///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// ST-REPORT #8 September 26, 1987 (c)1987 Ron Kovacs/Syndicate Services Publisher/Editor: Ron Kovacs Assistants: Sue Perry, Rich Decowski _____________________________________________________________________________ INDEX <*> Atari News Update.....................................From GEnie Atari RT <*> New Product Announcements............CHESS ST, WORDUP, GROUNDGLASS SYSTEM <*> Reach For The Stars.........................................By Wilson Yip <*> Zmag Newswire....................................WhiteHouse Computer Out! <*> ZNews....................................................By Bruce Kennedy <*> ST Technical Help........................................By Mr. Goodprobe <*> User Group Focus...........................................By Peter Fazio <*> ST-Report Advertising Debut.................................By Ron Kovacs <*> TeleTalk Magazine Excerpts.................................From Issue #13 <*> The Megas Are Coming _____________________________________________________________________________ ATARI NEWS UPDATE The XEP80 80-column adapters are in the Atari warehouse in Sunnyvale and are available for immediate shipment to dealers. The XEP80 plugs into the 2nd joystick port of any Atari 8-bit computer. Any video monitor can plug into the XEP80 and deliver true 80-column text. An extra port on the XEP80 allows standard parallel printers (ST or IBM compatible) to plug directly into the 8-bit Atari computers. The driver program for the XEP80 lets it take the place of the E: device. Software that is compatible with the E: device (such as Atari BASIC) will work in 80 columns without modification. Other software that writes directly to the screen (bypassing the OS) would need modification before working in 80 columns. Atari is working on AtariWriter 80 and Silent Butler 80 to support the XEP80. Delivery dates on these products are not yet set. The XEP80 retails for $79.95. The new XE Game System has also arrived in Sunnyvale and is on its way to toy stores and other retailers in the USA. The XE Game System retails for $149.95. It comes with a sophisticated keyboard, a light gun, and three top games including Flight Simulator II, Missile Command, and Bug Hunt. _____________________________________________________________________________ NEW PRODUCTS ChessBase - The world's first chess database that runs on a microcomputer. "It is the most important development in chess study since the invention of printing." Garry Kasparov - World Champion What is ChessBase? * ChessBase is a powerful database which displays, classifies, stores and retrieves chess games. You can create your own games collections with up to 5000 games on one disk - just think, an entire chess library on a single disk! * Superb chessboard graphics allow high speed replay of games, in front of your very eyes - backwards and forwards! * Powerful openings classification sorts games by openings - ECO, New in Chess, or by your own criteria. Games can be retrieved by specifying player, opening, date, etc., greatly reducing the time spent preparing for specific opponents or searching for recent games by your favourite player. * ChessBase runs on the Atari ST and IBM-compatible machines. It is extremely user-friendly - you don't have to be a computer whizz to use it. Who is ChessBase for? * The World Champion - Garry Kasparov swears by it and has used it in preparation for some notable victories: his 7-1 whitewash of the Hamburg chess squad and his crushing victory against the Swiss Olympiad team. * Chess professionals use it with devastating effect in preparation for tournaments, for specific opponents or just general training. Miles used it to come first in the Philadelphia Open (winning US$ 16,000) and Korchnoi won the Zagreb Interzonal by a convincing margin and qualified for the Candidates again, using ChessBase. * Aspiring internationals cannot afford to be left behind. Opening theory is advancing more rapidly than ever, and ChessBase will help you to keep abreast with current developments. ChessBase has improved the results of many players by 100 Elo points. * Club players will get endless hours of pleasure from ChessBase. It has never been easier to look at recent games, work on a new opening or store your favorite games for reviewing at a later date. Use it to keep track of your correspondence games and try out ideas and variations. Annotate games yourself and swap them with friends. * Keen amateurs - create databases on your favourite players, your most memorable victories, games against your computer... The list is endless. For further information please contact Frederic Friedel Hauptstrasse 28 B 2114 Hollenstedt West Germany Tel.: (01149) 4165-8566 You may also drop an Email to Christian Schmitz-Moormann 73637,377 on Compuserve and I will forward your request. ============================================================================= Announcing WordUp, the new standard of word processing on the Atari ST. WordUp is the first in a series of superior products that Neotron Engineering (soon to be Neotron Inc.) will be bringing to the ST. WordUp reflects the philosophy of a company committed to producing low cost applications that utilize the potential of the ST to make high end tasks easier and more efficient. WordUp is a full GEM application with multiple windows, desk top icons and all menu selections available from the keyboard (and yes it does work with Thunder!-copyright 1986 Batteries Included-in its as you type mode). WordUp supports any combination of character sizes, faces and styles on the same line. WordUp automatically reformats after any action including automatically spacing the line for font size changes, superscript, subscript and word wrap. WordUp is the first ST word processor that allows a graphic image and text on the same line. Additionally, text automatically flows around the image, and, since the picture is anchored to the surrounding text, it will follow the text during editing-unlike most page metaphoric desk top publishers. This brings up a point as to why we choose to identify WordUp as a word processor even though it possesses many of the features of a desk top publisher. Perhaps, we should call it a document processor since it facilitates the composition and layout of multiple page documents with it's powerful formatting capabilities while not limiting the integration of images and quality of output inherent in desk top publishing. Through combination of access to the upper portion of the character sets (which contain foreign, scientific and various symbols) and the variable super/subscript feature, mathematical formatting is possible. Tables and columns of text and graphics are easily set up and maintained with the left, right, center and decimal tab ability. Another first, is user selected symbol or automatically numbered footnotes that appear just as they will print at the bottom of the page; thus allowing, as you might guess, full font and line alignment capability (left, centered and justified) along with seeing the relationship of the footnotes to the body text as you type. WordUp uses GDOS to output to the printer and the screen. Thus, any third party GDOS compatible printer drivers and/or fonts should work with WordUp. WordUp will ship with, as a minimum, three faces (Swiss-serif type, Dutch-sans serif type and Typewriter-monospaced courier type) in 10, 12, 18 and 24 point for the proportional faces and Epson FX-80 compatible, Star Micronics NB24-10 compatible and Atari SM804 printer drivers. This should cover most popular 9-pin and 24-pin dot matrix printers; however, we are working on more fonts (a font editor) and printer drivers-especially for laser printers. Don't forget that Atari's soon to be released laser printer will run GDOS. As you can probably gather, WordUp has far too many features to describe in detail here. As a result, we will be sending demos to all dealers on our mailing list in the second or third week of September. If your local dealer does not have one at that time then have that dealer contact us. WordUp will ship to dealers in the third week of October. More information can be obtained directly from Neotron Engineering, 908 Camino dos Rios, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360, USA or (805)498-3840. -Shelby Moore 73637,1066 President-Neotron Engineering ============================================================================= The Groundglass System is a software/hardware package for all professional photographers. It is being offered as a complete package, including everything needed to get up and running...the computer, the monitor (color or mono available), mouse, high speed printer, clock card, paper, disks...yes....everything needed! No extras! The software can be purchased separately, if you have either an IBM or Atari ST. Groundglass Systems recommends the ST due to its lower price, fast operating speed, GEM desktop, and the availability of additional RAM. Current RAM upgrades can increase internal memory as much as 3 MEG! This is perfect for the Groundglass System, since it is a RAM based system, allowing fast access to a great amount of data. Hard drives are, of course, supported....and recommended for memory intensive applications, such as stock photo files. A 20 MEG hard drive can contain up to 200,000 stock photo files. (a concertive estimate) The Groundglass System is not one of those "command-oriented" or "window" operated systems, but something unique...a new metaphor for the rest of us. The commands are offered in an on screen menu, and can be activated by either a click of the mouse, a function key, a keystroke, or a combination of all three....it's almost impossible to get lost in this program. There are many different approaches to on-screen help, also. Output Forms and Macros Groundglass has also included custom output forms, such as; invoices, past due notices for assignments and stock usage, schedules, personal diary, form letters (custom & user defined), inventory, price lists, production reports, pre-production estimates, assignment estimates, stock photo shipping memos, labels, envelopes, sales form letters, intro letters, and of course, many types of accounting reports. The output forms are also stored on cards in racks, like everything else in this program. A Sense of "Place" The racks and cards concept is truly a "real world" concept, unlike anything you've seen on a computer's display. It gives you a real sense of "place".... If you are on a card in your rolodex rack, calling a client, and he asks you about a current job......click over to the "Jobfile" rack and simply "Zoom in" on the card for his job....Done! You have a sense of having worked with this system before, perhaps you have a rack hanging on your wall right now, with jobfiles sitting in each slot...you simply reach out and pull a file (or card) out of the rack! It's the same thing with this program. In fact, Groundglass has discovered that when giving on-site demos of the system, the photographers seem to understand the display in one or two minutes! In essence, anything that you are doing in the "real world" with paper, pens, calculators, typewriters, xerox machine......are done with the Groundglass System! Searching The search functions are really fast....if you type in "Thanksg" in the "event" field of the "Schedule" rack of cards, it will find the card that contains "Thanksgiving" in LESS than a second! And that's without typing in the whole word! You can search any field on any rack, whenever you wish. You may also do a "Search-Lock". If, for instance, you need to send a party invitation (as a form letter) to all of your clients, you would simply go to the "Type" field on any Rolodex card, enter "Client" (or any other code word you choose for "Clients") and press "F8" (do search). This will find the first card it comes to with the word "Client" in the Type field. Then press, "SHIFT F8" (search-lock), and you will have all of your clients cards listed, separated from any other "Type" of rolodex cards. _____________________________________________________________________________ REACHING FOR THE STARS The following article was written for and posted on MUSKRAT'S DEN BBS, a 24 hr BBS in KAILUA [OAHU, HAWAII], 808-261-2184 (300/1200 Baud,Express). Title: REACHING FOR THE STARS By: Wilson Yip/Oracle! Date: August 28, 1987 Note: The materials presented herein were obtained from the 1st Annual Space Education Conference held in Kona from August 20th thru the 22nd in 1987. Information on attending one of these conferences is given below. Reproduction of this report in any form is granted under the condition that none of the contents are altered in any manner. Space, majestic and awesome, has inspired mankind since the dawn of life. We gaze up into the darkness, making vague patterns in the heavens in the hopes of unlocking the secrets of our world and ourselves. However, the more we begin to learn, the more we realize how little we really know. Are there other solar systems similar to ours, teeming with life? Do the secrets of our world lie outside our worldly boundaries? Do other intelligent beings bear these very same questions? These questions and more must be answered. We want to know. We must know. And someday we shall know. The United States has certainly had a part in the exploration of space. In merely twenty-five years, we have put a man on the moon and have sent vehicles to the very limits of Neptune. But in less than five minutes, our visions of discovery were plagued by darkness as the remnants of Challenger fell gently back into the loving hands of Earth. Disunity, loss of purpose, fear, and sadness engulfed our space program. Worse still, it shattered the dreams and hopes of the next generation of explorers. If this situation persists, not only will our insight of the universe be blurred today, it will also be blurred tomorrow. Mankind, however, has been known to be a versatile being. Though our efforts fall short, we rise again with a clearer purpose and with renewed strength. Efforts have begun to once again rebuild our space endeavors now and tomorrow. You can make a major effort in this undertaking by considering a career in space. What other job brings you the stars and takes you further? Although being propelled into the atmosphere in a tiny craft may not be what you had in mind, other opportunities exists. Perhaps it may be peering into a gigantic telescope to find that comet to immortalize your name with or it may be collecting materials to express our world to other beings. To gain a sharper perception of what space has to offer you, I have compiled a brief list of names and places which you can contact. The list is basically geared to students, but some are applicable to adults. SPACE EDUCATION CONFERENCE State of Hawaii Dept. Of Education Office of Instructional Services P.O. Box 2360 Honolulu, HI 96804 This event is for the purpose of exposing students to the opportunities in space in the islands as well as on the mainland. The first conference was held in August of 1987 in Kona and plans have begun to have a similar one in 1988. The event is offered to all high school students and is absolutely free. Write the State of Hawaii to make it a reality. This event is sponsored by the State of Hawaii and the Planetary Society. THE PLANETARY SOCIETY The Planetary Society 65 North Catalina Ave. Pasadena CA 91106 This organization headed by Dr.Carl Sagan is dedicated to exploring new worlds and life and to communicate to all the nature and findings of space. With advisors such as Sally Ride, Arthur C. Clark, and Isaac Asimov, the organization can't help but to be professional in every manner. Members receive a monthly magazine filled with the latest words and happenings in the field. For background materials and information, this is the source. U.S. SPACE CAMP AND ACADEMY The Space and Rocket Center 1 Tranquility Base Huntsville, Alabama 35807 Tel: 1-800-633-7280 or: 205-837-3400 The inspiration for the movie "Space Camp," this academy will let you have the power of the space shuttle at your fingertips. Remember, being an astronaut is not an easy business. You are immersed into zero-gravity environments, learn about such things as rocket propulsion, and finally the inner workings of the space shuttle itself. If you can afford it, the excitement of being an astronaut can be yours. EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS AND SERVICES Ames Research Center NASA Attn: DI:204-7 Educational Programs Office Moffett Field, CA 94035 NASA's Ames Research Center is responsible for providing informative materials to schools as well as to the public. Its resources include films, video tapes, slides, publications, and even school presentations. Write for a listing of materials that are available. In addition, they have an extensive library which houses rare and informative publications for research endeavors. Others: * UH Institute for Astronomy * Hawaii Institute for Geophysics * Del Rio Resources, Ltd. * Department of Business & Economic Development * Volcano National Park I hope that this list will provide you with a few places to start with to find your niche in space. Also, speak with your teachers and counselors for direction and upcoming events. Remember, space is a vast pool waiting to be tapped by young and hungry minds. Reach for the stars and complete man's journey into the heavens. _____________________________________________________________________________ ZMAG NEWSWIRE From The Chicago Tribune/Courier News The US government is accusing a 17 year old youth of breaking into AT&T computers across the nation and stealing sophisticated software worth thousands of dollars. We will supply more information should this develop. Article supplied by Steve Godun. Are you a customer of WHITEHOUSE COMPUTER?? Zmag reader Shawn Harmon recently informed us about the rip-off of many by this firm. Current information tells us that the firm has closed and filed bankruptcy. In the letter received, there were over $200,000 in claims with only $20,000 in assets. Whitehouse Computer is located in Williamsport, PA. If you are one of the many waiting for goods or you have encountered a few problems, here is what you can do to hopefully get your monies back! contact: Bureau of Consumer Protection 1-717-963-4913 Attn: Mr. McGowen Better Business Bureau Scranton, PA United States Postal Inspector Please write a letter to the B.C.P with a copy to the US Postal Inspector and the PA Better Business Bureau. Include your cancelled check with a full explanation of what you have done to retrieve your goods. Zmag will keep you informed as this story progresses. _____________________________________________________________________________ NEWS FROM BRUCE KENNEDY #: 196624 S13/Peripherals 22-Sep-87 Sb: ZNEWS Fm: BRUCE KENNEDY 72327,1500 To: RON KOVACS 71777,2140 (X) Here's the latest for US who know how to hack computers. Let's hear it from our friends at CLAUG in Chicago According to Jon Berry in the September 21 issue of ADWEEK, the people from Microsoft have announced a joint partnership with Amdek in Chicago. Amdek has a CD ROM laserdrive which reads a 550 megabyte capacity CD ROM which contains The American Heritage Dictionary, The World Almanac, The Chicago Manual of Style, Roget's Thesaurus, Bartlett's Quotations. Now read that into your memory and smoke it! It's called Bookshelf, and is the first major, widely distributed offering in the new technology. Hats off again to Bill Gates, and the innovative people from Amdek. Don't forget...Amdek were the people who brought Atari the first IBM type plastic case diskettes. We didn't support them, so they soon liquidated a very nice double drive for our machines. Let's look at this system as a hacking community, come up with a way to use it, and support this fine partnership in leading edge technology. If it's good, the ST can use it! Let's hear from you. Network and Report! BEKennedy from RIACE for ZMAG _____________________________________________________________________________ ST TECHNICAL HELP By: Mr. Goodprobe U.A.C.B. (Users Against Computer Brutality) As we proceed into the first of hopefully many articles with hints, hardware projects, and modifications for your Atari equipment, let me serve notice that I need YOUR questions, advice, ideas, and projects in order to share them with others. I am an electronics technician of 15 years experience, and a father of three amongst other things. I am quick to reveal that fresh, new and exciting ideas can not proceed with consistent regularity from any single human being, no matter how intelligent, diligent, or perseverent! I need YOU so we can together provide the hardware information that the Atari community has so dearly lacked these past few years. I would encourage you to write up a short text file with your project, hardware modification, upgrade, question, idea or any related item, include your name and address so we can give proper credit, and upload that text file to the Zmag Information Network which can be reached at 201-968-9148 300/1200 baud 24 hours a day, or to my daily haunt at the Stairway to Heaven bbs which can be reached at 216-784-0574 300/1200 baud 24 hours a day. If call the Stairway, the fearless SYSOP, Angel, will allow you to post your questions and the like in our hardware message base. If you are so kind as to send a text file, please leave me a note and I will take it from there. Another quick preliminary note, those who truly know me that I will never say anything to intentionally raise the ire of another human being. But, unfortunately, I am quite sure that this article may upset some computer dealers, and even our beloved Atari corp. I only hope they understand that my motive and intent here is not to defame anyone or anything, but rather solely to forward the cause of the Atari St user, and prolong the life of that great, great computer! It has come to my attention, through coverage in BYTE Magazine, and on Atari bulletin boards across this fine land of ours that there is a certain questionable, to say the least, fix for some Atari ST's which come up with the "won't boot the drive" symptom. Our one and only very own Calamity Jane recently described to me her lamentable situation when upon receiving her new ST computer in the mail, she proceeded to tickle our funny bones by recounting the fact that when she turned it on, "the screen filled up with bombs, 100's of them everywhere, down the side of her monitor, across the floor and out the door! " She then wondered out loud if there was an entry in the Guiness Book of World Records for the most bombs on an ST screen! When she bravely disassembled her ST she found that the TOS roms were not seated properly in their sockets, in fact were "barely" in the sockets provided for them to occupy! She firmly pushed them down, and all was and is well to this day. Now, this "fix" which I have mentioned, is supposedly the official Atari fix which states that in the ST factory, if a computer displays this symptom, it is raised 3 to 6 inches from a firm table top and dropped. The resultant force reseats the chips who are the problem makers, and the unit is returned to be boxed, shipped etc. Now I understand the why of this procedure, as there would be not enough time for Atari to do this to each and every ST which comes off the line, they would have to drastically raise the price of the ST computer, and that is one thing they do not wish to do, and we don't want them to! When dealing with such a large volume of a unit, sometimes harsh tactics must be taken. BUT!!! This is not the case for the ST user, nor is it the case for the truly caring Atari ST computer dealer and/or Atari ST repair dealer. I personally feel that any dealer/repair establishment that takes this shortcut is doing a great dis-service to his customer. Such tactics can only REDUCE the life of the PC board that makes up the majority of your ST computer, and can you imagine the wonder it does for the drive in the 1040ST?!?! The PC board in the ST is fragile enough as it is, and this would further weaken it. And, the "fix" it provides is temporary at best, and will need it repeated time and time again. While using my PC Pursuit to its fullest, I can fully remember time and time again seeing horror stories of unknowing users applying this "drop technology", and as the symptom disappears with the first application, many times it soon returns again and again, and the time interval is shorter and shorter between each period of proper computer operation. Then the final blow is dealt to the computer, and a great repair bill results, or a new CPU has to be purchased. Now that I have shared with you the IMPROPER method of curing this, let us now enter in to a description of the PROPER method of curing this pesky problem. After placing your ST face down on a soft surface as a carpet sample, take out--520ST-->6 screws holding the top on. 1040ST-->7 screws in the square holes holding the top on. Turn the unit back over, and place the top back in a safe place. Remove the keyboard by unpluging the cable extending from the right side of it that plugs into the motherboard. Set this assembly with the top of your computer. On the 1040ST you will also need to unplug the power harness and drive cable from the internal disk drive. Place this assembly aside, and then remove the 2 screws from the front side of the internal power supply, unplug the cable and place it aside. Now remove the screws on the 520ST or 1040ST that holds the shield in place and gently remove it. This completes your disassembly of your precious computer...whew! The chips you are going to reseat are labeled U12 and U15. These are the 2 square IC packages, and on the 520ST they are located at the immediate left and upper left of the row of 16 256k rams. On the 1040ST they are located at the right and upper right of the 2 rows of 32 256k ram chips. Make sure you are properly grounded, and if there is a metal clip, sometimes copper in color, remove it for the time being. If there are no clips, please order 2 as they are under a dollar and can prevent this problem in the future. Using a small, flat, jewelers screwdriver, locate the flat edge of the IC socket. Insert your jewelers screwdriver between the socket and the IC and gently pry the chip up and out of the socket. Then place it back in, push down firmly, and replace the clip if there was one. Repeat this procedure with the other IC. Now locate the 6 TOS roms if you have them in your ST. The 520ST has them located in a row from top to bottom at the far left side of the motherboard. They are located directly below where the internal power supply was in the 1040ST. You do not need to remove these, but rather you merely need to give them a firm push to make sure they are firmly seated in their sockets. Reverse the procedure you observed when you disassembled your ST, and your task will be completed. Now, after having done that, can you see the point I was trying to make? It was not really a hard job, but if multiplied several hundred thousand times over I can see why Atari Corp uses the method they do. And, since the dealer does not have to deal with near this type of volume (boy that would be every dealers dream though!), and since they are the link between Atari Corp.and you, they should endeavor to give you that personal touch and go that extra mile. Sometimes it seems the only great service you can receive is that which you provide for yourself! The bottom line the is this, please, do not use this "official" fix you have heard about, but rather give your pride and joy that extra special caring touch that will hopefully allow it to provide you with many more years of useful service and entertainment. Keep those Atari's hummin! -Mr. Goodprobe- (on lend from) Midtown TV (216)633-0997 Atari 8/16 Repair/sales _____________________________________________________________________________ USER GROUP FOCUS Brooklyn Atari Society for Information and Communication (B.A.S.I.C.) New York City's oldest Atari Computer User Group President - Peter J. Fazio Vice President - Larry Richards Secretary/Treasurer - K. Edward Bienkowski Newsletter Editors - Pete Fazio & Bill Kokoni BBS Sysops - Pete Fazio Larry Richards Bill Kokoni The Brooklyn Atari Society (B.A.S.I.C.) was founded in May of 1982 by a group of Atari computer users who frequented a local computer store in Brooklyn. One of the sales people at the store came up with the idea of forming a user group and began to contact all the "regulars". All of us were very enthusiastic about the idea and one of us, who ran a training school for electricians, offered his classroom as a meeting place. The first meeting of the new group was full of excitement, as the idea of a user group was new to most people at that time. Just the idea of a whole room full of people who were all interested in Atari computers was something wonderful. The meeting lasted long into the night as we all compared notes and got to know each other. This first meeting led to another and another and soon we were meeting regularly. After a few months we decided to open membership in the group to the public, but since the classroom we were meeting in was a little on the small side, we decided to find another meeting place. Luckily, one of the members belonged to the Knights of Columbus and arranged for us to meet there. After a meeting there to familiarize ourselves with the facilities, we held our first public meeting. Thanks to the people at the computer store, who publicized the group in the store, there were many new faces at the meeting and the group began to grow. At this time, I was elected to be the first president of the group, a position I continue to hold today (nobody else seems to want to do it!). Unfortunately, after about a year the member who belonged to the Knights of Columbus had to leave the group and we were once again forced to find a new meeting place. This time another member stepped forward and offered use of his company's meeting room and we once again had a new home. At that time we began to consider publishing a newsletter. The major problem with publishing a newsletter at that time was that we had no means of having it printed. Then a couple of members came up with the idea of publishing the newsletter on disk. Except for one commercial disk magazine, a disk-based user group newsletter was a new idea. Thus "The B.A.S.I.C. Bulletin" was born. The "Bulletin" grew in popularity and our subscription list expanded to include subscribers in several countries and two continents. Unfortunately, once again we were forced to find a new meeting place as the company which had the meeting room we were using moved away. Luckily, we were once again able to find a new location thanks to a couple of members who belonged to a model railroad club and arranged for us to share their club room. The new room was a little smaller than we would have liked, but we were now in 1984 and a low point in the history of Atari (just before Jack Tramiel bought the company from Warner Communications), so our membership was also at a low point. We continued meeting and publishing our newsdisk, and in June 1985 the Dateline BBS, our new user group BBS, went online. Starting on an 800 with 2 810 drives running FoReM 26M software, it quickly added an ATR8000 and grew to 4 double-sided, quad-density drives and BBCS software. About a month after Dateline went online the first 520STs appeared in the stores and many B.A.S.I.C. members, myself included, bought them. This posed a couple of problems, along with a number of benefits for the group. Because the new machines used a new and incompatible disk format we could no longer publish one newsdisk for all our members, and we could not publish two separate disks. Also, because the BBS quickly began to support the new machines, we found that the once-huge storage capacity of the quad drives was suddenly filling with the much larger ST files, and we were rapidly running out of disk space. The ST also brought an influx of new members into the group, and while this was great for the group, it caused our meeting room to become very cramped very quickly. The BBCS (Bulletin Board Construction Set) software that was in use on the BBS at that time proved to be very buggy and was constantly the cause of problems with the system, so we decided to replace it. Since the ST content of the BBS had grown to the point where it was dominating the board, we decided that it was time for the Dateline BBS to switch to ST hardware, and in June 1986, almost exactly one year after it first went online, we switched to a 520ST and MichTron 1.8 BBS software. Shortly after that an Atari SH204 20 meg hard disk was added and the BBS really began to grow in both scope and popularity. Now running MichTron 2.10 software and with 45 megs of online storage (thanks to the recent addition of an ICD ST hard drive), Dateline is one of the busiest (and best, in my humble opinion) Atari BBSs in the country (and now accessible through PC-Pursuit). The number for Dateline is 718-648-0947 (300/1200/2400 baud, 24 hrs/7 days). For access through PC-Pursuit, call the 212 area and use ATDT17186480947 to have the PCP modem dial into the 718 area (the other half of New York City). While the BBS was growing, our newsletter was not. After one last disk issue (in which the newsdisk was retitled "Dateline: Atari" to match the BBS), we had to suspend publication while we decided how to best support both Atari computer lines. Membership in the group was becoming more and more ST oriented, and the combination of a great desktop publishing program for the ST (Publishing Partner) and a member who is a professional printer made the choice very clear. The first printed issue of "Dateline: Atari" made its appearance this spring, and more are now following on a bi-monthly schedule. The influx of new members has once again caused us to find a new meeting place, as the clubroom we shared with the model railroad club for the past couple of years once again became too small. Once more a member stepped forward and came to our rescue. This time a member who belongs to the Masonic Club of Bay Ridge arranged for us to hold our meetings at that location, which proved to be an excellent facility, and only a few blocks from our previous meeting place. Meetings are held on the first Wednesday of each month at 8:00 PM. The address of the Masonic Club of Bay Ridge is 7604 4th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11209. Dues are $20 per year. Thus with our successful BBS, our re-vitalized newsletter, and our excellent new meeting facility, B.A.S.I.C. (now in our sixth year) continues to be a leader on the New York City Atari user group scene. Peter J. Fazio, President For more information about B.A.S.I.C. contact: Brooklyn Atari Society c/o Peter J. Fazio 2724 East 23rd Street Brooklyn, NY 11235 718-646-6384 (voice - evenings) 718-648-0947 (Dateline BBS) _____________________________________________________________________________ ADVERTISING DEBUT Starting October 1, 1987 we will be allowing our readers room for advertising. Also, we will be looking for ads from Software producers, computer distributors and the like. Classified rates are as follows: 5 (79 Character lines) $10.00/week No Atascii characters allowed. These rates apply to ST-REPORT only!! To enter an ad, You can upload direct to the Zmag BBS at (201) 968-8148. All ads MUST be prepaid. Please state the amount of weeks you wish to run your ad. We have made space for a specific number of ads. All ads will appear space permitting. Special dated material will appear first. We also reserve the right to refuse any article. These rates are for classified ads only. If you are interested, send check or money order with your ad to: Zmagazine Classified-ST-REPORT Post Office Box 74 Middlesex, NJ 08846-0074 _____________________________________________________________________________ TELETALK MAGAZINE EXCERPTS from ISSUE #13 NET EXCHANGE BBS QUESTION: "Sometimes when I connect to a port, I get a message that says 'MANUAL ANSWER' and I can't do anything but disconnect." ANSWER: Since the Racal-Vadic mode provides better diagnostics, many users shift into it before dialing their BBS. If they terminate abnormally (that is, if the session, not the user, terminates abnormally), the modem may be left in Racal-Vadic mode. For instance, User A uses Racal-Vadic mode to call a board. He then gets bumped off the line (or perhaps hangs up before returning the modem to Hayes emulation) and User B connects to the port before the modem has a chance to reset (assuming it resets at all). The modem has sent the Racal-Vadic prompt--an asterisk--to User A and is waiting for a command. User B sees no response--the prompt has already been sent--so he assumes the modem is in Hayes mode. He enters "ATZ" and waits for the "OK". (To make matters worse, perhaps he is using a command script that needs to "see" an "OK" before proceeding.) The modem, currently ignorant of Hayes commands, interprets the "A" of the "ATZ" as being the Racal-Vadic command to answer a call manually; that is, to take the line off-hook and respond to the call. It does so, having first sent the user the message "MANUAL ANSWER." Since people rarely dial *into* a PC Pursuit line, nothing happens and the modem just sits. To get the user out of this trap, enter carriage returns until the modem drops the line and prompts you with another "*". At this prompt, enter "I". This is a nonintuitive command--the "I" stands for "IDLE" --but it has the happy result of returning the modem to Hayes mode. <===================================> < > < C PURSUIT,MYID,MYPASSWORD. > < > <===================================> CLOSE UP ................... [MAG] A look at ZMAG - an online magazine for Atarians. [MAG]******************************* CLOSE UP * ************************************ A LOOK AT ZMAG By John Peters Meet Ron Kovacs, the publisher and editor of Zmagazine. Ron's online publication, ZMAG is a public domain magazine aimed primarily at the Atari user. ZMAG has gained popularity with both SysOps and BBSers and it can be found on many boards here in the states and in Europe. The strength of Zmag lies in two related areas. One is its emphasis on bringing the reader up-to-the-minute news and the other being that it is published on a weekly basis. Ron is also the SysOp of ZMAGAZINE INFO NET BBS. Like ZMAG, the BBS also stresses timely news and information. Besides offering Zmag, Ron also makes available to his members the current issue of TeleTalk OnLine Magazine as well as other fine online magazines. The board is currently undergoing some major changes-one of which is that over 70% of the file section will consist of text files and utilities. By reading Zmag, you'll be kept up-to-date on what's happening in the Atari world now -- not several weeks, (or months) later. If you own an Atari, then you owe it to yourself to check out Zmag. ZMAGAZINE INFORMATION NETWORK *(201)-968-8148 _____________________________________________________________________________ THE MEGAS ARE COMING The Megas are coming The Megas ar coming The Megas are coming. Atari has just sent us our first shipment of 4 Meg Mega St's. They should arrive on Monday the 21st. They are for the Melbourne Florida Computer Show on Sept 25-27. As an authorized Atari dealer, we would like to thank ATARI for putting us on the first shipment of these computers so it will be on time for our Major Florida Computer Show. THE MEGAS ARE COMING THE MEGAS ARE COMING THE MEGAS ARE COMING The Irishman's Software, Inc. 1022 Highway A1A Satellite Beach, Florida, 32937. _____________________________________________________________________________ ST-REPORT #8 SEPTEMBER 26, 1987 (C)1987 SYNDICATE SERVICES ZMAG INFORMATION NETWORK (201) 968-8148 300-1200 24 HOURS _____________________________________________________________________________