", but the only requirement is a photograph of your store-front and money for the parts. I don't believe they ask if you know anything about electronics. They assume you have someone who does. What does this get us? Long delays, higher costs of repair--I can't help but wonder how many machines have been fried by inexperienced technicians. And how do we know if they are experienced? You just can't walk in and say "Hi". It's usually 50 to 200 miles to find one, which means you have to mail it off and be without for a long period of time. This must be the "great support". Atari says user groups are there for support, but where do we go for support? Last year I called for support. I asked for demos and any promotional items (for encouragement of new members) and offered them a full page ad in exchange. Well guys, they got the ad, and we got the shaft (even after repeated phones calls of which I was told "It is in the mail") well, it's been over a year now and and still nothing. For support, they accuse us of being pirates. It is no wonder that all of the user groups around the country are losing members, and they are, because most can no longer afford to exchange newsletters due to declining memberships. I have proposed to Darlah (the GEnie SYSOP), a newsletter article database from which user groups could download articles from each other's newsletters instead of retyping them and saving them the cost of the exchange and at the same time keep all of the groups up to date. Has Atari ever once sent a survey to the user groups asking what they like or don't like about equipment design? I think I speak for many when I say that we are just fed up with the long delays in getting products to market. I, myself, have proposed a new Federal Trade Commission rule that a manufacturer must ship a product sixty days from the date of announcement or he must withdraw all advertising and refund money. There is much more I would like to say and probably would if I too wasn't so fed up myself. I have talked to software manufacturers which are in a state of confusion as to whether to continue to support the ST's or a different computer. Atari seems to be selling well everywhere but the U.S. We are the last to get anything new, which is a real kick in the behind to those of us who have spent many years supporting Atari. If something doesn't change in the next six months, this time next year I'll probably have a Mac II and have started a new users group. I kind of hope this won't be true and that Atari will open their eyes. Hire some people with vision, with a personality, some understanding, and get out of the valley and into the mainstream of the country and build a good dealer network so that products can be found, floor plan if necessary. Also set up an in-house service and warranty station. A good slogan for this would be, "We Also Service What We Sell". There are a lot of open wounds which need to be healed, if Atari is to succeed. I hope a company that has come so far in so short a time, can get their act together and go forward. [Neil, give a copy of this to Jack with my blessings.] and ask him this question "Are we the reason for your business, or an interruption of it" I wonder? [ed. Comments made in this article are not those of Syndicate Publishing or the editor] ________________________________________ Garbage on the Line ________________________________________ by Linda Woodworth -- MEGA-Matic -- by Lloyd E. Pulley, Sr. I have discovered another very fine piece of Share Ware from T.I.F. Software or _Try _It _First... Marvelous!! There are many nice features to M-M that has made my system disk a nice place to be. It seems whatever RAM disk I had set to load, I wanted the other one... Configurable RAM disk on boot up, is just one of the goodies Mr. Pulley has for you. Now, on to the good stuff... The documention is nice and a joy to read... Introduction (or "where did I come up with this idea") Since the all-in-one programs usually have several things you don't use, he wrote this with the things he wanted and put them in one program. MEGA-Matic goes in your auto-folder, with everything configured the first time, from then, you are all set. But is easily changed. How to install Mega-Matic (or "if you don't follow instructions, don't blame me") It was _very easy to set up with the features you wanted or didn't want... and exactly how you want them. Mega-Matic's Basic Features (or "I thought that this part would never get here") <<yeah, I like the dox>> Anyway, he has for you, 1) a resetable RAM disk configurable to one of twelve sizes. A two pass RAM set up allows the default that you have set to fly, or a quick key press and you have a different size RAM temporarily. Next, is a print spooler that can be set anywhere from 16K to 144K. Third, is a disk verify On/Off, moving on to a feature that will display on power up, what drives are connected to your system. My favorite characteristic of M-M, except for the RAM disk, is the Screen Saver. Of course, set to the time you want, before it shuts down... and prevents burn-in. I liked this on my 8 bit Atari <I called it the Attack Mode> and one I truly like here. Working between my three STs, one will usually go unattended for a spell. I feel better having this all set up. The only problem is, I came back to finish this article, and the screen was black...argh! I paniced, I thought the monitor had died. phew... The next two, display the total memory of the system with how much free memory is available, and Mega-Matic does a two pass memory check every time you boot up. This would of been handy when my ST was flaking out due to a cold solder joint. That one important file I lost... it would of been saved if I'd of known I didn't have my full meg. I would of never begun the work... Auto Desk, lets you choose low, medium, or high resolution upon bootup, This feature does a two pass also. So it will default to what you have set up, or a key press will switch resolutions. And finally, I don't own the Mega ST. BUT just playing with one in the store, made me realize the switch's are in the worst place imaginable!! Cold/Warm Reset lets you, with a couple key press conbinations, warm start or cold start your ST. Final Comments (or "it looks like we're almost done!") Mad Modifier, <Pulley> has tested this for some time, <on the 520, 1040, the Mega ST2 and the Mega ST4> but he would like your comments, or any problems you may encounter with Mega-Matic. Remember, this is Share Ware. Give it to your friends, U/L to your favorite BBS, give out at your User Group meetings, but if you like it and use it, send a donation... As Mr. Pulley states, "None too small, none too large." You will be upgraded with future versions, as the future's will not be Share Ware. Utilities have always been my favorite... and this one joins the ranks of something _very useful. Thank you... for Vega-Matic!! -=-LLLL-=- ________________________________________ Midtown Televison Report ________________________________________ More news than we can handle! by Mr. Goodprobe Well, lets dive right in, as there is much to report, and only a limited space that I can fill! Remember Cray, the super-computer company? ny? Well, IBM has announced that three days before Christmas they have come up with an alliance with Steve Chen, the "nothing-less" than superstar designer formerly with Cray. IBM will provide the needed funds for Chen's fledgling company called Supercomputer Systems Inc. Ought to be interesting to see what this will bring to the forefront of the computing world! Chen was working on a 64 processor MP machine before it was cancelled last summer, and this computer was reported to cost in the neighborhood of 100 million dollars. (I guess I'll never complain about ST prices again,eh?) I read that Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry expects that the production of one-meg ram chips will increase by 46% the first quarter of 1988, and in the second quarter it will increase another 41%, bringing forth a total of 43.5 million 1 meg rams. What is surprising to me is that MITI says the demand will increase proportionally with production of the chips which are being presently being sold at $16 each. By the way, Inmos, the maker of the Transputer chip, is reported getting ready to put up the for sale sign. The parent company, Thorn-EMI, would rather have a partner, but would look over the offers from an outright purchaser. The production plant has been closed in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and all the production of transputer and ram chips has been moved to their Newport, Wales production facility. We ought to be seeing soon some real progress in computer processing of color images as a chip-set now being used in a color frame-grabber are the first to allow real-time RGB color processing. Normally color image processing involves process called convolutions and histograms to determine the predominant color and the edges of objects. This process took up to 5 minutes in many computers, but can now be done, in 1/30th of second! The current manufacturers of these micro wonders is Data Translation Inc of Marlboro, Mass. and these babies run at a blazing 15 Mhz!!! Christmas presents are fun for all, and the semiconductor industry got a great big one from President Reagan. The bill he signed sent $100 million to Sematech, a consortium that hopes to further U.S. chip making technology, $15 million for research in X-ray lithography, $10 million on compound semiconductor research at the University of Florida, $100 million for the Pentagon and their VHSIC research (Very High Speed Integrated Circuit), and another 46.1 million went to the Defense Dept. for their MIMIC IC research which is developing Microwave and millimeter wave circuits. Hmmm...wonder if we could interest Mr. Reagan in donating a few million toward laptop St research!!! Brother Int. has raised prices on 4 models (HR-40, HR-20, M-1709, M-1724L) 12.5 per cent due to the appreciation of the Yen. Panasonic had already raised its prices in Novemeber on its KXP-1524, 1592, 1595, 3131, and 3151 printers, although the highest increase by Panasonic was only 7.2 per cent on the KXP-3131. Okidata also raised several prices on the order of 7 per cent in November. A company I have never heard of called KAO will probably be bringing us good news. They have opened the worlds largest 3 1/2 inch disk plant. It is fully automated and is located in Arnprior, Ottawa, Canada. Annually they expect to produce 40 million small sized wonders at this facility. Ah-so, Microprose is on its way to Japan. They have joined efforts with Systemsoft, and will be modifying 2 of their products (Flight Simulator) for sale in the Japanese market. The program, as well as the documentation and packaging will have to be redone....hmmm...wonder how you say "Flaps down" in Japanese? Does a $7,000 68020-based printer sound interesting to you? If so, you may be interested in Apple's new line of printers and laser printers. The low-end unit is called the Laserwriter II Sc and has 1 meg of RAM, has no Postscript, and will sell for $2,799. Did I say "low-end"? One last little interesting item, they have now documented that because of severe internal overhead, OS/2, I.B.M's new golden operating system, loses data at 9,600 baud. According to Microsoft it is an underlying hardware problem, so there is nothing they can do about it. Sort of makes you appreciate GEM doesn't it? Keep those Atari's hummin! Mr. Goodprobe (on lend from) Midtown TV 27 Midway Plaza Tallmadge, Ohio 44278 (216) 633-0997 Atari 8/16 Repair/Sales BBS (216)784-0574 300/1200 24 hours Midwest Zmag Headquarters Online program support for: Atari 8 bit/ST/Amiga Computers ________________________________________ Syndicate Newswire ________________________________________ by Ron Kovacs The following messages were captured from the JACG BBS Message #31 UDLR Posted February 5th, 1988 at 2:26 AM From:Paul Machiaverna Hard Drives for the Atari ST The Japanese Yen has risen and so has the price of the Atari Hard Drive, the SHD-204. The '204' will now cost you $600! But, their are lower cost alternatives which work just as well, and better. Third party vendors are releasing hard drives for the ST by the handful. Berkeley seems to offer the best deal going. They will send you a fully assembled 62 MegaByte Hard Drive with a 40 msec seek rate for only $800! This is a faster drive than the Atari 204 and has over three times the storage for only $200 more. For $600, you can get a 40 MegaByte Hard Drive which is the same speed as the 204. Other packages are available. Call 1-(415)-465-6956 for all the information you may need. Ask to speak to Vance or Chris. They are some of the most helpful people you will ever speak to in any company. Message #42 UDR Posted February 6th, 1988 at 1:12 PM From:Tom Shoosmith Know DDD from ADD! The CD market has also created a collectible craze. Import vs. Domestice release, Label vs label (McCartney Capital & CBS), mislabeled CD's (Elton John's labeled Bennie and the Jets being Candle in the Wind), etc. When a CD is released in the US, it's Import version is no longer sold here (in theory anyway). Recently Paul McCartney switched labels making some CD's extinct or close to it. When buying a CD, know the difference between DDD and ADD, avoiding what you may think was recorded on Digital equipment. Digital Audio is a very good magazine for the serious CD'er. Recently I picked up Harry Chapin's Greatest Stories Live. It was released earlier this week and for a live recording the quality transfer from the original is super! Now for some news updates! Newsletters ----------- Have you seen the latest Michigan Atari Magazine?? I commented a few months ago about the change, but I have grown used to seeing it in it's new style. Primarily a user group newsletter, it borders on the line of being a non-user-group newsletter because of the quantity and size of the articles. In the February 1988 issue there are 16 articles, while user group news and or reports number 9. There are even a fair number of advertisers listed like; Migraph, SUpra, Mars, United Computer and more. I highly recommend this publication, you should find it interesting and worth your time. If you are interested in more information on MAM, call (313) 973-8825 Computer Shopper ---------------- The February issue was packed with ST material. 11 articles!!! Starting to out do MAC and Apple!! Columns: Hacking The ST, Atari ST News/Comment, MSDOS for ST, WordPerfect for ST, ST Outlook, and more. Check out all this at your newstand now! AtariFest Update ---------------- Mesg:0003 To:MIKE MILLER 02/11/88 From:MARTY CONROY Subj:Huh?... <REPLY> Atari Fest Update: It would be the Boozer to get the first message on this (New) message base. The most recent news we have is that the first site looked at by the committe was the Rosemont Convention Center, on River Road. Close to: C.T.A., Kennedy Expressway, Tollways, and not least O'Hare Airport. If we choose this site, the proposed fest dates will be: 26,27 & 28 Aug 88. That's right folks a three day fair. If we sell thirty booths, the fest is paid for, not counting the ticket sales at the gate....so....we expect this event to loom large as an Atari Fest should. CLAUG is putting up $300.00 as a firm committment towards the event and other groups LCASE, ALIEN, SCAT and others will put up a fair share to set the thing in motion, ie... bank accounts, post office expenses and 24 hour hot line for voice information and updates; also printing costs, because as soon as we set the date and location, we'll be sending advance tickets to every user group in the Atari kingdom. Atari, Sunnyvale, will also put up some seed monies as an investment to insure the success of the event. Any one with any experience in this type of event would be of invaluable service to the user group committee members working on the fest. If you can offer an assist, leave E-Mail and/or a reply to this message base. ________________________________________ BBS Software Update ________________________________________ Postmaster (tm) PM_INFO.DOC Copyright (c) 1987 Richard B. Levin All Rights Reserved Published by BBSoft, P.O. Box 14546, Phila., PA, 19115, 215-677-9782 215-969-8379 Based on version 1.00.86.2 compiled December 7, 1987 General description: Postmaster (tm) is a full featured, maintainence free, multi-SIG electronic mail and (soon) file transfer system. Postmaster was designed to provide superior message editing, retrieval, and network capabilities, and to automate all of the time consuming BBS maintainence functions, thus allowing a SysOp to enjoy a board as much as the callers. Postmaster provides true multi-SIG directory support. SIGs may be structured exactly like DOS directories. Each SIG's message base and data libraries are 100% exclusive of all other SIGs, and every SIG may optionally have it's own SIGop(s). There are no limits, other than those imposed by individual system hardware and DOS, to the number of SIGs, SIGops, and/or SysOps that a Postmaster BBS may have. Postmaster is a developing BBS. Currently under development are the data library functions and P-Net, Postmaster's multi-SIG national e-mail network. SysOps, SIGops, and end users of Postmaster boards are welcome ****POSSIBLE DATA LOSS 00 55**** , Picospan bbs fees: $8/month, $3/hour direct, Telenet $20/$4 hour (peak/off peak) 214-824-7881 killer Dallas TX 3/12/24 24 3b2/400 - UNIX, no fee, various time limits, 4 lines 860 meg online 312-566-8909 ddsw1 Mundelein IL 3/12 24 286 - Mport guest usr 1 hr daily, fee extends use, ERACS/UX bbs 2400 bps for contributors($) on 312-566-8911/12 Authors of ERACS/UX bbs 312-272-5912 igloo ?? IL 12 unknown PC7300 - UNIX limits unstated PicoSpan conference system 201-752-2820 unirot ?? NJ 12 unknown Heurikon - Unisoft SYS V, fee status unknown AKA Soup Kitchen 714-635-2863 dhw68k Anaheim CA 3/12/24 24 Unistride 2.1, fee status unknown, avoid 0200-0700 hrs local time 212-879-9031 dasys1 NYC NY 12 unknown Unistride - SYS V, multiple lines, fee $5/mo AKA Big Electric Cat 714-842-5851 conexch Santa Anna CA 3/12/24 24 XENIX 714-842-6348 (bbs) - 3/12 various limits fee $25/quarter XBBS 714-828-0288 alphacm Southern CA 12/24 24 286 - SCO-XENIX no fee, 60 minute per login, 4 lines, XBBS 301-540-3656-9 netsys Germantown MD 12 unknown ALTOS 986(2) - Xenix, networked 240 meg, fee $5/mo 619-444-7006 pnet01 El Cajon CA 3/12/24 24 BSD Unix, 3 lines, contributions requested, login: pnet id: new some USENET, net email, multi-thread conferencing. Home of P-Net software, mail to crash!bblue or pnet01!bblue for info. 213-376-5714 pnet02 Redondo Bch CA 3/12/24 24 XENIX (also 213-374-7404) no fee, 90 min limit, login: pnet id: new some USENET, net-work e-mail, multi-threaded conferencing ________________________________________ ST-Report #22 February 17, 1988 (c)1988 SPC/Ron Kovacs ________________________________________ Press Any Key To Continue...