10:58:59 AM EST Sunday, October 26, 1986 (Sysop .^Dave^.) we have open topics today but keep in mind that next week we'll have Ed Giese of Acroatix as guest to give a hand with the new Powr-DOS for the Tandy disk drive. That is on the 2nd of Nov,,,, and then on the 23rd, we'll have Mark Eppley from Traveling Software with the hot scoop on TS-RANDOM for us all. (Sysop Tony) (Pontificating...) Well, I see by messages on the board and from some private conversations, now that there's a California lottery based on random numbers There is some interest in generating random numbers with the Model 100. Let me remind folks, that "random" means "random" and no matter how they are selected, nothing stands any more of a chance than anything else. One of the questions I got was, "How do you generate random numberss with a greater chance of success?" Can't be done. Sure you can generate PSEUDO-Random numbers. But that won't help much. (Sysop .^Dave^.) Refer them all to Tony's Gambling School. (GENE NESTRO) no - q was how to disable the reset button? (Sysop .^Dave^.) Can't be done Gene, sorry 'bout that .... (Sysop Tony) Unsolder it. It's hard wired to the CPU. (Sysop .^Dave^.) Howdy J.D.; want to share some thoughts and experiences with us?? (Ex-P100 J.D.) Not much more to say, I think, to all who have seen recent messages about P100's almost-certain demise. Can field questions, however? (Sysop .^Dave^.) For those that don't decode well, J.D. is former Editor of Portable 100 mag. (larry l) I wanted to ask about the status of Port 100. I haven't received an issue in months. (Sysop .^Dave^.) Before passing to J.D., let me stir the pot by reporting that "Mary" told me on Friday that August issue was being labelled for mailing and that Sept, Oct, Nov and Dec were all at the printers. She didn't offer to sell me the Grand Coulee Dam though. [Editor's NOTE: Readers should be aware that as of 26-Oct-86 Camden Communications, publisher of "Portable 100", had NOT declared bankruptcy nor filed Chapter 11. FURTHER, be it noted that J.D. Hildebrand (1) left CCI last July and has had no direct contact with company principals since then; (2) has been merely trying to give subscribers the best information that is available to him. Certainly J.D. and many others, including myself, would like to see CCI survive its current difficulties. END OF Editor's NOTE] (Ex-P100 J.D.) It's like the blind man and the elephant. This whole P100 thing looks different to everyone involved. But to CCI's top management, it looks like this: the need that Model 100 users have for P100 is important only insofar as it represents an opportunity for profit. The need for subscribers to get issues they've paid for doesn't fit into that grand scheme. Refunds are out of the question. Labels were applied to June, not August, and I'm not certain June was sent. Further issues will not be sent, and the few staffers remaining at the company have been specifically prohibited from engaging in any action that might lead to a magazine being produced and mailed. It's bankruptcy for sure, folks. (Sysop .^Dave^.) One wonders where the money went. They were TERRIBLE at paying the Post Office to say nothing about paying the writers of the articles. (Leonard E) Any idea as to how many cents on the dollar subscribers and other creditors might get back? (Ex-P100 J.D.) Subscribers are certainly last in line. My estimate is that the printer who handled P100 without payment for a couple of years is due at least $.25 million. Separators, the U.S. government (for taxes) and mailing houses are also major creditors. I wouldn't expect subscribers to receive much. But remember--comment on all my comments here--I left CCI in July, so there's an outside chance things have changed. I talk to staffers there who level with me, but I haven't talked with Carl, and he might take offense at many of the things I report here. (Sysop .^Dave^.) Then there is chance of Kepner/Hildebrand take over too. (Sysop Tony) Having just gone through a bankrupcy myself, the order is as follows: Taxes, Secured Creditors, Unsecured Creditors, Operating Bills, Leaseholders, and then, presumably, everyone else. Suscribers are probably last on the list. (GENE NESTRO) did/does CCi also print "port review"? (Sysop .^Dave^.) har de harr harr ... (Ex-P100 J.D.) Yes. Portable Program Review was discontinued without notice several months back when staffers got tired of hassling with a pub. that served hundreds, not thousands, of subscribers. (It did, however, provide an important cash POP when times were slow.) You should have been informed that you would receive an extra issue of P100 for each PPR you missed. (Sysop .^Dave^.) tee hee! (larry l) [ha!] (GENE NESTRO) OK thakkx tee hee heee heeeee (Ex-P100 J.D.) (hey, it's not that funny...these are my friends who are out of work!) (Sysop .^Dave^.) Guess t'is a wonderment that CCI doen't owe me money!! (Leonard E) I'd think that subscribers (should) rank up there with operating expenses (ha!). Maybe we'll at least get the missing issues cheaper than paying us for them & nobobey else will give anything for them. (Ex-P100 J.D.) Leonard, it doesn't matter how big a piece of the pie subscribers get; there's no crust and no filling. Your best bet is to hope that when CCI gives up the mailing list they give it to the publisher of a magazine you want to receive. That publisher would then "fulfill the subscription liability" as publisher say, and your investment would be repaid with another mag. (Sysop .^Dave^.) J.D., you must know Kepner fairly well. Do you think PICO will turn to portables and away from "compatible" transportables?? (Ex-P100 J.D.) I've spoken with Terry, but not recently. I certainly think that M100-only is his best orientation. That's where there's a sizable customer base and that's where the advertising is. The problem is that to make money you need subscribers and potential subscribers. Kepner is in a poor position to build a subscriber list...it is VERY expensive to send mailings to M100 owners, even if he can convince Tandy to share that owner list (unlikely). So it boils down to the P100 list, I think. Whoever acquires it has a good chance of operating a profitable M100 magazine. Nobody else does. (Bob S.) Dave, if the magazine frontier continues to darken, any chance you will loosen up the polcies re advertising here on the SIG?? (Sysop .^Dave^.) Those policies are CompuServe's --- not mine .... and any changes there will come from CIS via the sponsor of the SIG who has the responsibility. I'm just an associate sysop ... (larry l) [not just] (Sysop .^Dave^.) or "Associate Forum Administrator" in CompuServe terminology. What did you have in mind inre advertising Bob? In FACT, we have more "product descriptions " than most SIGs permit. We are about as open as could be possible. (Bob S.) Im' not sure myself. But I asked since I suscribe to PICO mainly for ads (and to read Waynes rantings) than for the articles, I guess the prod. announcements are a reasonable substitute for advertising. wonder if any developers are afraid to get as close to the buying public as the SIG lets them though, i.e. brickbats returning immediately and for all to see. (Sysop .^Dave^.) Actually, over the years I've spent a LOT of time begging, crawling, pleading with the major companies to get their products up in DL 6. Took WELL over a year with Traveling and Mike A can verify my yelpings about PCSG. (Mike A.) [that's for sure!] (Ex-P100 J.D.) Bob, you bring up an interesting point re: developers. The death of two magazines could well signal the death of the market, especially to smaller companies. Why try to sell a product to a market so small it can't keep magazines afloat? And, more toughly, how on earth do you reach potential buyers with news about your product? We all have to hope that Kepner keeps his baby afloat, if only to ensure that new and follow-up products will be developed for Tandy laptops. (Sysop .^Dave^.) "Portable Software" has just showed up here with the implication that they came here because of P-100 shut down. (Bob S.) I wonder if the SIG has enough readers to keep a small company in business...for instance how many SUPEROM buyers have never heard of CIS or this SIG?? (Sysop .^Dave^.) Consider the THOUSANDS that buy all their goodies from Radio Shack because they think that is all there is available!!! (Sysop Tony) Wouldn't it be wonderful if The software and hardware houses would ACTIVELY support their products here and make mention of that fact on their mailings, advertising, ans other literature? (Curtis G) I thought that was the case allready as with PCSG (Mike A.) Yes, that IS the case with PCSG ! although I haven't yet convicned 'em to mention the M100SIG in mailers. (Sysop .^Dave^.) Nor in the ads. (Sysop Tony) Yes... and PCSG is the only one that currently sees the value in that type of support. I mean EVERYONE! Not just PCSG. We have several companies who show up now and then But Mike is the only one who REALLY provides product support, and may be the only reason PCSG hasn't gone down the tubes, too!!! (Good job, Mike!!) (Mike A.) [aw, gee...blush] (Bob S.) seems borland had the guts to advertise their use of a SIG...sure seems like a SIG input line would be EASIER for the company to deal with than the traditional phone support lines. (Sysop .^Dave^.) Major difference! Borland operates it's own SIG. Not the same thing!! (Bob S.) true! (Curtis G) How can we incourage other s to get on the wagon? that is support their products here on the sig (Sysop .^Dave^.) I've spent a LOT of time. Traveling sat in my office concurring with the great idea and making all sorts of activity assururances two years ago. Similarly this past May when I was in Seattle ... but getting companies to put up ain't simple. (Ex-P100 J.D.) Note that product support over a SIG generates no direct revenues, and perhaps doggone few indirect ones. No one's getting rich in the laptop market, and a good rep for support is a nice thing to have, but it takes second place to meeting payroll at a lot of firms. (Bob S.) any new words on TS RANDOM. (Sysop .^Dave^.) Zilch. Traveling doesn't come by as often as we would like and questions about TS-RANDOM haven't been replied to. Mark Eppley will be here in CO to guest on TS-RANDOM on the 23rd of Novemeber .... and I wouldn't be surprised if'n he lurks here next week when Acroatix guests. (Leonard E) I'm trying to get together the parts for the ring detect circuit that was published a year or so back in P100. Only trouble is the opto-isolator. It only had an RS part#. And RS don't carry that no more. any suggestions? (Sysop .^Dave^.) Have you looked at the project that is here?? Model 100 answer circuit. ?? (Leonard E) Well I'd already gotten the *other* parts. Hate to waste the money, plus this is an *external* line powered circuit,. As My system is on extended service plan I *can't* make mak internal changes! (Sysop Tony) That has come up on the board before And it has been determined that in this application the opto-isolator is not a critical part. almost any opto-isolator will work including the ones currently stocked by Radio Shack. (Curtis G) Ask electronic supply house to cross reference the part for you (Bob S.) concur with TOny...seen one OI, seen em all. actually I used a CdS cell taped to a Neon bulb once to to the trick. (Leonard E) What rs has now are all labelled opto-coupler? is there a difference in amount of isolation provided? (Sysop Tony) No. Same thing. Different name. (Sysop .^Dave^.) Remember, during World War II cars in Europe ran on charcoal instead of gas. (MARK S.) where are all the companies going to advertise,now that the support mag.s are retired!!!!???? (Sysop .^Dave^.) Seems as though PICO will be trying and VERY likely that PCM will change it's thrust a bit more. (Sysop Tony) Tee hee.... Why don't WE start a monthly Newsletter as an adjunct to the forum, just for advertising, and perhaps the INDEX. Folks can subscribe to it separately. (MARK S.) [good idea!!!!!] (Sysop .^Dave^.) tee hee yourself. See the Fort Worth Chronicles mebbe. (MARK S.) Dave, if you read my mail to Rich W.,during the week, pico seem to only interest in the other portaqbles the IBM,HP or zenith. (Sysop .^Dave^.) But t'is very possible that Kepner will want to change that. Methinks. (MARK S.) OK, I hope so ...I'm going to miss a monthly mag (Curtis G) Dave do you know of a program that will allow the reading of the chipmonk disk in a forward or backward mode? (Sysop .^Dave^.) Hmmmmm,,,,, did you try turning the Chipmunk around after first read ???? [naughtee!] No ideas there at all; Tony?? (Sysop Tony) I'd guess that you want to read through a file, then go back to something already read??? No program will do that except by Random Access and we don't have any of them here yet. (Curtis G) Yes not unlike the way you read a file resedent in RAm (Sysop Tony) Well that's not quite the same. You can already read from a disk the way you read from RAM but that's in the forward direction only. Clarify? (Curtis G) That is very true, I use DREAD to read from the disk but if you want to read something from a lengthly file it means restarting the program (Sysop Tony) the only ways you can read from a disk are: 1. Sequentially, where you start at the beginning of a file, and read until you decide to quit. 2. Random Access, where you can specify where in the file you want to start reading, and for how far. and.... 3. Sector Access, where you read an entire sector off the disk, and find what you want in the sector, then go back for another one. Much like "Random", but it's cumbersome to keep track of where you are, and what you are doing. No such programs exist that I know of. (Leonard E) I've got several comments... 1. do a G Copyright before finalizing any plans for that newsletter 2. Think anybody would like a program to semi-automatically do the time change? (Sysop .^Dave^.) 1) Methinks Tony was jesting 2) Folks seem to like ALMOST any program that somebody can think of. Howsomeverwhichway, would one have to keep the program resident all year for two time changes?? (Leonard E) considering that it is almost impossible to figure *when* we make the change (date) I just wrote it to be loaded the night before, then while you sleep it changes things. (Sysop .^Dave^.) Sounds good to me. Just have to remember to point folks to it in the Spring!! Too late now!! (Leonard E) well, I didn't want to post it until I'd tested it (was afraid that if I goofed, it'd keep resetting the time every hour! (Sysop .^Dave^.) Of course, the plain command TIME$="aa:bb:cc" ain't that difficult and I've never been concerned about changing on the exact moment. (Leonard E) as long as you get it right! (Sysop Tony) Sounds like a one-liner to me. (Leonard E) not really, if it was it *would* bomb! 2am -> 1am... (Sysop Tony) Nay.... 10 IF TIME$="02:00:00"THEN TIME$="01:00:00":POWEROFF ELSE10 The Poweroff means the program will not run a second time. That's it. (Leonard E) ok, I guess that *wouild* work... (Leonard E) I just wanted to use ON TIME$ GOSUB.... *do* we have any simple example programs for the various ON ??? GOSUB interrupts? If not, should we have some for beginners? (Sysop .^Dave^.) We have NO tutorials in Basic programming at all though we have an assembly tutorial. Naturally we have programs that use the interrupts to some extent or another, but which/where etc I don't know. Frequently when a novice uploads a basic, basic, basic program I'll help out with suggestions (Sysop Tony) that sounds like EXACTLY what I started the PGMTIP series for... for tutorials, and tips on how to do such things. The series is open to all, just use the next available number in the series, and have at it. (Leonard E) I'll look into it; those interrupts are trickier than they look. I found out that while you have to have a seperate COM ON & MDM ON in the program you only need an ON COM or ON MDM - not both! (Sysop .^Dave^.) PGMTIP.011 is the last one. You might want to BRO PGMTIP for an idea of what Tony was referring to. Those are in DL 4. (Sysop .^Dave^.) ta ta all.... we have come to a closing methinks ... See you next week with Special Guest and Topic. 1:01:35 PM EST Sunday, October 26, 1986 User ID Nod Handle ----------- --- ------------ 70007,2270 HOO Cathy 70250,211 LTR PETER 70465,203 POR Leonard E 70725,1422 SAD BILL T. 71266,125 TOR Phil W 72206,2776 NYJ David Katzenberg 72216,512 RPA GENE NESTRO 72256,2551 TOC Gary D. 72276,3505 ANA john k 72457,1052 TTO WILLIAM SNOW 72466,1645 SAD John Neal 73107,1307 LIS MARK S. 73125,1437 QCE Bob S. 73155,562 LOU BILL EDWARDS 73717,2674 BOL Ex-P100 J.D. 73765,605 NYJ larry l 74425,231 NYJ Gerald G 74746,1336 SAD PHILLIP H. LUTTRELL 75725,1130 CVK Curtis G 75765,1124 DCQ Mike A. 76012,3532 BAT Peter T. 76576,2762 DNC JOE 76703,4062 REN Sysop Tony 76703,446 BMD Sysop .^Dave^.