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MegaDisc 29 (1992-07)(MegaDisc Digital Publishing)(AU)(Disk 1 of 2)[WB].zip
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Editorial
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1992-08-05
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251 lines
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The World of Commodore
I've run off at the keyboard in other places this issue, such as
MegaBites, about the Show, and two valued contributors have sent in reports
as well, so I won't bore you with more here. Suffice it to say, it was a
worthy event for all involved. We had a Giveaway at the Show and the names
that emerged out of the hat were:
Denis Norman of Davidson NSW won the entire series
Mrs M Chappell won 2nd prize of 30 pd disks
Mr E K Cox of North Rocks won 3rd prize of 15 pd disks.
Incidentally, speaking of winners - Graeme Whittle was first prizewinner
at WoC for his graphics, and Leigh Murray also won a prize for one of her
art pieces. Graeme creates the art which is on the cover of each Megadisc,
for which many thanks; and Leigh has been helping out extensively with
icons for Megadisc and Public Domain disks. Her efforts will be appearing
soon, such as AmigaStarter disks with material from past Megadiscs along
with her own. Watch this space.
Re-subscription PD winner
Speaking of winners, the winner of the 40 PD disks for re-subscribing to
Megadisc since the release of Megadisc 28 is Nancy Havelka of Dubbo.
Congratulations to her and to the other 3 winners above. The offer of 40
PD disks for re-subscribing is on again, so send in those re-subscriptions.
New Disks Supplier
There has been a change of disks this issue, for the simple reason that my
supplier of KAO disks (which are fine disks) arbitrarily and without notice
whacked the price up by about 12%, citing, with copious display of
crocodile tears, the lamentable world-wide shortage of diskettes which has
just suddenly been conjured up by some of the larger suppliers. A single
phone call got me a fair deal in Memorex disks, so Kao have lost a customer
to the tune of about 40,000 disks a year, which is substantial. I believe
they think they have businesses like mine over a barrel, which leads me
to...
Computer Spot
Tom Quealy seems to have walked away from his job of procurer for Computer
Spot, to be taken over by a fellow called Gavin Williamson. It is now
Computer Spot policy not to sell Megadiscs, and they mumble things about
competition, but the upshot is that their thinking is to contract, not
expand, and apparently try to throw their weight around. Now I've known
quite a few of Computer Spot's managers and assistants and they've usually
been very supportive of Megadisc and what it stands for - but those who
attempt to make policy for the chain of stores are showing signs of bad
judgement, even panic, in my opinion. It all seems quite unhealthy to me,
especially during a recession.
Whatever the case, you can't buy Megadisc there any more - but you can
from Megadisc direct. I'll leave it up to you, intelligent Amiga users and
consumers, to respond in any appropriate way to such a move.
New Prices
There are new lower prices for back issues of Megadisc - from now on, back
issues of Megadisc will be $10 (not $9.95, I'm sure you'll be relieved to
know!). To find out what's on the back issues, check out our
Catalogue-disk, which has an exhaustive list. It's amazing how little the
older issues become obsolete.
Shareware Contributions
Ross Davis made a good offer about collecting together shareware payments
for sending overseas together. I'll quote from his letter:
UK£
\
DM \ ___U$
\ ___ /\ ___/
\ / \ / \ / SHARE
/¯¯ ¯¯\/ \ / WARE!
/¯ \
/ \
\ / --NZ$
\ /¯¯¯¯\/\ /
¯¯¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯¯
\¯¯/
¯¯
Dear Ed:
Regarding overseas shareware payments, I may be able to help
in getting overseas drafts organised provided there is enough
support for the idea & that it is done in an orderly manner. By
that I mean there may be time limits or some other restriction
when a particular programmer is to be paid. It could turn out to
be a logistical nightmare but it deserves a chance. if it means
more shareware payments will be made.
Ross Davis
North Ryde NSW
If you're interested in this idea, contact us and tell us how much and for
whom you'd be willing to send money for shareware. If the scheme works,
we'll get in touch with you and let you know where and how to send your
donation.
Recycling
This business is pretty good when it comes to re-using materials,
especially disks, which can last for a long time. At Megadisc, we have a
policy of also recycling PostPaks since they're plastic and pretty robust,
and cost good money (60c each retail in some cases). So don't be dismayed
if you get your order in a used PostPak, and please feel free to send yours
in likewise. Any other ideas which can be passed on to our users are also
welcome - let us know.
Personal/Classified Ads
Check out the classified advertising in the FEEDBACK drawer this issue,
not too big at present but let's keep it going and let it build up. It can
be for anything of interest to readers - you can advertise software and
hardware for sale, advertise yourself if you're looking for some kind of
work, anything you want to swap or barter, etc. Turnaround time isn't
real speedy, but I'm sure there will be a lot of Amiga-specific
people reading it. So send in your ad, or plea, or offer, or whatever,
preferably on disk, and we'll copy any PD disk you request onto yours and
send it back to you.
Answering Service
Megadisc's telephone answering service has made a couple of changes, so
that now there's 24-hour human answering when you ring Megadisc - but
they know only a limited amount about Megadisc and are just there to
take messages, so don't expect to get any detailed info from them. I'd
like to know if you have any difficulties in any way getting through,
or using the service in any way. And if I (Tim Strachan) am not in,
please leave a message, and I'll be sure to get back to you.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< 29 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
FACT SECTION
Megadisc was produced on an Amiga A3000 with a Seagate Hard disk and
ASDG's Dual Serial Board, and a couple of older Amigas using a
8-Megabyte Ram expansion board from Phoenix MicroTechnologies, 3.5" and
5.25" disk drives by Paul Chatfield, Acudat disk-drives, Maestro Modem,
AST TurboLaser and Epson 500. Software used included "Professional Text
Engine" by Zirkonics, TxEd, SuperBase Professional by Precision
Software, PowerPacker 4.0, Deluxe Paint of course, and a great many
excellent public domain utilities by numerous talented authors,
including local talent such as Nic Wilson, Jon Potter, Craig Fisher,
Robert Lang, Mike Fuller, Peter Thompson and others.
Thanks also to sub-editor Andrew Wong for his various useful contributions
to the process of putting Megadisc together, particularly the
proof-reading, a big job which he does with speed and accuracy.
DISCLAIMER
All Megadiscs are produced with as much care as possible and with the
aim of spreading useful information through the Amiga community at low
cost. All contents of Megadisc are checked thoroughly, but we hold no
responsibility for use of programs or implementation of advice or
modifications contained in Megadisc, which are the responsibility of the
user. (This legalese can be countered by the fact that to date there
has been no report of any mishap from use of Megadisc - on the contrary,
all the feedback has been very supportive and positive, and thanks to
all you users for that.)
What's more, Megadisc is totally independent - and we don't take any
ads so we can stay that way. Nor are we connected with Commodore
Business Machines except as third-party producers.
COPYRIGHT
Commodore, Amiga and Commodore-Amiga are trademarks of Commodore
Business Machines.
Note that Megadisc is not public domain, nor is any part of it unless
expressly stated. If you want to use anything from a Megadisc for
either commercial or non-commercial use, both copyright laws and
courtesy require that you call and ask permission, and having got it,
mention the source of the piece where it's used. Megadisc may not be
copied except for the back-up purposes of a particular buyer of the
disk. Giving a copy of Megadisc to anyone is illegal, and constitutes
theft.
DUD DISKS
Should anyone receive a disk from us at any time which does not perform
as it should, please send it straight back and it will be immediately
replaced - there are always a few dud disks in every bunch, which you'll
recognise by "Read/Write Errors" or the disk icon showing as "DFx:BAD"
or "DFx:NDOS". Sometimes a disk may appear to be bad, but isn't - the
round metal hub in the middle of the disk can sometimes get jammed
against the edge of the plastic surround. Simply work it loose with
your fingernail and you'll often find it'll come good.
Tim Strachan
(Editor)
August 1992.
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