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1989-04-05
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12KB
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266 lines
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ STEN #11 : John Weller and Dave Mooney ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"It's just a box of rain, I don't know who left it there..."
Grateful Dead.
It's Thursday, August 6th 1992, and the STEN deadline is already a
week behind us... I know we promised you a *zine*, but we didn't promise
it'd run on time; what do you think we are, BR employees?
We're in the middle of the quiet season where everyone's out
enjoying the weather, and doing the usual summer things like getting
drunk beside the river and putting their brains onto hold. Yes, it's a
slimmer than usual issue, but that's down to you, Gentle Reader. If we
don't receive the articles then we can't print them.
But don't despair, in this ish we can promise you fiction, short-wave
radio and computing, an insider's view of piracy, the most in-depth
article on scanners and scanning to appear in *any* magazine, hardware
projects, how to rewire a Microsoft mouse for ST use, news, opinions
(lots of those), a report on the gullibility of the 'New Age' faithful,
using the VDOS desktop, letters, the continuing Pascal tutorial, a review
of Pagestream, demos, P.D reviews, P.D libraries examined, Tom Zunder
stateside, the Rag Round-up, disczines booted, and even some profiles of
the STEN team. Check the Contents page for the ones that we've
forgotten...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DAVES BIT
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm going to jump in here before John gets into full flow to explain? the
delay and some new features in the shell.
EXCUSES
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
The delay is down to me, pure and simple. For once all the other guys had
their articles in on time and I seemed to stagger from one hold up to
another. First I lost a couple of weeks while I got new windows fitted to
the house and cleared up afterwards. Next came new interior doors. Yes
John, the plasterboards now replaced as well.
Regular readers will know about my love hate relationship with my car. It
loves to screw me up and I hate it. The brakes acted up this time and then
the exhaust fell off. I've got an arrangement with the local scrappy where
I get bits cheap as he knows it won't be long before he gets them back
again.
Finally my PC decided to die on me. It was in the middle of my holidays
and almost two weeks before I got near a computer with a 1.44 meg drive to
transfer them to something the ST could read. Never trust an IBM.
THE SHELL
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
OK, excuses over. Some new features in the shell for this issue. The most
important one is a check on the bootsector every time STEN is run. If all
is not as expected a warning is given and you can continue, change the
bootsector to what is expected or return to the Desktop.
I choose this method of virus protection rather than a boot check program
since it should work all the time. Boot checks are fine as long as you
know they exist, but if it was overwritten by a virus then it is possible
to load and continue without suspecting anything is amiss.
The next major addition is the inclusion of instructions for using the
shell, accessed by pressing the HELP key. These are comprehensive but will
be updated or ammended when I get some reaction. Opinions to the usual
address.
A couple of minor additions is the ability to dump the menu to printer and
the program informing mono users that they can't load low/medium res
screens.
SUBSCRIPTIONS
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
After the abismal failure to give away some of the excellent software we
receive from time to time for review I have decided to support those who
support us, ie the subscribers. Every issue, while we have software going
spare, we will draw one of the subcription numbers and he or she will get
a choice of software.
The winner this time is David Fright who has chosen ZZ Softs screen
manipulation/printing program, IMPRINT.
Subscriptions are becoming increasingly more important as it allows me to
get on with writing STEN without needing to spend the first hour copying
discs. As it only costs £5 for six issues inclusive of discs and postage
it cannot be a bad deal considering discs cost about 45p each and stamps/
envelopes about 20p. Details later in the editorial.
STEN however is still free of charge and can be had from myself or Jake
Bain at Caledonia if you send a disc and SAE. PD libraries can make a
charge for it as long as that charge is no more than the cost of their
normal PD discs. Everyone else is encouraged to pass as many copies on to
their friends (and enemies!) as possible.
Back to John..............
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ THE FALCON : SHITEHAWK OR REALITY? ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Operator said that's privileged information,
And it ain't no business of mine."
Grateful Dead
The July 'ST Format' continues its campaign of persuading readers to
believe six impossible things before breakfast. The current 'coming real
soon now' item is about the Falcon project, Atari's latest attempt at
stemming the flood of serious users to other machines. "Atari's new
machine, the Falcon, is to be a multi-media workstation supporting a
plethora of CD, audio and video applications. Sources within Atari told
ST Format that it will be priced at a level that competes directly with
Commodore's new Amiga 800 (expected to cost about £600) and the Apple LC
range (up to around £1,600)." Quite a price range...
Leaving aside the likelihood that their "sources within Atari" turn
out to be either the office cat, or Tracey on the front desk, we're meant
to believe that Atari has a 68030 based machine, with a Motorola DSP56001
running in parallel, capable of "30 screen modes and 16 million colours",
and running at "up to 13.5 MIPS (Million Instructions Per Second) at a
clock speed of 27 Mhz. (The standard ST runs at one quarter of a MIP!)"
Now, I don't want to be a spoilsport, but have any of 'ST Format''s
writers actually *seen* this wonder machine? It was to have appeared at
the Christmas CES show in Chicago, was conspicuous by its absence, and
was then rescheduled for the August Dusseldorf Show. According to 'ST
Applications', a far more reliable source for Atari news, "The Falcon was
unveiled to a select meeting of UK developers on June 27th at Heathrow
Penta. Sam Tramiel and technical vice-president Richard Miller were
present. Atari are still refusing to comment on specification or price
but details are expected to start emerging after Dusseldorf. Owing to
the size of the German market, it is expected that the Falcon will be
released there first." Contrast this with 'ST Format''s proud claim that
"The exciting new machine is due to be released in the UK by Christmas."
Let's try and get this right: Atari are talking about a machine that
would exceed the specification of most top-end PCs or workstations, for a
price of around £400 to £600... 30 screen modes, 16 million colours, 32
bit processing, all running at 27 Mhz. Veteran Atari watchers will have
already dusted-off their hype detectors, but here's a little puzzle for
the rest of us - name ten Atari products in the last five years that were
shown in prototype, hyped to the skies in the magazines, and then never
went on sale.
If the Falcon turns out to be real, and believe me, I'll be one of
the first in the queue if it is, Atari would be launching a machine that
would overnight make the Mega ST and TT redundant. And at a lower price
than either of them. Like all of Atari's promises, I'll believe it when I
actually see it on sale in the shops.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ SAD DAYS AT THE WORDFACE ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The curse of STEN, once released, cannot be recalled. The
execrable 'Public Domain' is no more. The magazine that reviewed
relational databases in fifty words has gone the way of all who attempt
to cash in on P.D - to the Jobcentre by the fastest bus.
With 'Shareware Shopper' now being for Power Users only, there is no
longer a second-rate, inaccurate and superficial magazine on the market
that covers the ST P.D scene. Back to the catalogues we go with a heavy
pocket and and a broader grin.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ BRIGHT-EYED THEY WERE, AND BUSHY TAILED ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On Thursday the 4th of June, 1992, Sylvie the ferret gave birth to
two kits. The survivor (the second was stillborn) has been named Little
Mu and already looks the hissing image of his father, Captain Jack
Aubrey.
Not to be outdone, Sophie the ferret then gave birth to six
squeaking kits on Friday the 24th of July, 1992. Captain Jack Aubrey
('Lucky Jack' to his friends) was once again the proud father.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ STEN ON LINE ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
STEN is now going to be available from a local bulletin board in my area.
It is MONKLANDS OWN BBS - Tel 0236 762750 (10pm to 6am). V21/23/22/22bis.
The first issue to go on is #10 and is about 365k compressed. So, you'll
need a 2400 baud modem at least if you want to download it. Why not give
the board a call even if you don't?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ SUBSCRIPTIONS ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We have started a subscription service for STEN. Mainly because I am
finding it increasingly difficult to work on STEN and cope with the vast
increase in mail of late.
A years subscription only costs £5 for six issues, single issues cost
£1 and the disc and return postage is included in the price. Subscriptions
may be had from Dave Cowling who resides at:
18 Aspen Mount
Cookridge
LEEDS
LS16 6RT
STEN remains free of charge if you send me a disc and SAE, but please
bear in mind that I can't do two things at once and something must
suffer. I don't want it to be STEN.
In answer to some recent questions on the status of STEN:
1) STEN is a disc magazine produced for the fun of doing it.
2) Each issue has been placed in the public domain and may be copied
freely.
3) PD libraries may distribute it as a normal PD disc and make no other
charge for it.
All back isses (0-10) are available and have been upgraded to use the
latest shell.
Anyone who sends me an article (any article - even a letter for
publication) will automatically receive the next issue on their disc.
Dave Mooney
~~~~~eof~~~~~