********************
QL
CLUB
INTERNATIONAL
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ISSUE 118
December 1998
MIKE KENNEALLY
E-MAIL MIKEKENNEALLY1@COMPUSERVE.COM
WWW.GEOCITIES.COM/SILICONVALLEY/VISTA/4807/
ANY AND ALL SOFTWARE SENT TO THE CLUB/NEWSLETTER WILL BE TREATED
AS PUBLIC DOMAIN UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED.
HI ALL,
ONCE AGAIN I MUST APOLOGISE FOR THE LATENESS OF THE NEWSLETTER.I
HAVE YET AGAIN DROPPED A BIG ONE.
THE STORY IS THIS,I CAME TO A POINT WHEREBY IT WAS A CHOICE
BETWEEN UPGRADING OR BUYING NEW.TO UPGRADE TO WHAT I THOUGHT WOULD LAST
ME A LIFETIME WAS GOING TO BE EXPENSIVE,SO I WENT OUT AND BOUGHT NEW.
I NOW HAVE A TIME COMPUTER,K6 400mhz,DVD,PCTV,13gb HARD
DRIVE,WINDOZE98 AND ALL THE OTHER BELLS AND WHISTLES,THE ONLY PROBLEM
IS THAT IT DOESN'T LIKE THE QXL CARD OR THE SPARE HARD DRIVE WITH ALL
MY QL FILES ON IT,SO HAVING PASSED MY OLD MACHINE ONTO MY DAUGHTERS,I
HAVE STILL GOT THE QXL RUNNING.I AM HOPING THE QPC WILL WORK WITH W98
SO I CAN BUY IT AND INSTALL IT ON MY NEW SYSTEM.
ENOUGH OF MY PROBLEMS ON WITH THE NEWSLETTER.
JC,I WILL PROBABLY HANG ON TO YOURS AND SEND YOU 2 ISSUES.
#!
Colin Baskett
2 January 1999
EQUIPMENT: QL FITTED WITH SUPERGOLD CARD; MkI MINERVA - version
1.82; SUPERHERMES; SMSQ/E; 170 MB HARD DISK; SINGLE 3.5" HD DISK DRIVE;
SINGLE 3.5" ED DRIVE; PHILIPS COLOUR MONITOR; SERIAL MOUSE; PRINTER
EPSON Stylus COLOR 200; XCHANGE 3.90L, etc..
Dear Mike,
Sorry to have missed one (or is it two?) contributions. I can only
plead pressure of other activities. Will try to mend my ways. I would
greatly appreciate it if you could copy the missing issues on my disc
and I enclose a spare disc if that is needed. My last issue was 116.
NO PROBLEM COLIN,I KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE.
There has been some discussion about copyright. Perhaps I should
clarify the position of QUANTA as I understand it. We no longer claim
copyright over material published in Quanta. I think there were two
reasons for this change: (a) some authors were unwilling to give up
their copyright and (b) we received informal advice that we should not
claim copyright over material for which we had not paid. Robin Barker
has suggested that authors who wish to retain copyright should add a
notice to that effect but I do not think we make any assertion about
matter otherwise being PD. I am writing from memory so I should be glad
to be corrected.
Re- Wendy's BJC 4200 and Mike's question "HAVE YOU GOT YOUR
DIP SWITCHES SET RIGHT", the printer in question does not appear
to have dip switches. At least there is nothing in the user's
manual about dip switches. The only way indicated for changing
emulation mode (e.g. from Epson LQ to Canon BJ) is via the (PC)
software disks provided with the machine.
I now have a different printer problem. Having been given an
EPSON Stylus COLOR 200 as a present, I find that I am at a loss to
access the scalable fonts with which the machine is said to be
equipped. The User's Guide provided with the machine says
" ... fonts can be selected from 8 to 32 points in 2-point
increments through your software or by sending an ESC/P 2TM
command. See the documentation that came with your software for
information on selecting the the size of scalable fonts."
The documentation in question is on (DOS) disk and I have not
found any way of accessing it from my QL. The User's Manual does
list the available printer commands under general headings such
as, e.g., "Page format:" or "Font selection:" but without
indicating what parameters, if any, are required and indeed
without any comment. I imagine that it is one of the "Font
selection" commands that I need and there is one, "ESC X", which
does not occur in the list of Canon Epson LQ emulation commands in
the Canon BJC-210 Programmer's Manual that I happen to have. The
BJC-210 does NOT support scalable fonts.
Does anyone know what the ESC/P 2 printer control code for
scaleable fonts is and what parameters it takes ?
Best wishes
Colin B
#!
#! Martin Burke,
20th December, 1998.
Dear Mike and Friends,
JM version + Trump 768 + HermesLite + twin 3.5" disks, JS +
Super Gold Card, Philips CM8833 colour monitor (under repair) and
its Tandy twin, 8056 printer, Epson RX80 F/T, and Brother HR10
daisy-wheel printer; PSION3a, Z88.
I think I can confirm Cyril's still going, still keen on
graphics. I think it delights him that he can produce "works of
art" via computer. I never could produce art in any form but
did not care about it either. One of Cyril's abilities is an
uncanny skill at finding(?) holes in systems so that they no
longer work as they should - or even not at all. I think Cyril
knows less about the QL/computing than I do but he is only
concerned with being able to deal with the graphics.
Unfortunately his happy unawareness may allow him to mess systems
up. But he does it with such art!
I KNOW THE FEELING MARTIN,I DON'T KNOW HOW HE DOES IT BUT IT
KEEPS HIM HAPPY AND NO DOUBT SOMEONE MAKES A FEW QUID FROM
MENDING HIS SYSTEM!
And on other messed up systems, Mike: I was copying a backup
disk with many differently dated files. I do not want to reset
the QL clock for each file: there has to be a simpler way.
Doesn't there?
Yours,
Martin Burke.
#!
I DON'T KNOW DOES ANYONE OUT THERE KNOW?
!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#
J.C.Marcus
27-12-98
GEAR: Aurora + SGC, Minerva 1.97/SMSQ/E, Hermes, Qubide/100M ZIP DRIVE,
2xHD, CUB 653, Epson LQ500; JS QL with GC and 2xDD
Hello Again All,
First, thanks again Mike for sending me the back issues for the year. I'm
not sure when this will get to you, but could you please send me all issues
post QL117.
I guess I'm at least 1 issue behind, but never mind, here goes. I note you
have "4 dead QL's" lying around. I wonder if you've ever tried publishing
details or "symptoms" in the newsletter to see if you can get any of these
resurrected?? It might make a change from your endless tales of PC woes
{:-))}. In my experience, most "routine" problems with electronic equipment
can be traced to bad or dry solder joints. On the QL side, I've managed to
destroy a couple over the years, by stupidly switching on printers or
monitors while the QL itself was on. What usually goes then is the ULA -
the ZX8301/2 or CLA2310 ic, which is very sensitive to the spikes generated
by doing something silly as above. I stand to be corrected, but as far as I
can remember, the display then gives red and green vertical stripes, and not
much else happens.... Of course, if all else fails, you could try Tony
Firshman, who offers a QL repair service.
I HAVE 2 WITH NO KEYBOARDS,1 WITH A SCHON INTERFACE(IN BITS)AND 1 WITH A
SNAPPED PIN OR 2 IN THE EXPANSION SLOT.I AM IN THE PROCESS OF AQUIRING
ANOTHER(WORKING ONE)FROM ANDREW PRATT.SO I SHOULD BE OK FOR NOW!
There has also been a few "moans" recently about the small size of the
newsletter, and how few people are bothering to write. Although this is
quite true, could it also mean that people are having less problems with
their QL's??? We live in hope, I guess.
I THINK THE MAIN THING IS THESE DAYS IS THAT THERE ARE FEWER "BEGINNERS"
WITH A QL,WHICH WAS ONLY TO BE EXPECTED REALLY.AS THIS WAS SET UP AS AMEDIUM
FOR NEW USERS,A LOT OF PEOPLE DON'T WRITE AS THEY STILL SEE US AS THAT,PITY
REALLY AS WE COULD LEARN A GREAT DEAL FROM PEOPLE WHO ARE WILLING TO HELP
GUIDE US ALSO I THINK ITS THE THOUGHT OF HAVING TO SPELL THINGS OUT FOR ME
ANYWAY,IN WORDS OF ONE SYLLABLE OR LESS THAT PUTS THEM OFF.
Martin Burke: From QPAC2 Files Menu, "Copy" will change the file date;
"Backup" won't. I'm glad to see that more and more are {finally} getting to
grips with the PE/QPAC2. Despite all comments to the contrary, I really
believe that this has to be the way forward. I remember when I first
started playing with the tutorial that comes with QPAC2, how my jaw just
dropped further and further towards the floor. This is definately the bit
of QDOS missing when it was first launched (along with ALL the other missing
bits....).
Finally, if my words published here are no longer my words, can I freely
libel all and sundry? Great!! Now, for a start, *%*%**%CENSORED$%#^#+*
Bye for now,
JC
!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#!#
Dilwyn Jones
dilwyn.jones@dj.softnet.co.uk
=============================
Email : dilwyn.jones@dj.softnet.co.uk
Gear: Black Pentium PC + QPC + Canon BJ10sx printer; Toshiba T2400CS
laptop + QPC; MinisQL-Aurora + SVGA monitor; JM QL+Gold Card + HP
Deskjet 320 printer.
Dear Mike,
Hope you've got over Christmas. I hope it didn't get in the way of
your QL activities. I also hope you didn't blow up your PC and QXL too
many times!
NOT TOO OFTEN DILWYN,BUT HOPEFULLY IT WONT BE MUCH LONGER BEFORE I AM
UP AND RUNNING AGAIN.
My Aurora is working again - it's now in a MinisQL case, but it only
came back just before Christmas, and I've been too busy with QL Today
to use it much - more about the MinisQL in the next issue perhaps.
I enclose some clipart to go with this issue for the new year. It's
Calendar type clipart, one picture for each month of the year. Two ZIP
files - one contains the clipart in QL 512x256 Mode 4 screen format,
while the other contains the same clipart in Line Design pages format.
All Freeware, as usual.
In case anyone doesn't know how to unzip these, here are simple
instructions.
You need a copy of UNZIP. You can get this from most sources of QL
software,such as PD libraries and bulletin boards and QL related Web
sites. You can get the latest version from Jonathan Hudson's Dead
Letter Drop site(www.jrhudson.demon.co.uk)
I assume you will be unzippig the files from FLP1_ to FLP2_. Make sure
the disk contaning the zip files and UNZIP is in FLP1_ and a blank,
formatted disk in FLP2_. Enter these commands to unzip the screens
version:
DATA_USE FLP2_
EX FLP1_UNZIP;'FLP1_CALSCRS_zip'
DATA_USE FLP1_
or to unzip the Line Design pages version, substitute FLP1_CALLDPS_zip
for FLP1_CALSCRS_zip. Hope someone finds a use for these pictures -
might be useful if you have a colour printer and a plain blank
calendar perhaps!
The Graphics Viewer I sent in a few months ago has a bug in the HP
Deskjet printer driver which gives an error message with some files.
I'll send in a revised version when I manage to fix it.
Dilwyn Jones
December 29, 1998 Y2K In 1999: Plumbing the Reality of the Problem
By Mitch Ratcliffe - ZDY2K
How big, broad and bad will Y2K be? By the time January
1, 2000, rolls round, we will know almost exactly what will
happen. Approximately a fourth of the problems with
computers and computational devices will already have
happened, during 1999.
The 1,999th year of the Common Era will be the year that
provides the first really useful examples of real-world
errors that people need to plan for. Tracking these events
should allow you to assess the true risk you face as the
Year 2000 approaches. Many institutions and companies
will begin their Fiscal 2000 business years during 1999,
and several key dates represent potential failure points for
embedded systems. If government or corporate payroll
checks stop flowing, or if the management systems for
key infrastructures fail during 1999, you can count on
many more such problems in 2000 and 2001. If not, then
there is substantially less to worry about, because
potentially catastrophic failures are not the exclusive
domain of post-2000 dates.
According to the Gartner Group, only eight percent of all
date-related errors will happen on January 1, 2000. Some
problems began to strike as early as 1996, when
calculations first encountered post-1999 dates on credit
cards, inventory and other data. Gartner's director of Y2k
research, Lou Marcoccio, believes the majority of Y2K
errors will strike over the next three years, in relatively
equal portions. After 2001, a few problems will continue to
strike as "dormant code" in legacy applications
occasionally triggers errors.
Two key dates, the beginning of Fiscal Year 1999 for 46
states on July 1, 1998, and for the federal government on
October 1, 1998, have already passed without noticeable
effects. On each of these dates, computers in government
agencies began to look forward into Fiscal Year 2000 to
perform projections and calculate benefits. Errors were
expected, no significant interruption of government
services occurred.
There are several critical dates to keep an eye on,
including January 1, 1999, because they will put
speculation about catastrophic problems to the test as
computers begin to use 2000-dates. Also, these dates
will demonstrate how human systems respond to the
errors -- if checks keep flowing despite computer errors,
that will be evidence that contingency plans are working;
and failures will show where better plans are needed.
January 1, 1999 This is one of the biggest days in the history
of computing, because two critical formatting problems will
converge in real-world applications to cause problems.
First, many computer applications, such as inventory,
benefits, banking and credit systems, will begin to look
ahead into 2000. When they do, the chances that an
unrepaired Y2K problem could trigger a problem are high.
The result, miscalculation of expiration dates on
time-sensitive inventories, errors in checks produced to
pay employees, beneficiaries or suppliers, under- or
over-estimation of interest on credit accounts, and many
other potential problems.
The U.S. expects some problems with unemployment
benefits due to look-ahead calculations, beginning on
January 1, 1999. Thirteen states and the District of
Columbia have applied short-term patches to their
systems to enable them to continue to issue benefits
checks. Whether those fixes hold, and how they
accommodate post-2000 calculations, will tell much
about how other federal computers will handle the date
roll-over later in the year.
Secondly, the new European currency, the Euro, goes
into virtual use on January 1, 1999. Although it will be
virtual at first, used to calculate exchanges of older
European currencies, the presence of Euro-denominated
calculations in systems that previously dealt only with
dollars, marks, pounds or other existing currencies could
wreak havoc on transactions.
Many of these January 1 problems will not appear until
the second day of the year, because they will be
processed in batches after the close of business or after
midnight, so January 2 may be the first date to generate
recognizable errors.
January 4, 1999 The first working day of 1999 is
probably the most important date for getting a bead on how
computers will handle Y2K problems, because it is the first
day that new data will be entered in most systems that are
looking ahead to 2000. New data represents risk, because
older files may be isolated from date-based calculations. For
example, if you buy a television set on which you will not
pay interest until 2000, the salesperson will enter the data
into the store's computers, which will pass it along to the
credit company computers for processing. If either of
these systems has a Y2K problem, now is the time it will
malfunction.
What do you want to look for as evidence of problems on
these early 1999 dates? Well, headlines exclaiming the
loss of benefits checks by pensioners is a good place to
start. But also keep an eye on your own bills, particularly
the ones generated by Christmas buying, which will being
to accrue interest in January, 1999. A late invoice or an
error on your bank statement will tell you that this is a
company to keep your eye on.
April 1, 1999; July 1, 1999, and; October 1, 1999
Each of these dates is the beginning of an important
fiscal year for government. On April 1, Canada, Japan and
New York state begin their Fiscal Year 2000. Forty-six
states begin Fiscal Year 2000 on July 1st. The U.S.
government starts its Fiscal Year 2000 on October 1.
For all intents and purposes, these dates are the real
beginning of 2000 for government benefits and programs.
And, because government is the largest consumer of
virtually every product and service on earth, it is a
critical date for suppliers and companies that depend on
payments from government. If errors occur in government
computers, interfering with the payment of Social
Security, Medicare, veterans or other benefits, a large and
very influential segment of the population will immediately
be in an uproar.
Two indicators to keep an eye on are: the earnings
warnings of companies that are highly dependent on
government for their revenues -- an interruption in
government procurement processes or payments will
show up in these corporate statements about upcoming
earnings; and the credit/bond ratings for these
governments, which would be downgraded if there is a
change in their ability to pay creditors.
April 4, 1999, and September 9, 1999 These are the
infamous "Nines Problem" dates, which may be interpreted by
computers as either nonsense dates or an order to end all
processes. Programmers sometimes used a string of four nines
in the date field to denote infinity, which would be
understood by the application as a date that didn't exist, or
to indicate an "end of process" that would shutdown the
application. April 9, being the 99th day of 1999, and
September 9, being the ninth day of the ninth month of 1999,
are expected to trigger some of these Nines Problem errors.
If it happens, it will be proof that programmers' shorthand
can produce terrible problems, and would indicate that
applications are also highly susceptible to date-related
errors around the beginning of 2000.
In our opinion, the Nines Problem is a massive red
herring. Neither of these dates would be formatted as
"9999," since even Y2K-susceptible applications use a
six-digit date field (00/00/00) to represent the date. April
9, 1999, would be formatted as "99/04/09" and September
9, 1999, as "99/09/09."
The "9999" string was selected as a nonsense or
end-of-process date because it would not occur in normal
operations using dates recognizable to humans. Granted,
some programmers may have erred and used date
formats that generate "9999" (for instance by counting the
days of the year, not the day of the month, you would get
"9999" on April 9th). This will be the rare exception, not
the rule, since at minimum applications accommodate
six-digit dates.
July 1, 1999 If the look-ahead calculations performed
during 1998 and early 1999 don't generate errors, July 1
represents one of the last critical dates for this type of
error. Applications that apply six-month windows to processes
will begin to perform calculations using post-1999 dates on
July 1.
August 22, 1999 The Global Positioning System, the
network of satellites that allows planes, trains and other
infrastructures to identify the precise location of a
receiver on or above the earth's surface, reaches the end of
its built-in calendar at midnight, Greenwich Mean Time, on
August 22. The system will rollover and start at the
beginning of the calendar, again, operating for approximately
20 years(1024 weeks to be exact). Some people expect massive
logistical errors on this date.
If a company or agency is using an older GPS receiver,
manufactured before 1994, there is a chance that the
rollover will affect the management of traffic. The GPS
system does count time in weeks (actually it's 0 - 1023
weeks, for a total of 1024, which some argue is another
problem, that GPS systems won't be able to deal with a
"0" week. It won't be a problem.) However, the week does
not come into play in a GPS calculation, except at the
instant the system rolls over. GPS calculations deal in
milliseconds. A GPS receiver determines its position by
triangulating difference in the time it takes for signals
from two GPS satellites to reach it, a matter of
milliseconds.The only time the week would enter into the
calculation is as the system rolls over from Week 1023 to
Week 0.
A GPS receiver that is not prepared for the date
rollover would think that the one or both of the satellites
had taken 18 years to send a signal that should have taken
less than a second. It could not calculate its position
accurately. In some cases, the reciever would simply fail
to function, but in most it would just produce a weird
reading. Most commercial users of GPS have upgraded
their systems. For example, the Federal Aviation
Administration, a major user of GPS data, has upgraded
its systems to handle the system rollover, as have
airlines.
If the GPS system rollover does cause problems, it will
bein routing of traffic. An airport with an outdated GPS
receiver would have to revert to ground-based positioning
systems, like radar. But, as noted, the likelihood of a
GPS system error is low, because almost all hardware in
the US has been upgraded.
December 31, 1999 By the last day of 1999, there will be
plenty of data for analyzing what will happen as the calendar
rolls over to 2000 across the globe. This, however, will be
the most interesting and, possibly, anticlimactic days to
come along in a long time, perhaps since, at the end of the
first millennium, rapture-watchers were disappointed by
Christ's failure to return.
Throughout the day on December 31, parts of the world
will be entering 2000 ahead of others. Likewise, some
computers have been programmed to treat this date as
nonsense, when the computer is no longer supposed to
function. Many computers expected to fail on January 1,
2000, may do so today if they have not been repaired.
The global air traffic control system will roll over to
2000 all at once, at midnight, Greenwich Mean Time, on
December 31, or at seven o'clock in the evening in New
York and four in the afternoon in San Francisco. That's
the time to watch the skies, and the airports, for disaster
and long lines.
What will be happening? If Gartner Group is right, and
only eight percent of the world's Y2K problems will make
themselves known on January 1, 2000, there may be little
to report as the world turns from December 31, 1999.
Those expecting a wave of catastrophes may be treated
to an underwhelming reality.
Whatever happens By the end of 1999, the facts will be
in. Either there will be a tremendous amount of evidence that
the Y2K problem is going to bring major infrastructures and
business processes to a grinding halt, or there won't be.
There will be little support for the "we can't predict what
will happen" school of thought on Y2K, because much will
have happened.
Public awareness of these problems, and especially of
the fact that the problem will be as much as a third of the
way complete by December 31, 1999, is critical. The
impression shared by many, that the whole Y2K problem
will strike on January 1, 2000, should be laid to rest.
Based on the facts collected in 1999, society and
individual organizations will be well armed to plan a
response to Y2K.
BLIMEY!,AFTER ALL THAT.I THINK I'LL GO TO SLEEP TILL ITS ALL OVER,CAN
SOMEONE GIVE ME A WAKE-UP CALL IN 2005,IT SHOULD HAVE SORTED
ITSELF OUT BY THEN!
AND ON THAT HAPPY NOTE I SHALL BRING THIS ISSUE TO A CLOSE.
(
geocities.com/siliconvalley/vista) (
geocities.com/siliconvalley)