*********************
QL
CLUB
INTERNATIONAL
*********************
ISSUE 99
EMAIL.106114,710 COMPUSERVE.COM
MIKEKENNEALLY1@COMPUSERVE.COM
ALL SOFTWARE SENT TO THE CLUB IS ASSUMED TO BE PD UNLESS
OTHERWISE STATED AND WILL BE TREATED AS SUCH.
QXL2 WITH A PACKARD BELL ATTACHMENT
2XQL'S,1X3.5 DISC DRIVES,TRUMPCARD,CANON BJ4100 COLOUR
PRINTER.
HELLO EVERYONE,
BY THE TIME YOU RECIEVE THIS NEWSLETTER,MARGARET WILL
HAVE MADE AN HONEST MAN OF ME.YES WE DID!WE GOT MARRIED ON
THE 2nd JUNE AT 11.30 AT MACCLESFIELD.NOT BAD CONSIDERING I
FIRST ASKED HER 23 YEARS AGO,ALMOST TO THE DAY!
THE NEXT BIG ITEM THIS MONTH IS THE 100th EDITION OF OUR
NEWSLETTER,AS YOU KNOW WE ARE GOING TO BE THE COVER DISC FOR
QL TODAY JULY ISSUE.SOME OF YOU I KNOW ARE NOT TOO HAPPY
ABOUT THIS.OKAY I ACCEPT THAT,BUT MY REASONING BEHIND IT IS
THIS:SOME OF YOU OUT THERE WHO HAVE BEEN WITH US A LONG TIME
ARE NOW MOVING ON TO PC'S IN A FAIRLY BIG WAY,AND NO
DOUBT,WILL LEAVE US EVENTUALLY.THIS HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE WAY
WITH THE NEWSLETTER,PEOPLE JOIN US AND THEN LEAVE US.SO BE
IT.BUT WE LOOK TO THE FUTURE,THOSE WHO MAY OR MAY NOT LEAVE
US AND I SINCERELY HOPE THEY DON'T,HOLD A MINE OF
INFORMATION,MAYBE NOT ON PAPER BUT IN THEIR HEADS,THIS WE
SHALL ALSO LOSE.THERE ARE STILL PEOPLE OUT THERE WHO NEED THE
HELP THAT A CLUB LIKE OURS CAN GIVE THEM.
THEREFORE IF BY APPEARING ON THE COVER OF QL TODAY WE
CAN ATTRACT EVEN ONE PERSON WHO IS WILLING IN SOME SMALL WAY
TO SHARE HIS OR HER EXPERIENCE WITH US,THEN I SAY IT WAS
WORTH IT!
I THINK THE MAIN BONE OF CONTENTION IS THAT IT WILL MAKE
US APPEAR A LOAD OF "DUMMIES",WE ARE NOT AND NEVER HAVE
BEEN,WE ARE A GROUP OF ENTHUSIASTIC USERS OF A GREAT MACHINE
AND THIS WILL BE POINTED OUT IN AN ACCOMPANYING LETTER TO QL
TODAY.
I AM WRITING THIS BEFORE I READ ANYONES LETTERS SO I CAN
GET MY SAY IN WITHOUT IT BEING CLOUDED BY ANYONE ELSE'S VIEW.
COULD I PLEASE ASK ALL OF YOU TO SEND YOUR LETTERS AND
PROGS IN EARLIER FOR THE NEXT NEWSLETTER,HOPEFULLY YOU WILL
ALL WRITE SOMETHING,EVEN IF ITS TO PRAISE ME FOR ALL MY HARD
WORK(JUST KIDDING!)IT WOULD BE NICE TO GET EVERYONE TO WRITE
TO CELEBRATE OUR 100th BIRTHDAY.SO DON'T FORGET GET IT TO ME
EARLY,PLEASE.
SO NOW LET'S HERE WHAT OTHERS HAVE TO SAY.
MALCOLM ROBERTS APPEARS TO BE HAVING SOME PROBLEM WITH
HIS NEWSLETTER BETWEEN ME SENDING IT AND HIM RECIEVING IT AND
VICE VERSA,I HAVE RECIEVED HIS DISC THIS MONTH AND IT APPEARS
WE ARE STILL HAVING PROBLEMS,AS NO-ONE ELSE SEEMS TO BE
HAVING THE SAME PROBLEMS AND IT APPEARS AS IF IT IS A RECENT
HAPPENING THE ONLY THING I CAN SURMISE IS THAT THE POST
OFFICE MUST BE USING A SOURCE OF MAGNETISM OR ELECTRICKERY
THAT IS CAUSING US PROBLEMS,IT MIGHT BE WORTH LOOKING INTO
MALCOLM.UNTIL WE CAN COME UP WITH AN ANSWER I WILL SEND YOU A
HARD COPY MALCOLM.CAN ANYONE ELSE COME UP WITH A
SUGGESTION?THE PROBLEM IS:WHEN I SEND HIM A DISC,AFTER
CHECKING IT MYSELF THAT IT WORKS,WHEN IT ARRIVES WITH HIM IT
IS CORRUPT WITH,IN THE LAST NEWSLETTER 28 BAD SECTORS,WHEN
HIS ARRIVES WITH ME I GET THE MESSAGE 'NO FILES FOUND'ANYONE
ANY IDEAS?
I AM SORRY MALCOLM,BUT YOU WILL RECIEVE YOUR NEWSLETTER
A BIT LATER THAN I THOUGHT,THE CARTRIDGE HAS JUST RUN DRY ON
MY PRINTER,I WILL GET IT TO YOU A.S.A.P.
IT APPEARS WE HAVE A SHORT NEWSLETTER THIS MONTH,AND
ONLY A FEW PROGS COURTESY OF DARREN,HOPEFULLY THAT BODES WELL
FOR THE ANNIVERSARY ISSUE,EVERYONE IS SAVING THEMSELVES FOR A
BUMPER ISSUE,AREN'T YOU?IT WOULD BE NICE IF EVERYONE WROTE
FOR THE 100th ISSUE NEXT MONTH.
MIKE.
FROM:Graham Buck, INTERNET:grim@spuddy.mew.co.uk
Mike
Sorry, but I have not been able to manage a contribution
this month. I will have to try harder for next month and the
big one ton or have we gone European; the big one tonne ?
NO MATE 1 TON WILL DO.
I will post a blank disk to you.
Regards
Graham Buck
-- grim@spuddy.mew.co.uk
* Meeeow ! Call Spuddy on
(01268) 515441 for FREE mail & Usenet access *
FROM:Martin Wheatley, INTERNET:martinw@ndirect.co.uk
*!
Martin Wheatley
martinw@ndirect.co.uk
QL, SuperQboard, Twin Disc Drives, Green Screen
Monitor Mersey Mouse, PC running Xchange
Graham B made some suggestions about a Web Page. Since
this is of limited interest to most people here (and also
required something a bit quicker than a two-month letter and
reply cycle) I have had some correspondance off-list with
Graham about the swings and roundabouts of this. Needless to
say at the moment we don't even agree what are the swings and
what are the roundabouts let alone the answers to them!
It'll probably sort itself out in time!
Graham B wrote ---------
Martin W, in replying to Ian P you suggest that QTPI
doesn't support 'Scripting'. In deed it does and always
has. It just needs someone to show us how.
Dennis S says ---------
Martin Wheatley:> Presumably QTPI does not support
scripting ------
Yes it does and has done for a long time, very flexible.
--------------------------------------
Seems like you two should get together!
Dennis Smith also wrote ------
How to get QL files from PC. Receive the Zip file on the
PC,copy the zip to a PC disk, put the PC disk into a QL
running SMSQ/E and unzip, done. -----------------
Perhaps this is a time to gently remind people that
ClubQL is for people with all levels of expertise and ALL
levels of equipment. Telling people they must upgrade is
seldom a helpful answer - we leave that sort of approach to
the Quanta newsletter (says I knowing that the probable
future editor is a ClubQL regular and will read this!)
MAYBE QUANTA WILL COME DOWN TO A LEVEL THAT EVERYONE CAN
UNDERSTAND,AT LEAST SOME OF IT ANYWAY.WHO KNOWS I MAY EVEN
SUBSCRIBE!
There are many people in ClubQL who don't have SMSQ/E
and are not likely to ever be able to. I have a SuperQboard
which is below a Trump card on the evolutionary scale.
SMSQ/E may be the answer to World peace and have the cure to
the common cold but it is not very relevant to someone like
me who is never likely to be able to afford the hardware and
software upgrades neccesary to run it! It seems to me the
most useful thing any of us can do is to try and give an
answer appropriate to the equipment they already have (one
of the reasons why we ask people to list their equipment at
the top of their letter) This is not intended as a criticism
of what you wrote Dennis - you just had the misfortune to
provide the example - we all do it from time to time!
ME MOST OF ALL MARTIN.
Dilwyn wrote ------ I'll resist the temptation to ask
for help on Windows 95 ---------
Go right ahead - I'm sure Mike will be able to answer
all your questions!
I PRESUME THIS IS A BIG HOUSE WITH 95 WINDOWS?GOD HELP
THE WINDOW CLEANER,I CAN'T EVEN FIND ONE TO DO MINE.DO YOU
KNOW THAT WINDOWS 3.11 HAS A ANTI-VIRUS PROGRAM,YET WINDOZE
95 DOES NOT,ALL THAT MONEY AND THEY CAN'T EVEN GIVE YOU A
ANTI-VIRUS PROG!
Our esteemed editor wrote -
GET CABLE DILWYN,SUNDAY AFTERNOON,STAR TREK,NEXT
GENERATION,DEEPSPACE 9 AND VOYAGER ON ONE AFTER THE
OTHER,ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL! -----------------------
Assuming of course that Dilwyn can get cable - less than
half the country can. Not everyone is as fortunate as you
(Although I am about to be - they are digging up the road as
I type this). As far as I can see if you already have a
satellite dish, it's far more expensive to get the same
progs via cable than to have a Sky subscription direct
anyway! The phone connection however does have it's
attractions.
THIS IS TRUE MARTIN,A SATELLITE DISH IS CHEAPER BY A
LOT,`26.99 A MONTH AS AGAINST `36.99 FOR CABLE.BUT AS YOU SAY
PHONE CALLS TO OTHER CABLE USERS ARE FREE AFTER A CERTAIN
TIME AND I GET A 10% DISCOUNT ON MY INTERNET CALLS.HOPEFULLY
NEXT YEAR THEY WILL BECOME A SERVICE PROVIDER.
Martin Wheatley
#! Colin Baskett
30 May 1997
EQUIPMENT: QL FITTED WITH SUPERGOLD CARD; MkI MINERVA -
version 1.82;
SUPERHERMES; 170 MB HARD DISK; SINGLE 3.5" HD DISC
DRIVE; PHILIPS COLOUR MONITOR; SERIAL MOUSE; PRINTER ???;
XCHANGE 3.90L; various other pieces of QL equipment shared
with daughter, Wendy.
Dear Mike,
QUBIDE, TRANSLATES ETC, ABACUS FORMULAE, Z88
I really must stop being so mean. If only I had printed
out my QUBIDE manuals it would have saved me a lot of time
trying to remember how Win_Drive and NorBack worked. The
amount of time I have wasted!=0C
Thanks to Graham Buck for the reminder about where to
look for ESC sequences and for his offer to look them up for
me. For my BJ10SX and Wendy's BJC4200 I think I have all the
control commands I need for printing text. Where I may be
struggling soon is in printing in graphics mode. This I
just do not understand. Also, I am contemplating getting a
new printer, if I find, for some reason, that I need to use
a Hewlett Packard then I shall have to find a whole new set
of ESC sequences. But that is still in the future.
It was remembering what key strokes I had used for the
translates that was the problem and also remembering what a
particular printer driver would do 12 months after writing
it. Dennis Smith's suggestion to list the translates in a
"HELP" file on Xchange_Quill is brilliant. Thanks Dennis! I
had vaguely wondered why on earth I might want to edit the
HELP file. Now I know. I have tried Dennis's other
suggestion of printing out a key but then I can never find
the piece of paper when I need it. Oh dear! Can I hear
someone saying why not punch two holes in it and place it in
the QL USER GUIDE, which is just too big ever to lose. Sir
Clive got many things right.
Thanks to Graham again for his tips about copying
formulae in Abacus. I had remembered reading some (perhaps
all) of this previously, but I could not remember to whom I
was indebted for the ideas. I imagine it must have been
Graham.
QUITE POSSIBLY MALCOLM WHITE AS HE IS OUR GREAT ABACUS
USER!
Apologies for not remembering the source. Incidentally,
I have a feeling that I have tried Graham's final tentative
suggestions about references to cell ranges. If I did, it
didn't work; but perhaps I did something wrong - as usual.
Incidentally, I bought Wendy a Z88 for her Christmas
present when I ran into problems with the BJC210 I had
intended to give her - rather doubtfully I must admit, but
one of Bill Richardson's special offer seemed too good to
miss and I was stuck for a present. Somewhat to my surprise
I find she has been using it extensively and even finds that
she can do some things on her Z88 that she can not easily do
in Xchange. Printing in columns, I think she said. I must
get into the car and find out wwhat she is doing.
I believe that one can get, or used to be able to get, a
battery pack that would hold five rechargeable batteries.
This apparently can be used to power the Z88. The built in
battery holder takes four cells and delivers only 4.8 volts
with rechargeable cells - just enough to bring the Z88 to
life but with its low battery warning in force. Does any one
know whether such a battery pack is still obtainable?
THE ONLY THING I CAN SUGGEST IS YOU LOOK IN THE ARGOS
CATALOGUE,THEY HAVE A FEW THINGS IN THERE THAT MAY HELP ie A
MULTI PRONGED POWER SUPPLY FOR THE MAINS,IT WORKS ON MINE!
Best wishes
Colin B
FRANK MERRISON,
23-5-1997
GEAR includes 2 x JM QL's: Gold Card: DMP: Epson Stylus
800 printer:
2 x HD disc drives. Knee deep in paper & problems!
I don't know what happened to my last month's
contribution _ I can only assume that it either got lost in
the post or arrived too late for inclusion in QL98. Not that
it held much of interest!
IT ARRIVED LATE FRANK,YOU WILL PROBABLY FIND IT HERE
SOMEWHERE WHEN I GET TO IT!
I have recently had a major list of problems with my
gear and all because I switched on my printer on it's own
instead of with everything else. Result a blown Gold Card and
some of the chips in the QL. I cannot understand why this
happened since I did something that I have always done for
the past twelve years. With a Tony Firshman spike cleaner I
have never had this problem.. this unfortunately happened
while I was in the middle of upgrading my disc drives to HD
from DD. It could develope into a long sad story but I'll
spare you the agony of it all! It now seems that I may be
getting problems with the MicroVitec monitor - that looks to
be playing up now. A phone call to MicroVitec at Bradford for
the address of their London agent was not of much assistance
either.
YOU ARE REALLY HAVING PROBLEMS FRANK.
My thanks to Dilwyn for help with formatting discs to
odd sizes.
I SEEM TO BE HAVING SOME PROBLEM WITH MY DISCS
FRANK,WHEN I TRY TO FORMAT HD DISCS WITHIN THE QXL/QPACII I
GET AN AWFUL LOT OF FORMAT FAILURES,MAYBE 3 OUT OF 4 REFUSE
TO FORMAT IN QL FORMAT.MAYBE ITS ME BUT I DON'T THINK SO.
I have no doubt got it wrong but not having Colin B's
original question about 'esc' codes and Abacus formulas I am
not sure if I follow Graham Buck's remarks correctly.
As I see it he was explaining how he copies formula from
one cell to others in Abacus. Why the quotes? Why not simply
use the echo command?
I WOULD HAVE THOUGHT THAT WAS THE BEST IDEA MYSELF.
Graham also talks of 'esc' translates. This is a bit
confusing to the learner as these 'esc' codes are "printer
control codes" designed by Epson. I may sound nit-picking
but I have often been confused by writers who know themselves
what they mean but such in-exact use of terms can be worrying
to beginners; as I say.
VERY TRUE FRANK,AS I HAVE LEARNT TO MY COST OVER THE
YEARS WITH YOU TRYING TO BEAT PRINTER CODES INTO MY HEAD!
Just a thought......
If one is using one of the new set-ups as seen at the
London sub-group can one really be considered a QL user? A
new casing holds a super Gold Card, Aurora, Minerva, new
graphics card, ED disc drives etc. Is a card plugged into a
PC still a QL? Come back Clive... all is forgiven!
I WOULD SAY YES FRANK,THE AMOUNT OF TIME I SPEND ON THE
COMPUTER IS I WOULD SAY 85% QL RELATED AND ONLY 15% PC
RELATED,AS I TEND TO USE THE PC MAINLY FOR GRAPHICS(AND MY
DAUGHTERS AND MARGARETS HOMEWORK!)
Best wishes all... Frank Merrison.
ps: I seem to have lost my disc with ql92 to ql96
newsletters. Can you put as many as possible on this disc
Mike?
NO PROBLEM FRANK,BUT I AM AFRAID THEY WILL BE ZIP FILES!
#! Dennis Smith, 99 Field St, Codnor, Derbys. DE5 9RS
01773-748740
NET1(downstairs) =3D (installed in a mini tower) Aurora,
Super Gold card, SuperHermes, Qubide, 420Mb hard disk, 2 ED
drives, (SER3)US Robotics 14.4 modem, (SER6)3 button serial
mouse, Printers: (SER1)Star LC10, (PAR)HP 540 Deskjet, 15
inch SVGA monitor.
Operating system =3D Minerva 1.97, SMSQ/E.
NET3(upstairs) =3D (installed in a mini tower) Gold card,
Hermes, Qubide, 540Mb hard disk, 1 HD drive, 2 DD drives.
Printer: (SER1)Brother HR5 thermal with fax roll paper.
Operating system =3D SMSQ/E.
I think that's everything in the lists above, can you
see anything missing Mike?
YES MATE,13 FIELD STREET!FOR SOME UNKNOWN REASON I
ALWAYS ASSOCIATE YOU WITH 13 FIELD STREET,AND THERE ISN'T
ONE!HOW DO I KNOW?I FOUND FIELD STREET IN CODNOR ONE SUNNY
AFTERNOON AFTER DELIVERING ABOUT 5 MILES FROM YOU!I MUST
REMEMBER IT'S 99 AS IN A CHOCOLATE STICK IN AN ICE CREAM!
Hello happy QLers,
I've been busy during the last week or so organising a
new monthly sub-group, the first meeting was on Saturday the
24th of May. The meeting was not very widely publicised as we
had a core group to "test the water" first time out. The
whole thing went very well as it happens, drinks, something
to eat and all this with nice clean surroundings. Intense
QLing from 1:00 pm until 5:00 pm, great. The star QL
personalities in attendance were; John Southern, Graham
Underwood and Derek Stewart.
YES,I HEARD ABOUT IT FROM JOHN.WELL DONE YOU.
Moving on to another meeting, the East Midlands Quanta
Workshop has been organised for Saturday 13 th September
1997. All the usual traders will be there including Jochen
Merz. We are trying to get a few 'extra' internationals to
come as well, we will see. Hopefully the meeting will see the
British unveiling of the Goldfire add-on card for the Aurora
from Ron Dunnett, the prototype is close now, by September,
ready for retail? Zeljko Nastasic (Aurora, Goldfire etc.
designer) has gone to America for the time being, that may
slow things down a bit but equally may not alter the
September release.
Is there anyone else fed up of waiting for the Aurora
colour driver apart from me? It has been released and tried
by "the few" but it doesn't work correctly yet. I say Aurora
but it is actually anything that runs SMSQ/E with capable
hardware. I'm sure there are hectic bursts of programming
going on here and there, we know they won't let us down when
it's so close.
The post beckons, I will away.
'til next time, Dennis.
Terry Williams
26/05/97
GEAR: 2 JS QLs, 1JM QL,SGC,GC,TRUMPCARD,TWIN EHD
DRIVES,TWIN HD DRIVES,TWIN DD DRIVES,14", QMIMI MOUSE, GOLD
STAR COLOUR MONITOR , 9"SONY TRITRON MONITOR, 12" FERGUSON
GREEN MONITOR, SPECTRUM 48K WITH TELETEXT ADAPTOR
Hello Again!
MIKE: Many thanks for the spelling corrections to my
QL97 contribution, I was not feeling myself ('and we are glad
of that as it was getting a bad habit, did I hear you all
say?'), as I warned you in the first sentence.
NO PROBLEM MATE,I HAVE TO DO SOMETHING TO WARRANT ME
SITTING HERE!
I proceeded to get worse and ended up in The Royal Gwent
Hospital with a suspect minor heart attack!! . After a week
they let me out again and I now feel 90% again with a good
excuse for getting others to mow the lawn!. I am still under
the doctor (he ain't half heavy), I have got my licence back
after the statuary one month and am not so tied to the house.
I have been invited to join the Cardiac Rehabilitation
program for six weeks.
TAKE YOUR QL WITH YOU AND SHOW THEM WHAT A GOOD COMPUTER
WILL DO!
Its quite right hospital does soften the brain cells and
it takes a while to get back into the swing of things.=0C
Many thanks to all of you who added their comments about
my QPAC2 problems in QL97 It's marvellous to get so much help
and very much appreciated.
Thats all for now
Terry
P. McPHERSON,
24th MAY 1997.
Fraternal Greetings Everybody,
Current equipment includes: 3xQLs (AH roms), one fitted
with a Gold Card and twin Cumana 3.5" floppy drive, one with
a Trump Card and a single 3.5" and the third is a bare 128K
machine, an Amstrad DMP 3160 printer c/w a Miracle Serial
Interface.
Having had a bit of spare time whilst I was in hospital
last month, I was able to catch up on a bit of reading which
may be of interest to members with access to the Internet who
are also into photography or electronic imaging. There are
quite a few imaging programs available on the Internet,
either as public domain or as shareware. Good examples of
these are:
"NIH IMAGE" which is a powerful scientific image
analysis and processing program for the PC or Mac which can
also be used for image editing. It's adress is:
"http://rsb.info.nih.gov/nih-image/"
"LVIEW PRO" which is also primarily a scientific tool
which can also be used as an excellent image editing,
processing and manipulation package. It's address is:
"http://world.std.com/%Emmedia/lviewwp.html".
There are, of course, hundreds of Web sites dealing with
photography, digital imaging and computer manipulations run
by companys such as Kodak, Nikon, Polaroid, Agfa and Ilford
amongst a multitude of others. Ones that are really are worth
checking out must include:
Ilford on "htpp://www.Ilford.com"
Ansel Adams on "http://wwwadamsgallery.com"
Apple UK on "http://wwweuro.apple.com.uk"
Kodak on "http://wwwkodak.com"
UK Plus on "http://www.ukplus.co.uk"
Photolinks on
"htpp://;31www.ira.de/-klaus_s/photolinks.htr#3"
Speedgrapic_co.uk on "sales@speedgraphic.co.uk"
In terms of commercial software availability, all the
following require a MINIMUM of a 486 complete with Windows
95, 8Mb of RAM and a 75Mb hard drive. Thise worthy of
checking out include: Hama Photostudio at `100, Microsoft
Picture It! at `80, Softkey Photofinish 4 at `40, MicroGrafx
Picture Publisher 6 at `95, Coral Photo Paint at `199, IMSI
Picture This at `24, MGI Photosuite st `49.99 and Adobe Photo
Deluxe at `75. All of this software has to have VAT added to
it's price to give you the retail price.
All of this leads me to this months series of questions:
that one of the more experienced members of QLCI may be able
to answer for me:- Are there any decent, easy to use TIFF and
JPEG programs available for use on the QL equipped with a
Gold Card? What on earth is Aurora? Has anyone got any more
details on Goldfire?
INTERESTING QUESTIONS,ANYONE GOT THE ANSWERS?
Bob sends his regards and wants me to let you know his
jump IS from 15,000ft, but he will be doing a "tandum" jump
with an experienced parachutist! He's completed his first two
GCSE exams (Business Studies and Humanities) and only eight
more to go and then hopefully he will return to normal -
theres been no living with him of late because of the stress
and too many late nights revising.
PRESUMABLY HE HAS ALREADY MADE SOME JUMPS?AS THE
PARACHUTE SCHOOLS AROUND HERE WON'T LET THEM JUMP FROM THAT
HEIGHT EVEN IN TANDEM.ANYWAY GOOD LUCK TO HIM,THE HIGHEST I
EVER GOT TO WAS 12,000 AND I WAS PAID TO DO IT!
Yours Fraternally,
Paul & Bob
UNT NOW,VE HAF FRANKS MISSING LETTER!
FRANK MERRISON,
3-5-1997
GEAR includes 2 x JM QL's: Gold Card: DMP: Epson Stylus
800 printer:
2 x HD disc drives. Knee deep in paper & problems!
Mike! I don't know what has gone wrong lately but I am
having trouble reading the disc on it's return. My guess -
for what it is worth - is that the problem is conected with
the fact that the newsletter is being compiled on a PC. (your
favourite machine!) A copy I got from Colin Murphy was OK and
I believe that he gets his from the "net".
AH!SO WE DO HAVE SOMEONE ELSE WITH THE SAME PROBLEM,IS
ANYONE ELSE EXPERIENCING THIS PHENOMENUM?
I don't think I can offer anything this month as I have
been very busy since my QL went haywire one evening when I
switched on my printer. The QL failed along with the Gold
Card. Tony replaced a couple of chips at the London workshop
& AGM and all seemed well. I also got a replacement Gold Card
from QBranch. That evening the QL on it's own was OK until I
plugged in the new Gold Card where upon that went on the
blink as well.
To cut a very long story short It now appears that the
QL still has some sort of fault in it. The second new Card
works OK in my spare QL but not in the repaired one. Oh! well
back to Tony! I also managed to blow up my son's PC power
pack and a replacement proved to be unobtainable although the
machine is only two years old. The result is that we had to
take it to a professional in Harrow who salvaged SOME of the
parts and built a new PC. Fortunately the hard disk was OK
because a lot of Franklyn's work was on it including the bit
that enables him to plug into IBM's computer system.
As I said I just havn't had time to breathe lately.
Sorry I can say no more. After twelve years I really
have run out of things to say - perhaps the time has come for
me to give up!
NOT UNTIL YOU HAVE WRITTEN ALL YOUR QL EXPERTISE DOWN ON
PAPER,THERE THAT SHOULD KEEP YOU WITH US A FEW MORE YEARS!
Frank Merrison
Mike Dodd
19 May 1997.
Gear Now Working;
QL + TRUMP 896K
Minerva 1.92
3.5" and 5.25" Drives
Plus an EPSON FX 80 Printer.
Dear Mike + Members,
As CH5 seems to be a problem with
some members, here is a list of channels for it.
Transmitter Ch. Transmitter Ch.
Belmont 56H Londonderry 31V
Black Hill 37H Mendip 37H
Black Mountain 37H Mounteagle 67H
Blaen Plwyf 56H Nottingham 34V
Burnhope 68H Oxford 49H
Caldbeck 56H Perth 55V
Cambrett Hill 37H Plympton 30V
Chelmsford 63H Presely 37H
Churchdown 48H Redruth 37H
Craigkelly 48H Sandy Heath 39H
Croydon 37H Selkirk 52H
Durris 67H Sheffield 67V
Emly Moor 37H Storeton 39V
Fawley 34H Tacolneston 52H
Fenham 56V Tay Bridge 34V
Huntshaw Cross 67H Winter Hill 48H
Lichfield 37H
This is a copy of Page 597 of CH5-Ceefax.
As you see it is not just CH37.
NO WONDER PEOPLE ARE HAVING PROBLEMS WITH IT!
All the Best ,
Mike D.
Darren Branagh,
20th , 1997.
QL & COMPUTER GEAR INCLUDES: 2QL's one JS and one Running
MINERVA v1.97, Miracle Trumpcard, Microvitec CUB 653 Monitor,
Twin NEC 3.5" DS/DD Drives & Twin Miracle DS/DD Drives both
joined by a Miracle Disk Adaptor (flp1_ to flp4_), 150+ Disks
of Software, Epson EPL4000 Laser Printer, Serial 8056 Thermal
Printer, Joysticks, SERmouse, Tandata 3 stack Modem, American
Megatrends 386 Power PC, Zenith Minisport 286 Laptop PC,
Cambridge Z88 Laptop, Sinclair ZX Spectrum 128K +2a, Sinclair
ZX81, Zeon 128K Personal organizer, Shergar the Racehorse,
Lord Lucan, etc.
(And now my Brother M1109 9-pin printer which I found in the
loft!)
Hi everybody,
Thanks mike - If I hadn't been up in the attic last month
looking for your spectrum software, I'd probably never have
found my old Brother M-1109 printer up there - which I used
to use with the speccy. It couldn't have come at a better
time, too - as my Laser is still in need of repair, and I
don't relish the thought of spending over `100+ getting it
running just yet. I'd completely forgotten about the M-1109.
DILWYN:- RE: Channel 5, funny you don't get it, as over here I
can just get a very, very, bad picture in B&W - and no sound
whatsoever. I thought you might be a lot better off in Wales.
Still, 5 broadcasts now on Channel 63 via Astra 1D, so you
can watch It on Satellite - I'm watching the 9 O'Clock movie
as I write. And yes Mike, Sky 1 on a Saturday afternoon is
"Trekkie Heaven" - I haven't seen a live footie match since
they started the 4 hour trek fest!!
BTW, Dilwyn, The joke book is nearly ready - I've been
changing some stuff to be QL related - its a QL joke book
after all - Hopefully it should be ready for ql100 - I'll
send in a clean censored version!!
THAT'LL BE A CHANGE FOR AN IRISHMAN!
GRAHAM D. LUTZ:- Re: the new front end - I personally don't
think quill is needed on the disk, as this would take up a
fair amount of space, and we all have a copy of Quill already
- how about comfiguring it to load quill via Flp2_, from a
copy we own already, and not from the same disk? This should=0Cfree up =
at least 200 sectors or so on Flp1_. Just a
suggestion.
I also think that one of the biggest advantages of the fact
that QLCI is disk based is that some wonderful programs can
be included every month - unlike Quanta or QLtoday - although
both of these run libraries or occasional cover disks, we
have this available each and every month - The point being
that all too often the disk is less than half full. I'm sure
some of you have written some excellent progs and are afraid
to send them in - do it! I try to send in at least one prog
every month, some of my own, and some PD. Hopefully the 100th
issue will be a truly excellent one, and packed to the hilt
with progs and useful info. I think it would be a terrible
shame if it wasn't.
WE ARE TRYING TO DO AT LEAST 3/4 OF THE DISC WITH PROGS IF NOT
MORE,AND HOPEFULLY GRAHAM WILL BE PUTTING A NEW ONE ON IT AS
WELL.
MARTIN WHEATLEY:- I thought I was right about Steve Jobs -
Thanks for the clarification. Mind you Its hard to keep up -
Steve Wozniak is now in an advert on telly for U.S. Robotics
- the modem manufacturers, even though hes back at apple as
an advisor!
MIKE DODD:- I liked the idea of a Speech QL, I have an
original Currah Microspeech Unit which I used to use with the
48K speccy I gave Mike last month. Let me know if its of use
to you. It includes the PCB and the phono leads etc, and the
manual, and is still in the original box from 1985.
Anyway, I'll sign off - I'm working on a few things for next
months 100th - see you then!
WOULD IT BE POSSIBLE FOR YOU TO CO-ORDINATE YOUR EFFORTS WITH
GRAHAM LUTZ?
Included on the disk is RE4MAT - a quick disk reformatter prog
- I got this from QLTODAY - in a very different form, in
german, by Jochen Merz and it was originally three separate
progs (one each for DD, HD or EHD disks) and I wrote the
three progs together into one for convenience, and made it
more user friendly. I find it useful and it saves a lot of
time.
MAYBE THIS WILL CURE THE DISC PROBLEMS I AM HAVING,I'LL TRY IT
AND SEE.
Darren.
P.S. Hilary sends regards - hes busy putting the finishing
touches to a prog for next months disk. BTW, who is the best
person to send a sick gold card to for repair these days??
TRY ROY WOOD,ANYONE ELSE KNOW WHO?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
#! Martin Burke,
12th , 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.
Graham Lutz: I never print out the newsletter. But what is
meant by "Smashing Quill"? Is this a form of zipped file? Also,
who/what exactly is this cover disk meant for. If it is "QL
Today" we cannot answer for all its readers.
WE HAVE NO INTENTION OF ANSWERING FOR ALL THE READERS OF QL
TODAY,SOME WILL LIKE IT SOME WON'T ISN'T IT ALWAYS THE WAY?
I don't think I can offer much for the "QL Today" cover disk.
Except perhaps to mention the idea of an "EncyQLpaedia" that I
first mooted years ago. I am still surprised by the amount of
information and tips available. The real problem often is knowing
what you are looking for before you search for it. One of my
first quibbles with quill was the inability to save just parts of
the file to disk. It was ages before I found out that I could
"print" to a file. I may have actually read this somewhere in the
manual(s) but it would not have made sense to me before I needed
to use it. An "EncyQLpaedia" would need to anticipate the
confusions an ingenue encounters: not an easy task, when so many
related novelties may be involved. For me printing meant paper:
printing to a file was a nonsense. An index heading something
like "Transferring files and part files to media and RAM" would be
needed along with all the words that cover this: save, print,
export, ... It should also link to the way disks can be formatted
- or partially formatted - to different densities.
The number of variables involved in meeting someone's exact
requirements can be awesome: usually the solution is less than
optimum. And happily that keeps me happy most of the time, if
only because I don't know any better.
Yours,
Martin Burke.
#!
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