********************
QL
CLUB
INTERNATIONAL
********************
ISSUE 117
NOVEMBER 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.
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR
HI ALL,
WELL AS THIS IS THE LAST ISSUE BEFORE CHRISTMAS,IT MEANS IT'S THAT
TIME OF YEAR AGAIN,THE SAME OLD EXCUSES,NO YOU CAN'T HAVE THAT,WHAT DO
YOU THINK I AM MADE OF MONEY! SCROOGE IS HERE AGAIN!
ANYWAY MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM MYSELF AND ALL MY FAMILY, DON'T FORGET
THERE IS AN ISSUE AT THE END OF THIS MONTH!
I AM AMAZED,NAY,GOBSMACKED,HERE IT IS CHRISTMAS ONCE AGAIN AND
MOST OF YOU HAVE NOT WRITTEN,EVEN A FEW LINES JUST TO SAY MERRY
CHRISTMAS.WHAT HAVE WE ALL DONE TO DESERVE THIS?
I KNOW THAT THIS TIME OF YEAR WE ARE ALL BUSY,BUT IT TAKES BUT A
FEW MINUTES TO WRITE AND E-MAIL A FEW LINES.I HOPE IN THE NEW YEAR WE
SHALL HAVE A BIT MORE INPUT FROM SOME OR ALL OF YOU,THAT WAY IT STOPS
US FROM BECOMING STALE.THOSE OF YOU WHO DO WRITE ON A REGULAR BASIS ARE
THE BACKBONE OF THE NEWSLETTER AND FOR THAT I THANK YOU,BUT IT WOULD BE
NICE TO GET SOME FRESH INPUT AND INSIGHT INTO EXACTLY WHAT YOU DO WITH
YOUR QL's.SO COME ON AND TELL US.
IF YOU ARE AN ABUSER LIKE ME TELL US,NO-ONE IS GOING TO LAUGH.IF
YOU ARE A TECHNOPHOBE,TELL US,BUT PLEASE IN WORDS OF ONE SYLLABLE SO
THOSE OF US WHO AREN'T CAN TRY TO KEEP UP WITH YOU.
THERE MUST BE LOADS AND LOADS OF QL INFORMATION OUT THERE,THAT
PEOPLE HAVE SORTED FOR THEMSELVES THAT OTHERS COULD FIND USEFUL.LITTLE
PROGRAMS YOU HAVE WRITTEN AND ARE PROUD OF,SHARE THEM WITH US,SOMEONE
MAY FIND IT IS JUST WHAT THEY HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR.
SOME OF YOU MAY HAVE BEEN USING PROGRAMS A CERTAIN WAY THAT HAS
NOT OCCURRED TO OTHERS,SHARE IT WITH US.DON'T FORGET WITH THE DEMISE OF
A LOT OF SOFTWARE HOUSES OVER THE YEARS WE HAVE COME TO RELY ON OUR OWN
INGENUITY.MAYBE SOME OF THE THINGS YOU HAVE WRITTEN COULD BE EXPANDED
UPON COULD BE OF COMMERCIAL INTEREST,SEND US A DEMO,YOU NEVER KNOW!
ANYWAY ENOUGH SAID,I HOPE IT HAS THIS TIME GOT THROUGH AND WE
SHALL BE HEARING FROM MORE OF YOU IN THE NEW YEAR.
Can anyone tell me how to write a boot program to launch Archdev
for Archive?
Thanks - Basil Lee for Martin Jonzen.
BASIL IS AS FAR AS I KNOW STILL LOOKING FOR AN ANSWER TO THIS,I AM
AFRAID WHEN I WENT TO THE MANCHESTER SUB GROUP MEETING,JOHN GILPIN WAS
ON HOLIDAY SO I WON'T SEE HIM TILL JANUARY NOW.SOMEONE ELSE OUT THERE
MUST HAVE SOME HELP FOR HIM.
To: Mike Kenneally, MIKEKENNEALLY1
From: Christopher M. Catotti, KD4ACE
Date: 18/11/98, 05:27
Re: ClubQL Newsletter
Dear Mike,
I mistakenly thought you were in the U.S.A.
I live in Oviedo, Florida, U.S.A. No, I do not
yet receive QL Today. The following is a copy of
a message I already sent you, and a copy of a
message from Roy Wood.
Sincerely,
Chris Catotti.
==========================================================
Please add me to the e-mail list for ClubQL newsletter.
I am looking for a QL machine to buy. I have a
Timex/Sinclair 1000, a ZX81 and a Cambridge Z88. I have
enjoyed using Sir Clive Sinclair's machines so much, I
thought I should try a QL. Do you know of any QL's for
sale?
Best Wishes,
Chris Catotti.
kd4ace@compuserve.com
============================================================
>Dear Roy Wood,
>
>I have used a Timex/Sinclair 1000 and ZX81 before, and now frequently
>use a Cambridge Z88. The Z88 offers me 20 hours of work on a set of
>batteries. My pentium notebook won't even last an hour before the
>battery dies. So when I'm on a business trip I type on my Z88 and
>transfer files to the pentium.
>
>My old office mate use to use a QL at home as his primary computer,
>and with my growing interest in Sir Clive Sinclair and his machines,
>I decided to get a QL and try it out. Any how, I must confess that
>I don't know exactly what a "standard JS ROM QL" is. I assume the
>GOLD CARD is a QL-compatible disk controller card. Yes I would like
>a gold card. I will pre-pay the cost and shipping. Shipping should
>be via postal service to:
>
Hi,
I will ask the cost of shipping and let you know the cost. I will be
getting a couple of second user Gold Cards sometime in the next few days
and I usually check them over and upgrade the ROM to the latest version.
The Gold Card is a memory expansion/ extra processor and disk controller
card. The regular JS ROM QL (JS was the last ROM version of the
operating system) has a 68008 processor. The Gold Card replaces this
with a 68000 which speeds things up by about 10 times and adds 2Mb of
memory. It will address two 1.44Mb disk drives. The cabling for these
drives is different to the standard PC cabling.
If you have two drives the drive that the PC sees as the 'A' drive is,
in fact, drive 2. If you are able to make up cables then cut the ribbon
at line 9 and line 11 and twist it through 180 degrees. This will make
line 10 /12 and 12/10. This will make the straight through cable flp1_
and the twist flp2_. I can make this for you is you wish.
The drives themselves are standard although the format is of the disk is
QL. There is a lot to learn about the way the QL works but welcome to
the happy club.
The magazine and catalogue will be in the post this week.
Regards
Roy
--
Roy Wood
Q Branch
web site : http://www.qbranch.demon.co.uk/
================================================================
I HAVE PUT THIS IN TO SHOW HOW WE CAN HELP ANYBODY WHO WANTS HELP,SO WELCOME
TO OUR MERRY BAND CHRIS,ANY HELP YOU NEED OR WANT FROM US THERE IS USUALLY
SOMEONE OUT HTERE TO PUT YOU ON THE RIGHT ROAD.
Email : dilwyn.jones@dj.softnet.co.uk
GEAR: JM/Minerva QL+Gold Card+ED drives+HP Deskjet 320; P90
Black PC and QPC with Canon BJ10sx printer and ZIP drive;Toshiba
T2100 486DX2/66 with QPC.
Dear Mike,
Apologies for missing the last issue, hope this contribution
makes it in time for QL117.
Blame it on Darren Branagh - he took the step of setting up
in business as a QL software trader (Q-Celt Software) and got me
to update all my old software from DJC days to re-release them. If
nothing else, it kept me out of mischief and taught me how quickly
your own programming can fall into self-disrespect when you
shudder in horror at some of the silly programming techniques you
used all those years ago to ensure your programs didn't work on
modern hardware with hires screens and so on.
THAT'LL TEACH YOU DILWYN!
On top of that, Darren's had me writing this program called
EasyBase, a simple to use little database program. If you've
mastered Flashback and DataDesign, EasyBase won't appeal to you,
it's a fairly primitive little database program for people who
find Archive, DataDesign etc a bit difficult to learn. Enough of
the advert, back to the newsletter. Just explaining my absence. On
the other hand, since Mike did suggest writing up a program in
detail, I may just do that about EasyBase. And what about getting
Darren to tell us a bit more about himself now he's joined the
brave world of the QL traders? (Just don't mention Bank Of Ireland
millenium bug testing to him, that's all)
THEY SHOULD USE QL's DILWYN,IT DOESN'T SUFFER FROM IT!
My Internet Service Provider (ISP) - Soft-net - has announced
a major change in its service. They are now joining the group of
ISPs offering a free Internet access service. Soft-net is owned by
Software Warehouse, a giant PC product retailer and mail order
outfit. In fact, Soft-net will offer a two tier service, the free
one (with downsides like you have to pay about 50p/minute for
telephone support and you get little or no Web space to set up
your own pages), and what they call the 'Gold' service for `4.99
per month where they say you get free telephone support, better
user to modem ratios, up to 50MB of Web space, multiple email
addresses and so on. I hope to stay with the Gold service, as I
don;t think `4.99 per month is too much for the level of service
they promise. And if I can learn how to set up a Web site,
sometime in 1999 I'll set up the Dilwyn Jones Web Site - you have
been warned! And if you're really naughty, I'll put a picture of
myself on it! Seriously though, if anyone has experience of this,
or can recommend which software to use, I may need help to get it
all started. I did go on an HTML course some time ago, but I've
forgotten it all and anyway it was purely HTML, no experience of
the bloatware PC software I'll probably have to cope with. If I
really get 50MB, I'm sure I can pack a lot of QL free stuff such
as my PD programs, clipart etc onto that for download! 50MB will
hold a hell of a lot of QL software. And just think of the QL
Today advert I could put in there...
WHAT SOME PEOPLE WILL DO TO GET FREE ADVERTISING! SERIOUSLY THOUGH,DO
YOU GET COMPUTER ACTIVE?,ONCE A FORTNIGHT FROM YOUR NEWSAGENT OR BY
SUBSCRIPTION AT 99p AN ISSUE.IN THERE THEY HAVE FOR THE LAST FORTNIGHT
BEEN DOING A STEP BY STEP GUIDE TO SETTING UP YOUR OWN WEB PAGES,THEY
HAVE BEEN USING ADOBE PAGEMILL AND YOU CAN DOWNLOAD A TRIAL VERSION
FROM WWW.ADOBE.COM IT SEEMS PRETTY STRAIGHT FORWARD,THEY EVEN USE
LANGUAGE I CAN UNDERSTAND.THEY EVEN EXPLAIN LINKS TO OTHER SITES AND
COUNTERS TO SEE HOW MANY 'HITS'YOU GET.VERY INTERESTING AND EASY TO
USE.
I did hear that there is someone out in Austria attempting to
write or port TCP/IP protocols to QDOS or SMSQE (don't know
which). Some way to go yet I understand, but with any luck by this
time next year we might all be happily surfing the net from the
comfort of our QLs. Necessity has made me familiar with Internet
Exploder and M$Mail or whatever it's called, but I think I'll
still feel more comfortable in my safe little QL environment. Put
this down as my wish list for 1999 along with wishing I'll finally
learn to use Prowess. The incentive to learn Prowess I think will
be Paragraph, the pointer driven Prowess based wordprocessor from
Francois Lanciault in Canada. You can stick pictures and tables in
it and use the Prowess outline fonts. This first version is free,
you can get it from most Web sites (try Thierry Godefroy, PROGS
and JMS for example). For those without Internet access, the PD
libraries will probably supply it in due course. Francois is
releasing this first version into free circulation, and presumably
using the feedback to create an enhanced version 2 or whatever.
It's in your interest to register with Francois in advance of
that. Some people reported problems with V1.00 of Paragraph, as in
it wouldn't run on some systems, but you need the latest 1998
version of Prowess for it to run. If it works well, and people
like it, Paragraph could be one of the reasons for staying with
the QL, along with the possibility (at last!) of Internet access
and/or email from the QL.
THIS SOUNDS VERY PROMISING DILWYN,I KNOW YOU WILL BE KEEPING US UP TO
DATE ON DEVELOPMENTS IN QL TODAY,BUT KEEP US INFORMED AS WELL WILL YOU
PLEASE.
To be fair, emails have already been sent and received from
QDOS. Doug laVerne in America has been doing this for years (see
his QL Today articles) and Jonathan Hudson has made TCP/IP
available for uQLx emulator users, which is a start.
I've sold my ALT286+QXL, and my Aurora-based system packed up
(again) so my house is a little less cluttered than it was a
couple of months ago. The main bits of my Aurora system are being
cannibalised into a Minis-QL by Keith Mitchell, so hopefully I'll
be able to write about that here in the new year. Thank goodness
I've still got a QL and RomDisq, I feel a bit vulnerable relying
on just a PC as my main system, as Colin Baskett suggested he did
when his tower cased system went down, even though QPC is an
excellent emulator. I'm sure Mike will agree with me that Roy
Wood's term Potential Catastrophe applies to these damn Windoze
machines fearfully accurately.
VERY MUCH SO DILWYN,THE ONLY PROBLEM BEING AT THE MOMENT FUNDS ARE
SCARCE AND THE PRICE OF QL's ARE HIGH,I HAVE 4 DEAD ONES IN THE
DRAWERS UNDER MY BED,BUT IT IS JUST POSSIBLE TO GET ONE WORKING,IF I
ONLY KNEW HOW!
I've just had a copy of the new freeware Turbo Toolkit
version 3b27 from Mark Knight and David Gilham. He has asked me to
distribute it as widely as possible on the QL scene, so when I've
got my act together I'll put it on a QL Today cover disk and
perhaps zip it up for inclusion with Club QL as well? Meantime, if
anyone wants a copy, send me a disk with return postage (or 2 IRCs
from outside the UK). I can email it, but be warned, it's quite
large and needs about half a DSDD disk if I remember correctly.
Among the improvements listed that I know of so far are:
No direct access to system variables (this was in fact also
true of existing version 3 releases from DP Ltd)
Better operation with Minerva
Tested on a wide variety of modern QDOS and SMSQE and Minerva
systems
Bugs fixed in TYPE_IN and COMMAND_LINE, improvements to
ALLOCATION, DEALLOCATE and SET_PRIORITY. COMPILED now even works
in QLiberator
The toolkit can now even be installed as an SMSQE module for
those who know about such things.
Demos_bas file updated
Turbo compiled program patch system included - patches
startup code in older compiled tasks to remove hard coded
references to system variables for use on more modern systems.
New functions to handle long words as strings - useful for
handling database type applications where you need to be able to
store 32 bit values in fixed length strings or to peek and poke
them directly into heap memory.
Facility to poke a floating point 6 byte value directly into
memory for advanced users.
New FWINDOW% function for handling large hires screens.
Toolkit fully ROMable (although Mark thinks versions from
3.00 have been ROMable).
Martin wrote about copyright issues. In theory, all you have
to do is to clearly state that something is your copyright and
it's your copyright, presumably you have to be able to prove it
was your work and when it was done, but claiming copyright on
something is not hard. Enforcing it is harder. But here on the QL
scene we generally appreciate copyright issues - as a whole we
don't rip off people and we're fairly generous too, witness how
many PF/freeware progs there are compared to commercial ones.
Authors like Jonathan Hudson even specifically allow people to
freely distribute copies of their magazine articles (read the
footnote he added to QL Today articles, for example). But that's
the difference between making something public domain and making
something freely copyable - public domain means anyone can do
anything with it more or less, whereas with freeware, you keep
rights to it, but anyone can copy it for themselves or others as
long as they don't make a profit of it. I agree with what Martin
says about the newsletter heading and these issues in general -
even if you think you don't need permission to copy something it
is usually polite to ask first, and I have good experience of
asking and finding the original author offering me something even
better (more recent programs or information) as a result.
POINT TAKEN MARTIN/DILWYN AND MY APOLOGIES.YOU ARE CORRECT IN WHAT YOU
ARE SAYING AND OF COURSE IT IS POLITE IF NOTHING ELSE TO ASK FOR
PERMISSION FROM THE WRITER BEFORE USING THE WORK.
Martin also wrote that Tony Firshman made V1.89 of Aurora
available for emualtor users in N. America as Frank Davies did not
give free permission to use Sinclair ROM versions over there.
Presumably you meant Minerva Martin? In fact, what Frank requires
is that people have the politeness to ask, and he has given some
people who asked permission to use ROM images and in Tim Swenson's
case copies of the QL manual on his Web site. This is another good
example of the QL community in action - by asking you will often
get this extraordinary helpfulness.
Nice to see you and the others at Byfleet Martin. I got to
speak to several Club QL members there, apart from Graham I think.
Andrew - I had a good laugh after reading about the plot to
break into Mike's house and improving his system. We could almost
form a benevolence (can't even spell that!) society secretly going
round improving PCs all over the country by installing QDOS on
them! As to Frank Davies, he and I have managed to tread on each
other's toes once or twice too. Frank is a busy guy, he and his
wife sell products for 3 or 4 different computers and in my
experience he's reasonable if asked politely (that WASN'T a dig at
you BTW). What he was trying to do was to protect rights he's paid
for a while back. Once I realised this had cost him money, and he
was just looking after his permission, I didn't find his attitude
objectionable. If asked by the people concerned, he may well have
given permission. I got the impression he's more interested in
keeping track of who's using the ROM images etc rather than
threatening to make people pay for using them, and this doesn't
seem unreasonable once the matter had been clarified. The QL FAQ
lists apparently make it clear he owns rights in N. America. As it
is, Tony Firshman's idea of releasing an older Minerva version
makes this less of an issue. I still don't know the updated
Amstrad/Sinclair position, though.
Andrew Pratt - nice to see you back again. Looking for a job?
I think Mike could do with a full time PC/QXL consultant!
WHO COUDN'T?
Paul McPherson - Steve Johnson's PD library has been taken
over by Phil Jordan. Not too sure when he'll be in full swing, but
he was at Byfleet in a limited capacity. His address is:
42 Hawthorne Crescent, Cosham, Portsmouth, Hants., PO6 2TP.
Telephone 01705-370574
Don't forget, if you want any particular piece of QL PD
software, as it is PD and freeware, anyone can copy it for you.
Just ask if anyone's got a copy and chances are dozens of copies
will land on your mat in a few days thanks to your Club QL
friends!
On the subject again of the idea of traders and authors
describing their products in this newsletter to get around the
'where can I get information' syndrome, it's worth noting that
most of the traders have leaflets about their products on their
stands at shows. If they could be persuaded to send in the text of
their leaflets on disk for those who can't or don't go to shows,
that would be one small step in the right direction.
THIS IS A GOOD IDEA DILWYN,ESPECIALLY FOR THOSE FRIENDS WE HAVE
OVERSEAS WHO CANNOT GET TO A SHOW.IS IT POSSIBLE WHEN YOU DO YOUR SHOW
ADVERTS IN QL TODAY TO SEND US A COPY OF IT TO INCLUDE,AS IT IS QUITE
POSSIBLE ONE OR TWO OF THE READERS WE HAVE DO NOT SUBSCRIBE TO QL
TODAY,ALTHOUGH THEY SHOULD!
Regarding your idea of making a video to explain aspects of
the QL, I think there is a similar idea to hapen in the USA. They
are planning two shows (one on each coast) in 1999 and I think
they hope to video the presentations at the first show and use it
at the second where lecturers can't make both shows. I wonder if
they'll make the video available to all and sundry after that?
SO LONG AS IT IS IN UK FORMAT SO WE CAN WATCH IT ON OUR VIDEO'S!AS YOU
CAN SEE FROM ONE OF OUR NEW FRIENDS,HE IS IN A POSITION TO HELP,MAYBE
YOU COULD LIASE WITH HIM.
Colin asked about screen dumps. There is a commercial program
from Jochen Merz called LDUMP for doing screen dumps (I know
nothing much about it) and I seem to remember that there was a
Canon screen dump routine on one of Steve Johnson's library disk.
There are some printing programs in Quanta library, but I don't
know if there is anything specific that would help with what you
want to do. Inkjets like the Canon suffer from the problem (like
others) that their emulation of Epson graphics is a bit of a
compromise, and their pixels (printed dots) are square-ish,
whereas the same picture on screen doesn't have the same square
dots - the aspect ratio on screen can be as much as 33% different
to a screen dump. End result - the screen dumps look a bit
squashed or stretched. Dumps can be written to repeat the
occasional line to stretch an image to look more like it does on
screen but this increases programming complexity and slows things
down. Where the image includes screen text, it can make this look
horrible, imagine that the repeated line happens to fall on
horizontal line parts of text (e.g. the middle stroke of Es or the
bottoms of Ls) parts of the text looks thick and not normal.
Some printers let you specify different modes for graphics.
Dot matrix printers often let you specify CRT 1 or CRT 2 graphics
modes, which had the effect of making the proportions as printed
more like how they looked on the screen, but this depended on your
graphics software knowing how to use these modes, that you could
tell the screen dump software to use these print density modes,
which wasn't always easy. Modern inkjets don;t always have the
full selection of modes in their emulation.
Writing printer drivers and screen dumps especially can be
among the most irritating and time consuming aspects of
programming, and certainly for software support. No matter how
good a job you think you've done of writing it, you'll always get
endless calls from people unable to get it to work. This may be
why so few people choose to contribute articles about it?
IT'S NOT THAT DILWYN,OVER THE YEARS FRANK HAS TRIED TO DRUM THESE
INTO MY HEAD AND PEOPLE HAVE PROBABLY GOT SICK TO DEATH OF HIM
REPEATING HIMSELF FOR MY BENEFIT.THE NUMBER OF TIMES HE HAS SAID THE
SAME THING TO ME AND IT STILL HASN'T SUNK IN IS BEYOND COUNTING!THANK
GOD HE HAS THE PATIENCE TO TRY!
Some printers have emulation mode control from software and
document it. On some printers, you have to change a little switch
inside (or on more modern printers, change a front panel setting
which is remembered by the battery ram or flash memory in the
printer). Annoyingly, some printers have software switching
facilities and even their programmers reference manuals don;t
document them, as you found Colin. If I can find the information,
I'll pass it on. As Mike said, if we can find what the printer
codes are, it is sometimes possible to insert the codes indirectly
in the text of a document, or you may be able to set up an ALTKEY
to do the job.
BLIMEY,I SAID SOMETHING RIGHT!
Finally, Colin asked about linked lists. I don't know much
about these. But anyone feeling mischievous can wind up Jochen
Merz by asking him if he's got his QD98 double linked list sorting
facilities working yet (he was close to blowing a fuse when I
spoke to him last about it).
Just a reminder that the deadline for any material you would like
publicised via the news pages of QL Today Vol 3 Issue 5 is December
15th.
All news items gratefully received. We seem to be a little short for
some reason this month.
Dilwyn Jones
dilwyn.jones@dj.softnet.co.uk
I KNOW THE FEELING DILWYN!
Hi Mike
I found the QL page by chance on the internet.
Help! my QL is dead. has been for many years, I want to revive it
but I know there is a burned out chip in there somewhere. Is there a
repair place I can mail the unit to for repairs? Im in New york City
(USA).
I didnt know there was such a following to the Sinclairs since I
got out of it about 15 years ago (wow).
but Im interested in getting back and having fun with it. I have
all of the Sinclairs computers and the color computer was my fav.
can you help me>? please.
Larry
LARRY,YES WE HAVE FOUND A SOLUTION TO YOUR PROBLEM I HOPE.THERE IS
A LETTER IN THIS ISSUE WHICH SHOULD HELP YOU OUT,IF I TELL YOU WHERE
YOU WILL MISS OUT ON OTHER THINGS,WELL I HAVE TO GET PEOPLE TO READ IT
SOMEHOW!WELCOME TO OUR MERRY BAND AND AS I HAVE SAID BEFORE WE ARE HERE
TO HELP IN ANY WAY WE CAN.
Hi Mike,
You can now send me "zip" files. I have Mime Tools working, thanks to J. R.
Hudson and his wonderful port of this program.
OK now for the article:
Stuff: Aurora with 14" SVGA monitor, QUBide with 2 drives, SGC with 2 1.44
drives, Cardinal 33.6k modem, sHermes, SMSQ/E, QPAC2, plus misc. software,
also the original "Black Box".
I read in the last issue you were looking for more input from folks, here I
am.
The last issue "spoke" of making teaching videos. I work for a local cable
company,they have a department called "Public Access". It allows almost
anybody to borrow a camera and shoot a "show". Then return and edit the
"show" using our equipment.
They will show you how to use the equipment if anybody is unfamiliar with
its use.
This way you could make a "master" tape from which to make dubs.
OK, now on to a small rant. I am tired of people saying 'you can't do this'
or 'you can't do that, with THAT computer! When I purchased my T/S1000 I
received a promo for access to CompuServe. I used it with great success
with them as well as their access to the internet. I then got a T/S2068
and logged onto many a BBS with it. I also started our company newsletter
with it and "WordMaster". I now have my Aurora and 'surf' the web all the
time. My provider is Delphi. They have a program called LYNX that allows
you access to the internet. My set-up is faster than "Big Blue" as I
don't have to wait for graphics and advertisements to download!
Lynx is very easy to use, you can go anywhere with it just like the 'other
guys'.
I have downloaded upgrades for programs with no tribble at all.
STAR TREK CREEPS IN AGAIN! THATS THE TROUBLE WITH TRIBBLES!
So we CAN do what the other guys do. You might have to look a little
harder, set-up a little more in our programs, but they do almost the same.
If you have any questions or want more info, write me here or e-mail:
mckelveyw@delphi.com
I could use a little help of my own. Does anybody know how to set-up
GhostScript with Exorcist properly so I can read "pdf" files?
GRAHAM LUTZ SHOULD BE ABLE TO HELP YOU THERE,HIS E-MAIL ADDRESS SHOULD BE
ON THE ATTACHED LIST.
QL forever,
Bill McKelvey
To: [unknown], MIKEKENNEALLY1
From: Ian Pizer, [100675,632]
Date: 17/11/98, 17:20
Re: QLCI
====================================================================
from:
e-mail 100675.632@compuserve.com
17.11.98
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
My Gear: AURORA, SGC v2.49, Minerva v1.97, SuperHermes v1.05, QPAC2 v1.38
SMSQ_GOLD v2.85. 2 key mouse via QIMI. 2 DD/HD/ED drives.
QUBIDE v1.56, 2 Hard Disks (Connors 420MB, Seagate500?MB).
All in a Mini-Tower.
EPSON Stylus 800 BW Printer. ZyXEL U-1496E modem.
Sony monitor Multiscan 200sf.
Hi All
It is rare that I think of writing to this newsletter though I enjoy
reading the news but I would like to find a solution to a annoying
problem.
I KNOW IAN,BUT IT'S ALWAYS NICE TO HEAR FROM YOU ANYTIME.
Using PC and W98 and various ways of communicating I like to hear
what the modem is doing. With AURORA and QTPI this works fine and I hear
the modem chatting softly and I know when something has stuck and I need
to start connecting again. (The init modem (ZYXEL U-1496E) code is
ATZ&N0&R1 and the pre is AT&D0M3DT it is the M3 which controls the
speaker, M0 shuts it).
However, when I use Netscape all goes quiet and the text info does
not warn of a hitch so either one waits and hopes or cancel and
re-connect if the connection takes too long (much longer than with
AURORA/QTPI).
Some comms programs have a separate SCRIPT file to connect to the
modem. Netscape does not seem to have one.
I tried searching for M0 in Netscape files without success (using a
PC program called TextPad which will search in HEX or text). Any ideas
how to make the modem speak using Netscape? .
Cheers - Ian
=========================================================================
Email: torm1358@aol.com
Dear All,
Well, another busy month has gone by and I'm still unemployed.
Things have happened both on the QL level, and on the personal level.
Thanks to a passing comment from Dilwyn in the last ClubQL
issue, I realised that there was to be a Quanta meet in Byfleet. I had
some other things to do so I didn't get along until late in the day.
Personality wise, I met Ken from the Surrey group, Dilwyn (to whom I
gave thanks) and Cyril (from the London group). After the lively
discussions on the internet, I had hoped that there would be some new
hardware and software at the show. Unfortunately,neither the Coldfire
nor either of the WP appeared. So I contented myself with updating
QPAC2 and Qshang. I was also impressed with Thesaurus/grammar-checking
programmes and will purchase copies when funds allow. Tony Firshman
continues his excellent support for the QL with a couple of new
products,Mplane and IBOX. Mplane is a small back-plane to be used for
QLs in small boxes. IBOX aims to be a mini-computer for controlling
robots. Unfortunately,there is still no date for a new version of
Minerva. I also spoke to Roy Wood from Qbranch, an active member of the
email group. It was good to put a face to a 'voice.' I don't think
Progs made an appearance.
IS CYRIL STILL GOING! I HOPE HE'S STILL NOT WANDERING ROUND WITH A
HANDFUL OF PRINTOUTS OF PICTURES HE HAS PRINTED OUT,ASKING PEOPLE IF
THEY LIKE THEM AS HE USED TO.NICE BLOKE,BUT IF YOU'VE SEEN ONE
MANDELBROT YOU'VE SEEN THEM ALL!
Jochen, unfortunately, put a damper on my hopes for the continued
development of QL emulator on the Apple. He had spoken to the author.
The author, he says, has given up his aim of writing the emulator in
PowerPC native code(which perhaps wasn't necessary anyway). But more
worryingly, Jochen suggested that the author has also given up writing
the low level drivers, such as Apple directory support, needed to make
conversion of SMSQ worthwhile. This is a bit of a blow because it
means we won't be able to use all of the Apple screen and be limited to
the original screen sizes. Also, navigation round the Apple directories
will remain awkward.
THATS A SHAME BUT MAYBE IN THE FUTURE WHO KNOWS,I MEAN HE MUST
HAVE NEARLY FINISHED THE EMULATOR SO HE'S NOT GOING TO LET IT SIT
AROUND HALF FINISHED IS HE?
I think that is all I can remember from the show.
As I said in my last missive, I've discovered a slight problem
with my new version of the PE and Minerva/Apple emulator. There was
slight incompatibility with Minerva and the emulator in that if the
mouse was moved while the PE was redrawing windows, parts of the window
would be left unupdated. This bug did not appear (as far as I can tell)
with the JS rom. This is obviously an obscure bug and has only
manifested itself twice so far. It is probably due to the slow speed of
my emulator more than anything else (I hope to provide a review of the
emulator separately). However, the latest version of the PE produced a
more active bug. This time, although the mouse would move the pointer,
it seems that PE would forget where the pointer was and not activate
any active windows below the pointer. That is, as the pointer moves
over bars and buttons, they were not highlighted as active. This was
not a problem under my previous version of the PE. Since I was'testing'
Qshang at the time, the bug manifested itself as an inability to select
tiles. If the pointer is moved using the arrow keys, then PE does see
the active windows. This suggests an incompatibility between
PTR_GEN/Wman and the Apple-mouse interface programme supplied with the
emulator.
More seriously, when I retrieved my QL from the loft and set it
up using my brother's monitor (powered through the QL), the QL crashed
and then refused to work. I wasn't sure if it was because the cold in
the loft had affected the QL, or the move from Oxford. Anyway the
problem is this. When from idle,the QL is turned on, it boots up
normally. However, after a while (I haven't timed it yet), it just
crashes;- PE slowly seizes up and then everything stops.
Reseting the QL does not work. The screen will either remain
blank, or the Minerva logo will appear, but no more. That is, the
system does not see the Qubide, SuperGold Card, etc. The hard disk is
spun and appears to be read, but the system does not boot. I thought
the hard disk had crashed, but as I said,if the QL is left for a while
(until cold), then it will boot up again normally. Any ideas before I
call Tony Firshman? The only difference with this set up was that I was
using the QL psu to power the monitor. Previously, I had powered the
monitor through a separate plug.
Despite these current problems, I am pleased with my current set
up of a boxed QL and an emulator and have decided to get rid of my
remaining original black kit. So, any offers for the following:
Original boxed QL, with Falkenburg PC keyboard. But NO rom (used
for boxed QL)
HOW MUCH FOR THIS ONE AND GOLD CARD,I CAN USE ONE OF MY SPARE
ROMS.E-MAIL ME.
Original boxed QL, with JS ROM, but microdrives continously whir
if no cartridge in slot
Gold Card
Trump Card (700K)
RGB monitor
Assorted microdrive cartridges.
Miracle serial-parallel printer cable.
An original QXL
I know Miracle have had a bad press recently, but I still think
it is sad to lose another manufacturer.
I KNOW AND I HAVE ALWAYS FOUND HIM TO BE ONE OF THE FRIENDLIEST
AND EASIEST BLOKES TO TALK TO AS WELL.
Personally, I have had a busy month. We returned to Korea for my
brother-in-laws wedding. Now, to go to Korea just for a wedding is a
bit much. Normally,I probably wouldn't have bothered. However, since I
am a specialist(sic) on Korea and am looking for employment, I couldn't
really turn the chance down. I spoke to several people, including a
headhunter so hopefully something will come out of the trip.
I HOPE SO MATE,AFTER ALL THAT WORK YOU DID IT WOULD BE A SHAME IF
NOTHING CAME OF IT.
Colin B asked about BJ10-sx and printing graphics. I have a
similar problem(except that mine might be a -ex). Anyway, the problem
is that Prog's ProWes comes with a disk-manual. My printer prints from
Text87 OK, but when I tried to print the ProWes manual using Prowes,
the printer went into barney mode.
Luckily I was able to stop it before too much paper was wasted. I
will have a look to see what my current dip-switch settings are, but
any help is appreciated.
My current project, computer wise, has been to create a web
site. The first attempt can be found at
http://members.aol.com/torm1358/homepage.htm.
That's it for this month,
Yours,
Andrew Pratt
USING THE Q-EMULATOR ON AN APPLE POWERBOOK 165
The Apple Powerbook is a portable computer using an Motorola 68030
at 30Mhz (I think). It is a rather old product (i.e. 5 years) and so
cheap enough for a student to buy. The Q-emuLator, from Daniele
Terdina, allows me to have a portable QL.
I have successfully used the emulator with both JS and Minerva roms.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to use SMSQ with the emulator.
In fact, the Powerbook is a little too slow to run the emulator
properly. I suspect that with the JS rom, I am getting speeds of
something like 70% of the original QL,but with the Minerva rom, it
appears to be around 90% of an original rom. That is, the emulator is
much more useable with the Minerva rom. I also generally install the PE
environment, which of course, also adds a small overhead to the speed
of the machine. Of course, with a faster Mac, the difference in speed
would be far less obvious.
With a slow-speed QL like this, it is possible to see the
machine 'think,'and it is interesting to compare how the JS and
Minerva roms do things differently. Generally, the JS rom seems to plod
through things at an even pace. Like the tortoise, it will get there in
the end, but is in no hurry to complete any one task. In comparison,
Minerva seems to zip along. This is most noticeable with screen
handling. Everything is calculated and drawn evenly by JS. Minerva
though, appears to pause for a little thought, and then draws the
screen far faster. This difference is even noticeable with the PE
environment.
I use two WP programmes. I use QD to write notes because it
produces and ASCII file as you have typed the document and it can be
ported to almost any WP programme. It is this programme I use during
lectures for note-taking. For more serious written work, I use Text87
plus4. QD only works under the PE environment. QD is useable under JS
(and Minerva), but it is too easy to fill the keyboard buffer up. The
keyboard buffer is, in fact, very good because you get both the QL
buffer and the Apple keyboard buffer, so it is possible to type a fair
pace faster than the QL displays the words. However, if you type for
more than a minute or two without a pause with the JS rom, then the
buffer will fill up and characters will be lost. The same problem
occurs with Minerva except that its effect is delayed because Minerva
works faster and so processes more characters before the buffer fills
up. Under normal conditions,say, typing two sentences and then pausing
for a few moments to think or listen to the speakers next point, then
QD with Minerva is perfectly useable.
The slow speed of the emulator has exposed one bug in the
emulator/QD. This is that when you enter newline when the buffer is
fullish, then the following characters are often lost. Mr Terdina
reports that he can not replicate this bug so it must be due to a quirk
of using the emulator on a slow Mac.
However, Text87 on the JS rom is virtually unusable. Obviously,
the PE adds an overhead so I created a minimal boot which just loaded
Text87 to try and squeeze as much speed out of the machine as possible.
However, although Text87 was faster, it still was not really useable.
However, with Minerva, things are a little different. With the PE
environment installed, then it is possible (with a little patience when
large fonts are drawn) to use Text87 to read documents. Page redraw and
typing though remain painfully slow. However,without PE then Text87 is
more useable and WPing can be done reasonably well,though things are
slow and one can only really type short sentences with pauses for
thought.
I do not have an Apple printer so have not tried printing via the
emulator.
There are a few annoying features on the Apple side though. The
first is that with the 165 there is a roller ball in the middle of the
palm rest. Knock this when you are typing and (in QD), the curser will
move and your typing will appear somewhere else in the document. Worse,
Mr Tredina has obviously had difficulty getting the Apple directory
structure to communicate with the QL files system. His solution has
been to have 'microdrive' slots on the Apple side. Using the Apple
file menu (which is far worse than the QL one) to move through the
Apple directories. This is a little clumbersome if you have the PE
installed because then one has to activate the files menu on the QL
side as well to manipulate the files. Usefully, and in contradiction to
Mac system operating rules, files delete does delete a file… Also
conveniently, Mr Tredina has made flp,mdv, and win all point to the
same device so one's current boot programme will work without
alteration.
The Apple special keys (ALT, CTRL, etc) and mouse operation are
also different from the QL system, but Mr Tredina has found acceptable
alternatives. He is also free with memory allocation with far more
memory is available than currently available in the QL world (excluding
other emulator-based systems). One of the best features is the ability
to turn sound off,and control the speed of the emulator independently
to that of the Mac.
The mouse, however, has exposed an incompatibility between
Minerva and PE/Q-emuLator. Again, it is an obscure bug (only occurring
twice) and is probably due to the slowness of my set-up. I have found
that if the mouse is moved while the PE is drawing a window then PE
seems to forget where it was and leave parts of the previous window
remaining on-screen.
One other PE/Q-emuLator bug has surfaced and this happened after
I installed the latest version of Qpac2. Now, although the mouse would
move the pointer,it seems that PE would forget where the pointer was
and not activate any active windows below the pointer. That is, as the
pointer moves over bars and buttons, they were not highlighted as
active. This was not a problem that occurred with my previous version
of the PE. Since I was 'testing' Qshang at the time, the bug manifested
itself as an inability to select tiles. If the pointer is moved using
the arrow keys, then PE does see the active windows.
This suggests an incompatibility between PTR_GEN/Wman and the
Apple-mouse interface programme supplied with the emulator.
All in all, I like the emulator and can't wait to get the money
together to get a faster Apple to run the emulator on. If I might be so
bold, I would like to suggest three areas that might be improved. The
most obvious is the file/directory system. I am given to understand
that Mr Terdina no longer has the time to develop a proper emulation of
the Apple file structure, or no longer thinks that it can be done. In
that case, I think the next best alternative is to split mdv, flp and
win as separate 'devices' pointing to user-defined directories. Since
the Rom allows for 8 such devices, the three names would allow a total
of 24 directories to be specified, which should be enough for most
purposes. However, only mdv1/2 need be changeable after boot,all the
others could be fixed. My second idea is to link the PE and the Mac
system slightly better. The Mac allows text to be copied, and so does
Mr Merz's excellent Menu/Scrap system. So, if data is copied into the
Apple stuffer-buffer, I would like the Q-emuLator to test if the Scrap
system had been installed on the QL, and if so, allow the data to be
copied to the QL scrap buffer. Of course there are problems, there is a
size restriction on the QL side that presumably does not exist with the
Apple, and the Apple will also happily put graphics into the buffer,
which the QL can not handle My third wish would be for an emulator
module for the Minerva's battery-ram, which would allow the storing and
retrieval of defaults.
NICE REVIEW IAN,COME ON YOU LOT OUT THERE IF IAN CAN DO IT SO CAN
YOU!
*!
Martin Wheatley
martinw@wheatleym.freeserve.co.uk
PC running PC Xchange and Q-Emulator
Well not really a lot to say this month.
The only thing I can find to reply to from last months
newsletter is Andrew Halliwell's statement that Q-Emulator
is free. It's not! It's time limited shareware which
for those who don't know means you get a few days to try it
and then it stops working unless you pay for it
Martin Wheatley
SHORTEST ONE IN 117 ISSUES MARTIN,BUT I GET THE MESSAGE.
Michael Kite
24th November 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
Well its nearly the offical time of good cheer again so hears wishing
every one a merry christmas and a happy new year.
Mike could you please send me a copy of this months mag (QL117).
I hope you have got your computor and its soft wear sorted now. It is
very frustrating when you think you are going to get a lot of things
done, only to find it will not do what it did yesterday.
TELL ME ABOUT IT MIKE,I'M SAT HERE WITH EVERYTHING CROSSED!
I have just re_arranged the room were the computers are set out to give
me a bit more room. However the time I have had to use them this year
has been very limited. This has been due to working away from the
factory and getting home late alot of days.
The wife and I took a trip on the eurostar train from Waterloo to
Brussels a few weeks ago. It is a great way to travel and took 2hrs .38
mins total. It travels at 180 miles per hour in france and is only in
the tunnel for 19 mins. You do not even see the sea and the ride is so
smooth.
YES MIKE,BUT YOU DON'T SAY IT TOOK YOU 6 HOURS TO GET TO
WATERLOO,ANYWAY TO BE POLITICALLY CORRECT IT IS NO LONGER TO BE CALLED
WATERLOO NOW WE ARE IN EUROPE.GOD ALONE KNOWS WHAT IT IS TO BE CALLED
AGINCOURT,PERHAPS? I APOLOGISE TO OUR EUROPEAN READERS.BUT THIS IS
GOING TO FAR!
Wells thats it for now
Mike Kite.
!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#
J.C.Marcus
GEAR: Aurora + SGC, Minerva 1.97/SMSQ/E, Hermes, Qubide/170M HDD, 2xHD,
CUB 653, Epson LQ500; JS QL with GC and 2xDD
Hello Again Mike,
Just a quick note in order to put myself in contact again! I've just
been through the busiest summer of my life, workwise - really
incredible. If I did not mention it before, I work as a sound engineer
(ala Mr. Wood, but with a lot less hair), and the summer fiesta season here is usually quite busy, but this year was something else
altogether. Anyway, it's more or less over now, and I'm slowly trying
to get back to "normal".
GOOD MAYBE WE CAN HAVE YOU FOR THE WINTER,WELCOME BACK.
On top of everything else, I suffered the "obligatory" hard disk drive
crash in the middle of it all, and among other things, lost all my
copies of CQLI for the year. I've therefore enclosed a couple of disks
- could you please bring me up to date? I know I should have kept
backups on disk, but there's another lesson for me.....
I SHALL PUT AS MANY AS I CAN IN ZIP FILES ON THE DISCS.
The crash was actually quite strange, in that it took a couple of weeks
of "playing up" before it all went west. What would happen, is that
the system would boot up ok, and function normally for a while,
sometimes minutes, sometimes hours, and then the HDD would just
"disappear". I thought that it might have something to do with the
"Bad FAT" problem as described by Nasta in QL Today a while ago,
compounded by the "dirty" supply I have here. I therefore tried the
various solutions he suggested - a series termination board, ferrites
all over the place etc, etc, but to no avail. I wonder if anyone else
has had this problem?
OK, enough for today. Hopefully, I'll be able to be more regular now!
KEEP TAKING THE SYRUP JC.
Regards,
JC
!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#
P. McPHERSON,
YOUR Ref No: QL117
25th NOVEMBER 1998.
Fraternal Greetings Everybody,
Current equipment: JM QL with Gold Card, Cumana disk drives and an
Amstrad DMP3160 printer.
First off, can I thank Darren and Dilwyn for getting me a nice new
QL which is up and running very well - thanks a lot, it really is
appreciated!
Collin Baskett was asking about the feasability of using a QL with
a TV as opposed to a monitor. Well Collin, I have use an old portable
black and white TV which I picked up for `10 without too many
problems. Having said that, my primary use of my QL is word processing
and the odd data base. I have discovered that the biggest problem is
with left hand margins, but this can invariably be overcome by simply
resetting them. A portable colour TV would overcome the difficulty
that can be encountered when trying to recognise colours when using,
for the sake of argument QPAC 2 and green on black text is definitely
kinder to the eyes, but this has to be offset by the larger tube, and
therefore the more space, required by a colour set. So, my experience
has taught me that whilst a colour monitor is highly desirable, a TV,
be it black and white or colour, is a practical substitute for the way
I use my QL. My advice would be to connect your QL to your main
domestic TV and see if you can live with the results with the
applications you use the most. If you can live with the results, check
your local newspaper ads for a cheap TV which will keep you up and
running until you can get hold of another monitor. Make sure that you
check that such a TV has a wide contrast range before parting with
your money though - if it's flat, it's a sure sign that the tube has
had it.
I was a bit disappointed at the response to my suggestion in last
months newsletter regarding the creation of a series of QL related
video "tutorials". Of those voicing a view either way, thus far being
just 2 in favour, and 11 against the idea which hardy justifies going
ahead with such a project. This, of course, discounts any views
expressed in this months newsletter. Perhaps I was being a little over
ambitious, or perhaps it is just a question of being far too little,
far too late as far as the QL and it's users are concerned. It's a
pity that somebody didn't come up with the idea a few years earlier,
when there were far more users and suppliers around, the idea might
have been a little much more viable then.
THIS IS TRUE,MAYBE IT WOULD HAVE ATTRACTED MORE USERS IN THE
BEGINNING,BUT AS YOU CAN SEE YOUR IDEA HAS NOT FALLEN ON DEAF EARS!
BEST WISHES
PAUL & BOB
#! Martin Burke,
29th November, 1998.
Dear Mike and Friends,
JM version + Trump 768, JS+SGC + HermesLite + 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.
... So I finally managed to peruse "Ql115". A confusing
matter: at first it seemed there was only my missive in it. Just
lately I have been in the habit of NOT having a look at the
directory of the disk first. A quick phone call to Mike led to the
notion that I had posted it straight back to myself (though it took
long enough to arrive)! Mike had mentioned that QL114 had been
merged with QL115 but that had passed me by. When I - much later
- looked at the disk directory, I found that there was a QL116
there as well as the Ql115..
... So, as I did in fact mention the last time: that problem
with my HermesLite and new JS. I took both models down to the
November London Quanta meeting and found a volunteer with the
strength and foolhardiness to force the Hermes in where it
belonged. Result happiness. I can now use HD disks: more
happiness. I have even started using QPAC2. But copying from disk
to disk I was shocked to find out that all the files were copied
were given the date of copying - the current system/machine date -
rather than the original one. I could not find out how to avoid
this: if anyone knows, please give me a clue.
A SIMPLE SOLUTION MAYBE TO SIMPLE,LIKE MYSELF.WHY NOT CHANGE
THE CLOCK ON THE MACHINE USING SDATE THEN WHEN FINISHED CHANGE IT
BACK?
Mike asks "Am I weird or what?" Why does he need to ask? I
suppose we could put it to a vote.
YOU'VE GOT MINE!
Paul's idea of a demonstration video has much merit but I
fear the market would be rather small. It would also require a
great deal of thought as to what should be explained - and how.
I have dealt with the public domain thingy as a P.S. It
tends to go on a bit - oh, alright then, I tend to go on a bit -
and it could P..S some people off.
Yours,
Martin Burke.
#!
The concepts of copyright and public domain have both legal
and logical (philosophical?) aspects. It might help to think of a
right of way: there is a right to travel along the route but the
land still belongs to someone else, who can complain if harm is
done to it or their right of possession.
I never went much further than A level law - failed, though
naturally I passed Burke's Law - but I believe that copyright is
usually effectively automatic. Asking permission is not - normally
- a legal requirement so long as the quote is not over a certain
length. But correct attribution is sensible and any attempt to
claim that the words/sense were anyone else's could be actionable
in a civil court, whether or not the words/sense were expressed in
the public or private domain. The text of this newsletter has -
possibly - not been declared public domain: more of a private
conversation but we don't care - and are even pleased - if people
listen in. There are plenty of "ideas" which no-one can really
claim ownership of, though their expression of it may have a
different standing.
Thus if I state that it is easy to demonstrate that almost
any Conservative M.P. can be proven to be a least a little foolish,
a little mad or a little corrupt, I am merely stating a
commonplace. (This also applies to many non-Conservative M.P.s.)
For those who are interested, my proof is merely a listing of the
Tory government's privatisations, giving the value at which assets
were sold, the estimated value before sale, the actual market-value
after sale and the consequent loss to the national exchequer. The
mixture of this process of asset-stripping with the Tory claim to
favour "tax reductions" suggests at least illogicality: taxes could
have been reduced if the assets had been sold at "fair value".
All this is common knowledge, public domain: I can at best
claim copyright to "the way I tell 'em".
(
geocities.com/siliconvalley/vista) (
geocities.com/siliconvalley)