9:00 AM PDT Sunday, May 31, 1987 (Sysop Tony) Good morning. (JOE SCHMITT) GOOD MORNING TONY (Sysop Tony) Hello, Joe. Do you have upper and lower case letters? Looks like you're shouting. (JOE SCHMITT) I AM SUPPOSED TO MEET A FRIEND FROM CALIF. TODAY YES (Sysop Tony) Who? (JOE SCHMITT) THANK YOU (Sysop Tony) Joe, you're still sending all upper case letters. Do you have your caps lock key down ... (JOE SCHMITT) LOOKING FOR 72300,1 (Sysop Tony) or have you not yet set your terminal defaults? (JOE SCHMITT) hello how is that (Sysop Tony) Ah, better. Who is 72300,1? (I don't know anybody by that name... er number [grin]) (JOE SCHMITT) It is a friend 72300,1217 His name is rick Hartley (Rush C.) [Mornin' All] (JOE SCHMITT) MOrnin to you to (O.T.NEW) Q OT (Sysop Tony) I see. Did you make an appointment to meet him here this morning? (JOE SCHMITT) Yes I did (Sysop Tony) During the scheduled conference time? (OK, OT, you'll be next) (JOE SCHMITT) Yes it was at noon est (Sysop Tony) Interesting. Why would you make an appointment to meet someone in CO during the scheduled conference time? (JOE SCHMITT) Forgive me, I'm new (Sysop Tony) Ah!... Well you can always use another... (JOE SCHMITT) Another what? (Sysop Tony) one of the channels. Do you know how to change channels? (JOE SCHMITT) Not sure (Sysop Tony) OK, Joe... type /HELP for a list of the commands, ... (REGINA DENNIS) HELP (Sysop Tony) And read CONFER.HLP in DL1 as soon as you can. (O.T.NEW) What is new in hard or software for 100? (Sysop Tony) OT, both hardware and software are areas of constant change. You can review a weekly list of the new programs and files that have been posted here by going into DL1, and typing DES. (O.T.NEW) tony thanks. (REGINA DENNIS) CAN I SEND A TELEX TO A NON ID COMPUSERVE USER? (Sysop Tony) Yes, you can. There is a way to send TELEXes from CompuServe to regular Telex subscribers. (Dana H.) HELP TELEX in easyplex will give info. There are a few things to note, however Sometimes you need to prefix the TELEX number with "0" so that is is properly routed and you can only send to a TELEX or TWX subscruber, not a WU Easy Link. (Sysop Tony) Thanks, Dana. Appreciate the additional info. ga Chuck (Folks, "ga" means I am done, you can "go ahead") (Chuck) Question, is there something in a DL that I could use to create employee schedules? (Sysop Tony) Employee schedules? You mean work schedules? (Rush C.) [wouldn't that be sweet] (Chuck) Yes (Sysop Tony) Not that I'm aware of, but it doesn't seem that it would be too hard to design such a program. (Chuck) That's what I thought, unfortunately I'm still not that software literate. (Sysop Tony) Well, why don't you put a message on the board, in section 4, outlining what you need such a program to do, and perhaps someone will write it for you. (Chuck) I've downloaded several and have tried to make them work, such as DBNEW and Spread.wm3. (Sysop Tony) I think those programs are overkill in your application, Chuck. From your basic description and from what I know about work schedules, all you need is something to print out work days and off days, for a list of employees, right? (Chuck) True, Exactly, except each employees "slot changes"week to week And it should be easier to use a computer once it's set up. (Sysop Tony) OK... the "slot changes" may be the quirky part of the program. however my previous advice, post a message, still stands. ga Rush (Rush C.) Ok not too much more to add however, scheduling is MUCH more intracate than just printing what you already know. You have to program in all work times and vacations for employees and see there are no conflicts, etc. I had a bear of a time with the same problem when I was teaching school trying to put which kid in which class at what time, etc. (Sysop Tony) Well, Rush... do you think a spreadsheet approach would be best? (Rush C.) No..but if I were going to use a spreadsheet, I would use one like LUCID that has the TBL function that can return text values and setup special lookup tables. Personally, I think the program should be designed like a program that can generate crossword puzzles instantly from a group of words. you need some type of ML alogrithm that can sort and test each employees schedule and match up vacation times without conflicts. (Sysop Tony) Sounds like such a program would have a lot of IF-THEN decisions. (Chuck) I didn't want something that elegant, just something with the provision to enter a few changes. A spreadsheet winds up sorting all the elements, when I'd only need to sort one column. (Sysop Tony) Well, again, I suggest you leave a message on the board. Maybe someone has something already written. I didn't know Rush had worked with such an application but you never know. Any more on that, Chuck? (Chuck) Negative, unless Rush has anything to add. (Rush C.) ok Chuck, in your message on the board BE VERY PRECISE as to EXACTLY what you want the program to do. I'm not sure as to your precise needs But I'll work on it if I see your file there. (Sysop Tony) OK Chuck? (Chuck) Thanks, and OK (O.T.NEW) CAN an apple monitor go w/ 100? (Sysop Tony) OK.... Now, OT, on your question about using an Apple Monitor. None of the portable computers supported here have video capability, so no monitor will work directly with them. There is, however, a Disk/Video interface for the 100/102/200 which allows a video display. Sort of overkill once again, but if you want it, it's available. the DVI should be able to connect to any standard monitor. (Larry L) ok How does the DVI decode the m100 screen? It should be much cheaper if you only want to get video. Also..what is dvi image like.. (Sysop Tony) There have been two video devices besides the DVI on the market. The first one didn't work well, and the company failed. The second one was advertised for about a year but none were ever produced, or delivered, to the best of my knowledge, and it is no longer advertised. The DVI (and presumably other such devices) connect to the system buss, and intercept the signals going to the screen CPU, and route them to a CRT display. In theory, such a device can be built. To date, there isn't one on the market, although a lot of users have asked for one. The DVI CRT screen display can be either 40 or 80 columns and 24 (25) lines. (24 and a status line). The 40 column display is quite good. The 80 column display seems "squashed" to me, but then, I'm used to a more commercial computer where such a display would be laughed off the market. (Rush C.) ok [not laughing] I am on a DV/I right now and you know me, I LOVE the DV/I! It makes for a great little workstation. I agree, the 80 col mode is a bit small, But more than adequate for cetain stuff. I like being able to use IDEA! and TBASE with 25 lines on the screen rather than 8. (Sysop Tony) Different strokes, Rush. (grin) ga Larry (Larry L) ok Can't you increase the horiz width if the display is squashed? Is the monitor part of the unit or separate? (Sysop Tony) No, The screen width in my case, is about 8 inches. ... The DVI will fit either 40 characters, or 80 characters in that space. the 80 character mode's letters are naturally half the width of the 40 character mode, thus looking "squashed". The monitor is seperate from the box that holds the electronics and disk drive, so you can use whatever monitor you want. I have an Amdek 300. (Larry L) OIC... (Sysop Tony) OK.... Did all that anwer your question, OT? ga OT Huh! OT didn't stick around to see the fruits of his question. (Larry L) Is the printer interface a one-way device? Is it possible to use it as an input? (Sysop Tony) Yes and no. (good answer, huh?) (Larry L) [great] (Sysop Tony) It can't be used as a parallel data port to get data into the computer. But the printer port can be "sampled" so you can read data bits from the port, and use it to monitor external control functions, like alarms, relays, lights, etc. (Larry L) Could you expand on sampling a bit? (Sysop Tony) There is a file in DL8 describing that; It's either PORTS.100 or PORTS.USE. Probably the latter. And it's something I've read, but don't recall the exact details. (Larry L) ok...thanx (Sysop Tony) What did you have in mind for that? (Larry L) like you said, alarms ..industrial control..etc but a serial to parallel converter would work just as well. (Sysop Tony) As I recall, there is a chapter section in "Inside the Model 100" by Carl Oppedahl on using that port to read switches, too. (R Caley) I was gone and dropped in late but I think there's a company that advertises and specializes in those types of uses for M-100.. (Sysop Tony) Yeah... (Parallel port input, on page 265 of the book, Larry) There are several analog-to-digital devices advertised. The cheapest is about $200, while they can go up to more than $1000. One of our former members, Peter St. Clair, did a lot of remote control work and used several of those devices. He had a lot of remote control goodies hooked up around his apartment. But we lost him to the Atari, and haven't heard from him in some time. Unfortunately, he left no files describing his work. (MARC K) HI ALL FIRST TIME HERE-NOT USED TO THE RULES! (Sysop Tony) Was that it, Marc? OK... here is a primer... Send a "Q" to get in speaking lineup to ask a question or change topic; ... Send a "C" to comment on the current topic. Use CTRL-C to exit back to the forum; but stay! You might learn something new. (R Caley) [macros] (Sysop Tony) [yup, what else?] (Larry L) Is the Oppedahl book the hot new one I've been hearing about? (Sysop Tony) No, it's been out for about a year. But what is this "hot new one" you've been hearing about? .... I haven't heard about a hot new one. (Larry L) A year?...I think that it IS the one and I just haven't seen it till now..Not many bookstores bother to carry M100 books.. (Sysop Tony) Yeah, that's a problem. It was copyrighted in 1985, so it's been around for a while. But you almost have to order it from the publisher. Did you need that information? (Larry L) No..I finally found it. thanks. (Sysop Tony) OK... Any more on THIS topic, anyone? OK... then you're up now, Marc. ga Marc ga (MARC K) OK-DOES ANYONE HERE HAVE EXPERIENCE WITH THE EXPANSION RAM BOARDS FOR THE M100? (Sysop Tony) Yes. What is your question? (MARC K) I'M INTERESTED IN THE 96K BOARD I'VE SEEN ADVERTISED AND NEED MORE INFO (Sysop Tony) PCSG, who sell that RAM expansion board has a representative on the message board, who will be glad to send you additional information. Send a message to Mike Anders, 70526,1715. (Larry L) Just wanted to say that I've been using PCSG RAM for a year or so and can heartily reccommend it. There was a bug in the Rom that went with it but PCSG sent me a new one air express. a good company to deal with. (Sysop Tony) Marc, There are some new RAM expansion products available for the 100/102. PCSG has a 256K unit that gives you 8 "banks" which can be used the same as the original bank. See their advertising in current issues of popular magazines. Node Computers has a 256K bank that apparently can be used as one continuous bank, to store large files, much as you would on a disk. See the file NODE.REV in DL13. And PG Designs is advertising one called the "Vault"... see VAULT.THD in DL13. (MARC K) OK...TNX FOR THE INFO (Sysop Tony) OK.... just us 3 here. (MARC K) I SEE (Sysop Tony) Does anyone have any pressing questions? ... (Larry L) [and I gotta run] (Sysop Tony) otherwise, the CO seems to be petering out this week. (MARC K) ONE THING.. I HAVE ONE (Sysop Tony) OK... see you again, later, Larry. (Larry L) See you next week bye. (MARC K) I HAVE A COPY OF SMART SIG...IT DOES NOT SEEM TO WORK CORRECTLY...ANY INFO? (Sysop Tony) Yeah, That's one of those programs that relies on certain prompts from CompuServe. Unfortunately, CompuServe is constantly changing the software, so the prompts are constantly changing, and the "scripted" programs are constantly having to be revised. It may work fine today, and not worth a damn tomorrow because of the changes. The only thing you can do is to stay abreast of the changes, and change the program script accordingly. The author of that program is no longer here, and C. Davey Utter has tried to make revisions to keep up with the changes, but he's not a skilled programmer, and admits it. I'd suggest you look at EM8SIG instead, whose author is constantly updating the program, and supports it on the message board if you have problems. (MARC K) I'LL HAVE TO LOOK INTO IT-MEANWHILE,I WILL DOWNLOAD FROM SIG WITH OTHER MACHINE AND UP LOAD IT TO THE M100 (Sysop Tony) Well, whatever, but why not download it directly into the 100? (MARC K) BECAUSE CIS NEEDS XMODEM,AND I DONT YET HAVE A COPY OF A XMODEM PGM FOR THE M100 (LARRY R.) C (Sysop Tony) OK.... first off, CIS doesn't "require" Xmodem, and anyway, we have several Xmodem programs in DL3 for the 100 which can be downloaded and used, too. (LARRY R.) x (MARC K) I DID NOT SEE A OPTION FOR ASCII IN THE SIG (Sysop Tony) Heh heh... Larry was that a comment, then a "cancel" comment? (LARRY R.) Since you are addressing what I was gonna say, yes, but I wanna add a Q to the Queue? (Sysop Tony) OK, Marc, We have prepared a file on downloading, which provides greater detail than we can in this conference situation. To read the file, type the letter B at the main menu function prompt (where you can read or leave messages) and press the ENTER key. At the next menu, type the number 4 and press ENTER to read the file. Suggest you echo a copy to your printer for later review. (Turn on Printer and press F5 button) OK? Any more on that, Marc? (MARC K) OK, BUT HAVENT MADE A CABLE FOR MY PRINTER (SERIAL) TO LET ME USE IT ON M100 (Sysop Tony) OK.... but you can't echo to a serial printer anyway. "Echo", F5, only works with a parallel printer. (MARC K) I SEE, O WELL-I CAN ALWAYS USE OTHER MACHINE THEN (2 DRIVES) (Sysop Tony) Grin How can you "download", before learning how to "download"???? Catch 22. Anyway ... (MARC K) TRUE, (Sysop Tony) the B;4 file will give you great detail on downloading into the M100. (MARC K) BUT I KNOW HOW ON THE OTHER MACHINE, AND THE M100 ALSO,BUT JUST NOT SURE HOW TO GET ASCII MODE ON CIS. (Sysop Tony) All the files here in the DL's are stored as ASCII text files.... except a few that are binary or other special forms. But for most, you just read them with the ead command and capture them by pressing the F2 button on the M100. So, it is said that the M100 family uses the "capture" protocol. OK? (MARC K) OK,TNX MUCH..I SHOULD BE GOING NOW...SEE YA LATER! (Sysop Tony) Wait... (MARC K) OK (Sysop Tony) Larry may }i~rhave some more info for you. ga Larry (LARRY R.) Enter DL3 then REA XMODEM.312. before pressing enter/CR key, press your F2 key, it will prompt you for a filename, enter XMODEM then CR, wait for DOWN to appear in reverse video, them hit CR again the file should scroll by, when it stops hit F2 again, DOWN should return to regular video. Once offline, you edit the xmodem file taking all of the crap before first program line and all the stuff after the end of the last program line then go to basic, in basic, you load the XMODEM.DO file into basic. Once the wait sign stops flashing, and the ok prompt appears, SAVE it as XMODEM.BA, then KILL XMODEM.DO. Did I miss anything, Tony or Denny? (Sysop Tony) No, but there is more detail in the DOWNLD.HLP file which I already referred him to, because we generally don't want to go into that much detail here. (grin) but anyway, did you have any more questions on that, Marc? (MARC K) NONE...TNX I SHOULD BE GOING NOW...SEE YA ALL LATER... (LARRY R.) I was gonna say he could use the other filename to get the Download tips I was trying to be specific to the basic M100 built in thing, as I remember being a little cornfused by the range of options mentioned in the UPLOAD and DOWNLOAD help files. At that point, I would have appreciated a file which confines itself to the one basic method. (Sysop Tony) So what you're saying is that we need a step-by-step method? (LARRY R.) Well, in my case, I needed the PHD level (Push here, Dummy) of instruction, and still do on new things!!! I may belong to Mensa but that doesn't make me a fast learner in ALL areas! (Sysop Tony) I have not reviewed the DOWNLD.HLP file in some time but as I recall, it goes into step-by-step instructions for both capture and Xmodem downloads. Will have to check. Dave wrote the file, and as I recall, I didn't think he covered enough about converting files into programs. Will look again. Now about MENSA... That's one organization I refused to join, by refusing to take the test. do they still test applicants? (LARRY R.) I didn't take the test either, but they do test folks. If you have a test on file, SAT, or in my case, Henmon-Nelson and document it (via school xscript, etc.) you do not have to be tested. (Sysop Tony) Oh, that's interesting. I did have a documented test, the Minnesota Multiphasic as I recall but it wasn't recognized, I guess. Anyway I hear there is a group more exclusive than MENSA now. (grin) (LARRY R.) Yes there are two. (Dana Hyde) The MMPI is an }iinteresting personality/psychological test, not one for intelligence whereas the SAT and similar measure intelligence. (Sysop Tony) Really? There is a section on the report form that specified tested and adjusted IQ, as I recall it... it was some years ago, like in the late 50's that I took it. Interesting subject, though. (LARRY R.) There are two new groups more "exclusive" than MENSA BTW, I too understood the MMPI NOT to be a standardised intelligence test ooops! Typing was not on the test anywho If you took the ACT or SAT or GRE, or some such other in college and those scores are on your college transcript you can use those. (Sysop Tony) Then there's the 100 group. Sharp people (mostly) (grin) (LARRY R.) OF COURSE WE ARE! (Sysop Tony) When _I_ was in school, SAT, etc... were not yet popular. In fact, SAT was just becoming regular as I was leaving. And there is no such mention on my transcripts. Anyway.... ga Joshua (Joshua) Pardon me for jumping into the middle of this conversation the SAT, GRE, and other Educ. Testing Service exams are *not* intelligence tests; merely predictors of future academic performance. If that is intelligence, we're in trouble!! (Sysop Tony) (And I've never even heard of GRE!) (LARRY R.) Graduate Record Exam (Joshua) Graduate Record Exam (Sysop Tony) Anyway.... back to Model 100 topics, folks???? Larry had a Q way back there... did you have something to ask , Larry? or shall we keep rambling? (LARRY R.) It had something to do with XMODEM, but I don't quite know what it was So let me ask about alternative DOS for the TDD2. Are there any yet, and if so, where can I read about them here in the DL's? (Sysop Tony) OK... let me make this comment on Xmodem first - I've been using XMODEM.312 for some time, and have made some modifications to it for sysop requirements. ... But was always unhappy that it did not support Hayes modems at 1200 buad (external). Leonard Erickson has revised the program extensively and is continuing to work on it, and his latest version is XMDM26.100 in DL3. It's superior to the old version, and he's provided cross reference and commented "pretty" listings of the program, which make it much easier to understand, modify and work with. It also support 1200 and 2400 baud, and external Hayes compatible modems. You might like to look at it. Now about the alternate DOS's. Dave Thomas reports that the only one currently available, is the one from Traveling software. While UltraSoft has indicated they are working on a modification, it's not yet available. Unfortunately TS doesn't provide updated product info files for our DL13 any more, so the only info you get is from members on the message board. Phil may be preparing a THREAD file on the subject, I don't know. (Phil W) There is one. There is a THD file in DL9 on the OS situation forthe TDD2. Unfortunately, don't have the name .. wait (Sysop Tony) Phil has produced so many thread files of late, I can't keep up with the names, either. (grin) Looks like we'd better keep a copy of the THREAD.CAT file handy. (grin) (Phil W) TDD2A.THD [just looked at the copy I keep on HD] (Sysop Tony) OK.... Any more, Larry? (LARRY R.) TDD2A.THD? (Phil W) yes. (LARRY R.) DL9? (Phil W) yes (Sysop Tony) OK (LARRY R.) Okay, think I'll go over to the library and do a little light reading. (Sysop Tony) Well, it looks like we're out of time for this morning's conference. So I'll end the formal conference now. Feel free to stick around and chat further, if you like. Thanks for coming this morning, we appreciate your input. Bye. *** END OF CONFERENCE *** (Go to "yak yak" mode) List of Participants: 70516,1444 JOE SCHMITT 71266,125 Phil W 72126,252 O.T.NEW 72217,541 Joshua 72316,647 R Caley 72516,475 LARRY R. 72527,765 Dana H. 73047,153 MARC K 73347,3357 REGINA DENNIS 73720,1320 Chuck 73765,605 Larry L 75046,2325 Jon L. Olson 76701,40 Sysop Denny 76703,4062 Sysop Tony