********************
QL
CLUB
INTERNATIONAL
********************
ISSUE 113
JULY 1998
MIKE KENNEALLY
E-MAIL MIKEKENNEALLY1@COMPUSERVE.COM
ANY AND ALL SOFTWARE SENT TO THE CLUB/NEWSLETTER WILL BE TREATED
AS PUBLIC DOMAIN UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED.
DEAR ALL,
AS JULY AND AUGUST ARE A RELATIVELY QUIET MONTHS,SOME PEOPLE
HAVE NOT WRITTEN FOR A NUMBER OF REASONS USUALLY HOLIDAYS.
I OWE SPIKE A PROFOUND APOLOGY AGAIN!,HE SENT ME HIS LETTER
FOR INCLUSION IN THE NEWSLETTER BUT FOR SOME UNKNOWN REASON I LOST
IT BETWEEN COMPUSERVE AND THE DISC,NOT ONLY THAT BUT WHEN HE SENT
IT TO ME AGAIN THE SAME THING HAPPENED!I MUST HAVE GREMLINS.SO IF
YOU WANT TO TRY AGAIN SPIKE I SHALL INCLUDE IT NEXT MONTH.
IT HAS BEEN A VERY BUSY MONTH FOR MYSELF IN A LOT OF WAYS,SO
I SHALL KEEP THIS SHORT AND SWEET.
I HAVE FOUND OUT WHAT THE PROBLEM IS WITH MY PC THOUGH,IT
DOESN'T LIKE THE QXL CARD,WHEN IT IS ON AND SITTING IN THE
BACKGROUND THE PC THROWS A WOBBLER,IT HAS TO BE SWITCHED OFF
COMPLETELY.
MIKE.
Email : dilwyn.jones@bbc.co.uk
dilwyn.jones@dj.softnet.co.uk
GEAR: JM/Minerva QL+Gold Card+ED drives; Aurora, Super Gold
Card v2.49, Qubide 1.37, 420MB Conner Hard disk, ED and DD drives,
HP Deskjet 320; Amstrad ALT286+QXL+Zoom modem+Canon BJ10sx; P90
Black PC and QPC;Toshiba T2100 486DX2/66 with QPC.
Dear Mike,
Martin Wheatley wrote in the last issue that stripping out
address details in the email issues would stop people from
replying meaningfully to some queries. I agree that it might be
wise to strip out postal addresses for the email versions but
would it be OK to leave in the email addresses, as anyone who gets
it by email would by definition be able to reply by email to those
who are on email, many members are not. However, a possible
solution to this is that if a reply needs to go to a member whose
address isn't printed, and isn't on email, can perhaps email a
reply to Mike (or an appointed member) who will if necessary
forward the reply by post without revealing the recipent's
address? Just a thought for you all to think about...
I THINK THE CONSENSUS OF OPINION IS THAT WE LEAVE IT UP TO
INDIVIDUALS DILWYN.
Please be aware that there is conceivably one more source of
addresses going out, and that is the back issues service if the
recipient has requested them is not a member. With only one back
issues request so far, this should not be a problem. Be aware,
Andrew, if you add the back issues offer list to the Web site,
that the back issues I send out are almost all the POSTAL version,
that is they include members addresses, etc.
Just before I wrote this, I found out about BT's Telephone
Preference Service, which basically allows you to reduce or stop
junk calls - double glazing salesmen etc. The servce apparently
takes 3 to 6 months to have any significant effect, depending on
when the companies concerned take note I suppose, but it's better
than nothing. To stop telephone (voice) calls, phone BT on
0800-398893. To stop 'Junk Faxes' call BT on 0541-554555. I have
used the first one, and BT said that the service is absolutely
free at the moment, and they send a confirmation letter in about a
week, though it takes 3-6 months for the double glazing etc calls
to die down.
Another useful domestic hint (for people in Wales at least)
for those who have suffered my latest little disaster, a leaking
pipe under my front garden which turned it into a lake to the
extent that when my hover mower found it, it sank. I kid you not -
it was a well concealed lake of water in fairly long grass by the
time I went to mow it, when the mower passed over it, it threw
dirty water all over me and I stopped the mower (in case I got
electrocuted) and it sank a few inches. Aaaarghh! I phoned Hyder
(the water company supplying us here) and they said that the leak
was my side of the mains stop tap, it was my responsibility to fix
it. But, it turned out, that thanks to the pressures on water
companies to fix leaks from their pipes, they currently have an
offer to fix, free of charge, pipes leading from the mains stop
taps into customers' houses. Obviously, they will only find and
fix the leak, restoring your garden to its former untidy state is
your problem! Freephone Leakline (in Wales anyway) is on
0800-281432. Not only was this service free, but they also turned
up and fixed it the same day, although a few days later a second
set of workmen turned up - their problem! Impressive. And exactly
as they promised, they didn't leave the garden too tidy...
Colin had written about directory structures, and the reply
said that it was a personal computer, and the user should think
hard and set it up himself. I've met and worked with countless
computer users over the years and I know that there are two types,
the ones who prefer to do everything their own way, and the others
who would prefer guidance and to fall in line with what others are
doing, which makes it easier to get help when things prove less
than straightforward. When it comes to QLs, I'm happy to go my own
way. When it comes to Potential Catastrophes (PCs) I prefer to
take the latter route. Believe me, where I work, the full name for
PCs given above is accurate. So it won't do any harm to list what
we do with our directory structures to help Colin and others in
the same situation.
QL ROM images. I think you can get these from a Web site
somewhere. Was it the QLay Web site, or were there pointers there
as to where to get them? It's also the sort of information you'd
get from QL Web sites like those of Thierry Godefroy or Jonathan
Hudson.
Suppressing pornographic images etc. P McPherson might like
to hear of a little tale passed to me by an IT engineer at work.
It seems that there is a type of pornographic image suppressor
which among its ways of working includes skin tone detection.
Exactly how this works I've no idea - how does it cope with black,
white, etc flesh tones? Now some PC art packages allow you to
'pick up' colours with an eye dropper type icon/button. At some
stage, some (completely innocent) guy thought of using this
facility to create a nice flesh tone coloured background for his
Web site, as these days you're encouraged to be more adventurous
than plain old blue on grey or whatever, by sampling a skin tone
from a photo in a graphics package. The Web site was harmless
enough, information about an animal carers' group or something
like that if I remember right. And the background was just skin
coloured, no nude images or whatever. But all of a sudden the site
got a bad name as it was being suppressed as potentially
pornographic by this particular piece of software due to the skin
coloured graphical background. Oops, I don't think it was meant to
do that somehow!
QPAC2. I have now finished converting the Pointer Environment
Idiot's Guide by Norman Dunbar. Originally, this was a printed
introduction to the Pointer Environment, something you'd read
before tackling QPAC2 itself. I've made it into a plain text file,
added the diagrams in the original and added my text file viewer.
The whole lot zipped up comes to about 86kB, so once Norman Dunbar
gives me permission, I hope to submit this to Club QL for
inclusion on a monthly disk. Assuming it's on this disk, look for
the file called PEIG_zip. You'll need the UNZIP program I've
placed on the disk too. There's a short basic program called
PEIG_bas designed to unzip the guide onto a blank formatted disk
in FLP2_. Put this Club QL disk in FLP1_, and a blank formatted
disk in FLP2_. Run the PEIG_bas program, this will unzip the PE
Idiot's Guide. If you only have a single drive system, change the
DATA_USE FLP2_ to DATA_USE RAM1_ to make it unzip to RAM1_ first,
then copy the unzipped files from RAM1_ to a blank formatted disk
in your floppy drive.
THANKS DILWYN,I JUST HOPE EVERYONE HAS AN UNZIP PROG TO UNZIP
IT IN THE FIRST PLACE!
Mike said it was the wrong time of the year for "tupping". I
didn't know what this word meant at the time. I do now, thanks to
the biggest dictionary I could find. Thanks a bunch, Mike. Parcel
bomb on its way to you soon, Mike, as it wasn't quite what I had
in mind...
ITS AN OLD ENGLISH WORD DILWYN,NOT FOUND IN MANY WELSH
VERSIONS,I BELIEVE IN THE WELSH EDITIONS ITS CROSS-REFERENCED
UNDER 'WELLIES'.
Andrew-thanks for the network port sound hints. Probably
beyond me, but you never know. I did write some machine code
routines for the Spectrum, more years ago than I care to admit, to
listen to and play back from the cassette ports. Good clean fun at
the time (though the sound was anything but clean). In general you
need to sample at more than twice the highest audible frequency
you want to reproduce. Marcel Kilgus has mentioned some sound
routines for QPC several times, but no joy yet. One day perhaps...
For any Trekkies there are plenty of sites on the Web, with
storylines, info and any other Trek facts you want. There's also a
fair bit of info in Qubbesoft's Electronic Book Library and Steve
Johnson has some files too.
Frank Merrison has sent me some additional back issues, so
the list of the DOC files themselves is now almost complete, issue
85 being the only one still missing. See the enclosed ISSUES_TXT
for details. I still have some way to go to complete the list of
programs that went with each monthly Club QL DOC file. As you'll
see, I have some way to go before I have all the programs which
went with the main Club QL DOC files each month. But thanks Frank.
I also like your idea of someone compiling info about
dealers' news and info releases. The QL dealers won't have time to
do this themselves, but would probably welcome a volunteer to do
it for them!
I mentioned last month that I was hoping to host a little get
together at my place this autumn. Jochen Merz, Darren Branagh and
possibly Marcel Kilgus have said they hope to combine a visit and
holiday here at that time (in the case of Jochen and Marcel to
coincide with the Byfleet workshop). In fact, it should happen
just before the Byfleet workshop (4th October). Anyone likely to
be in North Wales that week, give me a ring, I'll tell you how to
join Jochen, Darren, etc. Mike - you're nearest to me, are you
likely to drop in, for example?
I DO HOPE TO DILWYN,I'LL LET YOU KNOW NEARER THE TIME.
Finally, a little piece of news. You may have heard of Peter
Graf's Q40 board. While Tony Tebby is attempting to port SMSQ/E to
it, a little email received reports that Mark Swift in Blackpool
is currently attempting to port the Amiga QDOS emulator to the
Q40. Mark is the person who currently maintains the Amiga version
of the emulator, since the original author Rainer Kowallic no
longer works on it. When I wrote this letter, the port was in its
early stages. So the Q40 may start life as a dual operating system
computer, both of which can run QL software. That's the attitude I
like.
Dilwyn Jones
Michael Kite
25th July 1998
Equipment: Gold Card; QL Minerva 1.97 mk.1; Hermes; Two 3.5" Disc
drives; One 5.25 Disc Drive; Philips colour Monitor; SERMouse; Seikosha
SP-1000AS 9 pin printer Epson RX 80F/T+ 9 pin printer with parallel
port and added serial port. 486 PC with 540 meg hard drive and C.D.:
The PC is only used for things which are compatible with the computers
at work.
Hello all
Mike could you please send me a copy of QL112 and QL113 this month
as I did not get time to sent for last months before I went to Canada
on holiday.
NO PROBLEM.
I hope you had a good holiday Mike and did you manage to get the wife
to drive on the wrong side of the road ?
AS YOU WILL SEE FROM QL112,NO CHANCE ON BOTH SCORES.
Our holiday in Canada to see my wife Wendy,s sister and her husband who
live in Melville Saskatchewan was a very good one for use. The plan was
for use to spend 4 or so days with them at there house and then for the
four of use to take a trip to the rockies together. In the end just
Wendy and I went for seven days as her sister was ill.
We hired a car and shared the driving which included 800 kilometer the
first day passing through Calgary to get to Canmore which is at the
start of the parks in the rockies. We stayed at a ski lodge her for
three days to see the area.
From here on in it was mountings mountings and more mountings, some
part covered in snow some up in the clouds.
The next place is called Banff were the views from sulphur mounting
which is reached by cable car are orsome. The town the river and the
mountings can all be seen from there.
There is a chateau in the town of Banff which is used as a hotel, it
has small shops in side it and you can just walk in and look round.
The next place going north from her is called lake louise, this has
another Chateau/hotel and faces a lake with a glacier at the far end of
the lake and the water in the lake looks very blue.
We then moved on to to a place called The Crossing which is half way
through the rockies. it has just one motel to stay at and the views
from the restaurant while eating dinner were wonderful.
We then went to a glacier in the ice fields just below the town of
Jasper which is the northern end of the rockies. There are are special
coaches which have large very wide tractor type tires on them and very
low gears. These coach are driven out onto the glacier and some
distants up it. You can then get off the coach and walk on the ice also
there is a small stream of melted ice water which we had a drank from.
Some of the crevices in the ice are very deep and very blue in colour.
ON the way to Jasper we visit two areas of the river were ther are
water falls . Thewater has worn away the rock into large ravines and
the noise of the water and the spray is over powering.
We then stayed over night in Jasper visiting some lakes.
Some elk, antilop, coyotes, goffers and goates were seen on the side of
the road while going through the rockies but we did not see any bears.
Next we drove to Edminton were we went to a shopping mall. This is all
in doors and has a full size pleasure park, an ice rink ,a swimming
pool with a wave maker, a lake with a full size galleon, dolphins,
which perform every hour, bungy jumping, go karts and all this in
between the shops.
The round trip back to wendy,s sister total three thousand Kilometers
and it was a wonderful trip. We then stayed at our relations for the
remainder of our holiday relaxing.
We were talking to two people from Texas who were also on holiday in
the rockies and when we said we had come from sacctawn he said "thats
the place were you can still see your dog after he has left home three
days ago". It is very flat around and in some places there are not any
trees or bushes.
I'LL DO YOU A SWAP NEXT TIME MIKE.
Mike Kite.
#! Martin Burke,
26th August, 1997.
Dear Mike and Friends,
JM version + Trump 768 + twin 3.5" disks, Philips CM8833
colour monitor (under repair) and its Tandy twin, 8056 printer,
Epson RX80 F/T, and Brother HR10 daisy-wheel printer; PSION3a,
Z88.
Paul McPherson: You're right about there being problems with
some ways of avoiding pornography. I believe Scunthorpe has had
problems in getting a web-site that will actually be accessed.
Spike: I agree with Mike: your Qascade "manual" might make
some people mental. "Computer/program" manuals - and those for
many other subjects - are renowned for not being
"complete/logical". One problem is that the writers often assume
that certain steps or ways of doing things - that are second nature
to them - are what everyone does as well. (It may be so second
nature that they do not realise they are doing it.) The actual
"flow" - rather than a cascade - of the explanation can be very
tricky to determine: sometimes it is necessary to explain why you
are going to do something before you explain what you are going to
do. It is important that the reader can differentiate the what,
the how and the why. Where spacing - in the explanation - between
words, lines, etc, is important to the flow - and sense, it is
possible to foul everything up just by having the wrong blank bits
... or the wrong bits blank ... Spike did of course anticipate
this. But someone still needs to figure out how to sort it.
Yours,
Martin Burke.
#!
*!
Martin Wheatley martinw@ndirect.co.uk
QL, SuperQboard, Twin Disc Drives, Green Screen Monitor
Mersey Mouse, PC running Xchange and Qemulator
Hi everyone,
------------------------------------------------------
Paul MacPherson wrote
I have been up to my neck trying to help Bob with some
Physics and Maths revision for his "A" level exams so have had
little in the way of time for QL related matters except to wish
that there were a few software packages around that could have
helped. My knowledge of physics is fair, but the Maths goes
happily sailing way above my head. Exactly which government twit
was it that claimed "A" levels are getting easier a couple of
years ago, I really would like to meet him in a dark alley with a
piece of 4x2 after the last couple of weeks!
-----------------------------------------------
That'll be a piece of 9 then !
-----------------------------------------------
Dilwyn wrote
Sometime in the autumn, timed to coincide with a QL show in
Britain, Jochen Merz hopes to come to Wales on holiday, and we
plan to make a week long QL bash out of it if I can get time off
work at the same time. Darren Branagh hopes to come along too if
he can save up enough days off and Punts. Anyone else who'd like
to indulge in some shameless (I mean QL-related!) activities in
the lovely Welsh countryside on the outskirts of Snowdonia is
welcome to join us if in the area at the time,
----------------------------------------------
This has echoes of a famous meeting in ClubQL history. Tell 'em
about
the exploding oven Mike!
---------------------------------------------
AH YES,BUT THIS WILL BE AT DILWYN'S HOUSE AND FRANK WON'T BE
THERE!
I wrote
I've just acquired a copy of the PC shareware Ql emulator
Q-Emulator I'm still struggling with getting the QL ROM images I
need to run it usefully. No doubt I'll crack it in time
And Mike replied
NO DOUBT MARTIN,IT'LL BE INTERESTING TO HEAR HOW YOU HAVE
GONE ON WITH IT.
-----------------------------------------
On the assumption that anyone is interested (most of you seem to
either have QXL,QPC or nor be interested in emulators!) I'll talk a bit
about this Q-Emulator is a software QL emulator for use on a PC running
Windows 95
It is only available as a download from the writers Web page as a
Zip file but since the prog is shareware it can legally be passed on so
if anyone wants it and doesn't have Internet access just send a PC disc
and a return envelope and I'll send you a copy
For those who don't know shareware is a system where you can try
the program first and then pay if you like it. In this case the trial
version is both limited and times out after a few days so if you want
to use it you have to register the program. This is easier said than
done. The writer Daniele Terdina is Italian and for some reason has
placed it with a US shareware registration company so the registration
money has to be sent to the US(you can use a credit card). It is $40
(about £25) for the current version
Onto the prog itself
To use it you need a ROM image. These are available on the
Internet or you can prepare one yourself on your QL with a simple
program QL emulators fall into two groups - the expensive ones that
have licensed all the bits and pieces (QXL,QPC) and the cheaper ones
which haven't (Qlay and Q-Emulator) where you have to provide things
like ROM images yourself
The program is a Win95 prog and is run the normal way - by
clicking on an icon or by using the Start menu
It opens as a double window. The top part is the standard Ql
window and beneath that are a series of slots that you can configure to
point at virtual devices
It opens with a display window and you then Start the Ql using the
menu and it loads the Rom image and you get the usual F1/F2 screen
There are a number of facilities which can set RAM - anything from
128k to 4M (it will depend on what you have available on the PC what
is the best for you) SPEED - Full Speed/Original Ql/Gold Card
You can configure up to 8 devicesThese can be floppy drives or PC
directories (which you address as flp or mdv 1-8)
Another option is that you can configure a second ROM (for Minerva
or TK2)
As usual you have to provide your own ROM image
There is a built in RAM Disc
You can save your preferred configuration and set it so that it
autoloads when you run Q-Emulator
It reads Ql floppy discs from the PC disc drive and you can copy
files from one directory to another. One thing not yet implemented is
formatting QL floppies
Daniele says this is coming eventually as are level 2 drivers and
reading QXL_WIN files
Just as with the QL a 'boot' file in flp1_ will autorun. I have
this configured to a PC directory so that all my extensions will
autoload (which they do almost instantly) - software version of TK2,
pointer environment and also a supplied mouse driver. Also other
devices are pointed at directories containing my most used software
I don't know how much of the recent QL software Q-Emulator will
run as I don't have any of it - someone else will have to comment on
that!
For using standard Ql stuff like Xchange or Perfection it is
excellent - much faster than my QL
There are other facilities I haven't mentioned because I don't
want to turn this into a book! All I can say is - try it if you think
you'll be interested
Martin Wheatley
Bill Waugh
email Bill@waughql.demon.co.uk
Ql and stuff (for taking stuff off m/drives)
QXL and stuff (for backup)
Aurora,Qubide,Romdisq,SGC,S/Hermes,SMSQe,1.2Gig Hd,850Meg Hd (for
pleasure)
PC (for net and email and some frustration)
Hi everyone
I have just got around to reading 111 and someway
through 112 so bear with me if I am somewhat behind.
I managed to loose my wallet in Berwick some weeks ago and not
being in a total panick managed to remember to cancel my credit card
that was in the wallet, I did this as soon as I realised the loss wich
was only a matter of minutes.
When I got back home I did the 1471 phone thing and had been
called by a mobile number, just as I was about to call the number back
the phone rang, a welsh voice said "William I have your wallet boy" and
he did.
Two young lads from Dilwyns part of the world were up in Berwick
to attend their mothers birthday and had found it in the middle of the
road- intact and with nothing missing, seems like they know how to
bringthem up the correct way in Wales Dilwyn.
Anyway the upshot of all this is that I forgot to inform Demon of
the number of the new card I was issued with so they froze my account
(understandable as they were not getting paid) when I eventualy got
round to telling them I had a backlog of 385 emails).
So to issue 111
Frank Merrison writes
> As I understand it - the lightening flash alongside the Quill button
>is because line 220 uses HOT_RES for Quill and it stays resident in
>memory. Why is there a similar flash beside Abacus and Archive when
>these are called up by HOT_LOAD?
The (lightning flash) Wake symbol is for bringing up a program
that is already running, if you had two Quills in use and you wanted to
look at the one that was not at the time visible (buried) then you can
press both mouse buttons (or key ALT and . ) to bring up the button
frame then simple HIt or Do the Wake symbol to bring the Quill you
wanted to the top.
In this situation the Wake symbol works like a selective CONTROL C
and cycles through the Quills that you are using, if you had three
running it would cycle through one at a time with every HIt or DO until
you got the one you required.
It should not matter if the program is HOT_RES or HOT_LOAD and
should work with Abacus, Archive and any program that it is displayed
on the Button.
The same symbol is also used in Files and other menus as a refresh
or read medium symbol.
This being Qpac2 of course means thing are not just that simple
and Wake can mean a bit more than this.
A simpler method of selecting programs is HOT_PICK, you can set
this up so that selected keys (the number keys are a good chioce) can
be defined to PICK a certain program to the top or cycle through
multiple version of the same program.
If you had the following lines in your boot
HOT_PICK ('1','QD')
HOT_PICK ('2','Linedesign')
HOT_PICK ('3','Text87plus4')
HOT_PICK ('4','Quill')
and you had the first three running plus two versions of Quill
then if you were using Linedesign and wanted to use QD you just press
ALT and'1' and Qd comes to the top, another ALT and '4' would pop up
one of the Quills if it was not the one you wanted then ALT and '4'
again would bring the next Quill up.
I started to update the atricles that I did for Quanta but got a
bit stuck, the present weather is creating havoc at work, we are behind
with lots of stuff so I need to work overtime when the weather allows,
its not that I dont have so much time as that I don't know just when
the time will be free.
I had intended to produce the articles printed on A4 four hole
punched paper in a folder at a cost of about 3 or 4 pence per page, if
I get this done I will send one to Mike (or someone else) to review and
if anyone wants one I can print them out on and individual basis (thus
not incurring any outlay).
Ah the Star Trek stuff - thought I might flush out a trekie, it
was tongue in cheek stuff Andrew (it was Andrew wasn't it I got a bit
lost in the "bye Richard" stuff).
Yes I confess to being a Voyager fan I got hooked on this stuff
way back with Journay into space, bit before your time Andrew I
suspect, I used to buy Horlicks just to collect the labels for a Dan
Dare badge ah yes that miss Peabody - the fifties version of Seven of
Nine? not quite.
Funny that brings me to the Viagra jokes
1. A truck load of this stuff was stolen - police are on the
lookout for
a gang of hardened criminals.
2. Patient - Doctor my wife says I need some Viagra.
Doctor - (jokingly) are you sure its not a au pair you need
Patient - Oh I've got one Doc I don't need Viagra for her
Bye all Bill
--
Bill Waugh
(
geocities.com/siliconvalley/vista/4807) (
geocities.com/siliconvalley/vista) (
geocities.com/siliconvalley)