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ON 256 K Expander Boards
The response to the 40 dollar 256K boards was so good, the Akron group will be ordering a hundred blank boards and selling them at cost. That is about 10 bux a board bare, or 40 with the sockets installed and tested. Let us know how may you want. They will be available about Oct 1st. Cost after you purchase your own chips will be about $80.00. That is a lot cheaper than any other 256K available today. And if you star with a blank board, yoou can build a complete 256K (with chips) for less than 60 dollars. You can't beat than anywhere in the world.
Didn't think another article on Piracy would do it. So I went for a more interesting title.
This iMY GOD, I'M PREGNANT SAID THE QUEEN, WHO DONE IT.
There in one title we have RELIGION, SEX, ROYALTY and MYSTERY. Hope it got your interest again.
Didn't think another article on Piracy would do it. So I went for a more interesting title.
This is NOT on the evils of piracy, as we all know it is evil, threatens the existence of Adam, drives programmers from our midst and may be a contributing circumstance to several unwholesome diseases.
What I am proposing here is not meant to encourage piracy, nor to give those criminal types who engage in piracy an excuse to continue it.
ALL SHOULD STOP SOFTWARE PIRACY NOW. NO MORE THEFTS OF SOFTWARE.
But for the pirated software you PRESENTLY have in your possession, I suggest the following:
IF YOU find yourself with some pirated software (perhaps it was forced upon you, planted in your home by a jealous ex-spouse or for whatever innocent reason) what I am proposing is that you determine the retail value of that pirated software (NIAD, Adam House, Ruth, etc. will be able to let you know) and then VOLUNTARILY SEND PAYMENT of not less than 60% of the retail value and upto l00% of the retail to the software producer or programmer involved.
You can do this without fear of anyone connecting you with it by purchasing a money order, make it payable to the software programmer but where it says FROM , list yourself as Peter Pirate or Polly Pirate. Use 1111 Main St. Honesty USA as your address.
Then you can sleep better at night, the software programmer gets some return for his efforts, does not abandon Adam, turns out the piece of software we have all been waiting for, and everyone lives happily ever after. The End.
Seriously, I do feel that there is TOO much pirated software around and by those having it voluntarily make payments for it we can accomplish a lot for Adam.
I sent my money order yesterday.
If you live in an area where there is no other Adamite in hundreds of miles and your post mark will give away your identity, then follow the above instructions, make payable to the software programmer, etc. and mail to me. I will remail to the programmer for you and no one will be able to locate you from your post mark.
Barry Wilson
Please distribute as widely & as soon as possible.
NO DEADLINE. That's right, NO deadline for registration! We will continue to accept deposits as long as there is room at the inn. BUT... it's very difficult to plan without a reasonably accurate count of registrants; so please, PLEASE send your $50 (per adult... not necessary for kids staying with parents) to Monte Neece. IF YOU ARE WAITING BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT SURE YOU WILL BE ABLE TO MAKE IT, don't worry about cancelling later. You will get a FULL refund of your deposit.
To refresh your memory, ADAMCON 01 will be held in Orlando, Florida from October 7 to October 11.
Door prizes will include a hard disk interface, a Type III tape formatter, a serial interface, a pair of airline tickets to next year's convention (or any city in the US or Canada serviced by American Airlines), hotel accommodations, Disney tickets, and an incredible amount of software, some of which will be released for the first time at ADAMCON. MMSG, Elliam Associates, Pittman Enterprises, The ADAM Connection, David White Software, Gerlach Family Software, The SoftWORKS Factory, Wizard's Lair, ADAM'S HOUSE, E&T, NIAD... those are just a few of the retailers contributing software; more contributions come in every day. We also have newsletter subscriptions, PD volumes, Compuserve packets, and even certificates for free hardware repairs!
Showcased at the convention will be unheard of items such as Syd Carter's new extended datapacks, Chris Braymen's MIDI interface, and many other projects which are being kept under wraps but promise to knock our socks off. We believe we will even have a working video expansion module which is not due to be distributed until November by a Canadian enterprise. This item alone would be well worth the trip! Big John and AWAUG seem to have some tricks up their respective sleeves, too... it gets more & more exciting!
Bargains galore: 30% off EVERYTHING IN THE MW RUTH CATALOG, and that's just for starters. Other retailers are working on their own special offers, and it looks as though there are going to be some VERY attractive surprises.
Meet the legendary Solomon Swift, Big John Lingrel, Ron Collins, Tony Morehan, Syd Carter, Alan Neeley, Tony Patterson, Eric Danz, Steve Pittman, Jim Marshall, Chris Braymen, Dave McIntosh, Bob Blair, Faye Deere, David Cobley, Ricki Gerlach, Paul Pappas, Philip Kosowsky, Ed Jenkins, and (we hope) dozens of other well-known ADAMites.
If you can POSSIBLY make it, please DO! And, if you belong to a group, investigate the possibility of sending just one member of the group to represent you and carry back the news. If you are into photography or video recording, please volunteer to help us capture the event for posterity.
Again, please help us to firm up our plans by making a commitment; as soon as he receives your deposit, Monte will mail you a very nice information pamphlet. Monte has worked hard to get us the best accommodations at very reasonable rates, including some meals; the closing dinner is going to be a knockout. (If you've never heard of Church Street Station, just wait!) Special deals are also available on car rentals, air fare via American, and extended visits. There are many attractions to tempt your family, including the Wet'n'Wild water park just across the street. The weather should be perfect. For some people, this will be a 3-day weekend anyway, as both Canada and the US have a holiday that week.
There IS another group (NOT ADAMites) gathering at the Las Palmas Inn during the same time; Monte is concerned that if we don't reserve enough space to accommodate everyone who wants to come, there may be a conflict, especially with the convention rooms. Do we need one room or two, or what? We can't really tell until we get your reservations!
Send to: ADAMCON 01
c/o Monte Neece
1048 Winter Springs Blvd
Winter Springs, FL 32708
Phone: (407) 695-9199
Jack Tilson is collecting photographs. Send to:
ROGUE'S GALLERY
c/o Jack Tilson
1091 Abagail Drive
Deltona, FL 32725
Phone: (407) 574-7024
You may send items for distribution, door prizes, or any other material for the convention to either of the above addresses, or to MOAUG President John Terry:
John Y. Terry
4901 Camberlane Dr.
Orlando, FL 32812-1608
Phone: (407) 380-1400
Or write the MOAUG newsletter at: Metro Orlando ADAM Users' Group
Editor, Patricia Herrinton
1003 Oak Lane
Apopka, FL 32703
Phone:
(407) 788-6396 (but I'm never there.)
IF YOU KNOW FOR SURE YOU CAN'T ATTEND, you can still participate. Send photos of yourself, your setup, your family, whatever, and be here in spirit. If you belong to a group, send group photos or photos of activities your group is involved in. Send newsletters, PD programs, or whatever you can share. If you sell an ADAM product, send flyers, catalogs, product descriptions, pictures, even video tapes to reach the people who will be at the convention. Send products on consignment if you wish. Send door prizes to be distributed to conventioneers.
--- PJH MOAUG August 19, 1989
the convention to either of the above addresses, or to MOAUG President John
DAVID CARMICHAEL the Sysop of PLINK has moved to: 4560 So. Hydraulic Ave. Lot B47, Wichita KS 672l6-2823. Residence # (3l6) 524-9727. Computer/Data Line (3l6) 524-973l.
THE VASE OF TURR: WALTERS SOFTWARE CO. producly presents THE VASEW OF TURR. A graphic adventure game for the Adam Computer. Search the mysterious catacombs of the Caves of Wris for cluses and objects to help you unlock the puzzles and obtain the ultimate treasure.
Pickup, drop and use objects, save and load games. Game requires only l K of space, allowing you to save several games to a disk or ddp.
Graphic smartkey interface, double high scrolling text message line, spirites, background music and sounds.
Requires an Adam Computer and TV or monitor.
Disk or DDP $ 29.95
*** 257 Rooms ***
AVAILABLE OCT. l, l989.
A CONTEST WITH A $ 50.00 CASH PRIZE FOR THE FIRST PERSON TO FINISH THE VASE OF TURR WITH THE HIGHEST SCORE. (SUBJECT TO RULES OF CONTEST).
WRITE WALTERS SOFTWARE CO. Rt # 4 Box 289-A, Titsuville PA l6354 for further details.
: 4560 So. Hydraulic Ave. Lot B47, Wichita KS 6
09-Aug-89 20:07:09
Sb: #Addictus
Fm: Richard A Salvati 73367,2773
To: ALL
Just had to warn anybody thinking off buying ADDICTUS (Reedy Sft)
.......BEWARE......
This game is very addicting and may be hazardous to your health. I,ve only had it 4 weeks and its the only disc I seem to boot up...the object is to align these 6 diferent shapes up at the bottom of a vertical graph to form a complete line across and you recieve points. Sounds simple ..BUT.. the shapes start to come down faster as you make more lines.
No really....I think this game is very well done and is a must for anyone tired of shotting aliens or other flying objects. Reedy has done a good job on designing games in the past but this TOPS them all.
Rich S.
PS my hi score is only 27458 with 185 lines.....would anybody like to share there tips on this addiction...
24-Jul-89 01:00:30
Sb: SoftWORKS Factory
Fm: Alan Neeley 74756,1104
To: ALL
Some new info from the SoftWORKS
Factory recently arrived in my mailbox.
It was a Dealer's List of software
products available through them
including. It appears that they are now
the official primary supplier of
software products from: Digital
Express, Digital Adventures, Data
Doctor, ACE, and Bryan's Software. An
important item found on the list is
TSF's soon to be released GoDOS/GoBASIC
(could it be commercially available?)!
I'll be glad to place an order for
anyone looking for a specific title
from this supplier.
24-Jul-89 05:18:22
Sb: #New 306K+ DDPs coming
Fm: Neil Wick 71056,613
To: All 71056,613 (X)
At the last meeting of MTAG (Metro Toronto Adam Group), Syd Carter of TriSyd video games officially announced his coming introduction of "Extended format" digital data packs for the Adam. A standard DDP, (C-60 length) can now hold up to 306K instead of just 256K. Testing is now under way to see how much capacity a tape can hold and still be 100% reliable. No changes are needed for EOS to access such a tape. A small patch would be required for CP/M to use the extra storage space. C-90 tapes would be able to hold 400K or more! After one year of development, it seems that a price and availability announcements for these tapes is imminent. No more missing blocks. These tapes can be copied with Syd's MegaCopy, too. Syd says it's theoretically possible to put 500K or more on a tape, but the drive would have to be slowed down to keep the computer from continually backing the tape up to as it would have passed the next block on the tape, by the time the previous block was all loaded into memory, so we want to stay with the 300+ capacity for C-60s. Farther into the future exists the possibility of getting specially formatted VHS videotapes which would hold up to 16 megabytes of information. Such a system could be invaluable for backing up those new hard disks. If you're going to Adam-Con, expect to see these new higher capacity DDPs there.
25-Jul-89 02:23:48
Sb: #81183-New 306K+ DDPs coming
Fm: Neil Wick 71056,613
To: Sysop/Rob 'ADAM' 76702,417 (X)
Yes, there are systems to back up HDs on VHS tape, but they're made for the IBM or other MS-DOS computers as far as I know and it wouldn't be possible to use them to back up an Adam hard disk. Syd's idea would use the built-in signal generating capabilities of the Adam, as used on the DDP drives, but would need some kind of hardware to control the VCR. He has envisioned a mechanical gizmo with little fingers to push the VCR's various buttons. I think this VCR proposal is very preliminary so far.
Neil
24-Jul-89 05:19:03
Sb: #Enchanced video coming
Fm: Neil Wick 71056,613
To: All 71056,613 (X)
The Adam-Image-Maker (AIM) video
expansion module was announced by Gary
Bowser of Oasis Pensive Abacutors (OPA)
at Saturday's meeting of MTAG. Gary
has been selling products for the TI
99/4A computer which uses the same
video chip as the Adam. The AIM is
based on the V9938 chip which is
software-compatible with the Adam's
TMS9928 chip, but offer's many enhanced
capabilities. I've seen it running on
the TI computer myself, and it's really
quite impressive, especially for
graphics. The unit will be an
"expansion module" that just hooks onto
the right side of the Adam. There's
nothing to take apart. Installation
should be very simple.
There's not even a prototype running
on an Adam yet, but the following is
promised:
Software for CP/M and Smartwriter to
allow 80 column text!
Complete assembly language and
SmartBASIC programming guide
128K of video RAM (versus present 16K),
expandable to 192K
RGB, composite, and TV output
Mouse port with mouse included
256 by 192/212 graphics mode with each
pixels being any of 256 colours!
512 bu 192/212 graphics mode. Pixels
can be any of 16 colours chosen from
the 256 in the pallette
32 sprites with up to 8 per horizontal
line
plus all of your present software will
work as normal. Cost will be around
$300 Canadian (about $255 US) (maybe
even less). Expected availability is
mid-November, though you should see it
at Adam_Con.
25-Jul-89 19:09:29
Sb: FLASH! DISK DRIVES!!!
Fm: Patricia Herrington 76537,1271
To: ALL
IF YOU ARE AT ALL INTERESTED IN DISK DRIVES AT
pleasecontact me at once. It looks as though we will be able to offer them for about $50 less than you'd expect to pay at the convention, if you have preordered them. On the other hand, if enough people are interested we may even be able to have them delivered; it all depends on the kind of response we get. I promise you I will be ordering a drive for my third computer, no matter how few people respond, but I sure would like to see everyone who wants a disk drive get one. USERS GROUPS, TAKE NOTE!!!!!
ITEMS OF INTEREST FROM THE AKRON BBS AND ADAM BBS NETWORK
*********************************
7/30/89
AKRON ADAM USERS GROUP BBS
****************************************************************
* HOT STUFF *
****************************************************************
* NATIONAL ADAM BBS USER'S GROUP PROPOSAL *
*--------------------------------------------------------------*
There has been a proposal made to tie all the known ADAM run Bulleitin Board Systems together to form a national or even an international Adam User's Group! Members of local user's groups with access to their own BBS would be linked to similar groups around the USA and CANADA. By sharing the various messages and bulletins as well as PD software, etc. with each other, no ADAM owner would ever find help beyond his reach. By asking a question on one BBS, you would be able to receive help from just about ANYWHERE in a short space of time! Late braking news on new hardware or software, using or installing it, etc. would always be close at hand! Both CP/M (AAUG Type) and EOS (ALink Type) systems could be supported. Currently, Bob Blair of the AWAUG User's Group is busy organizing things from his end as a central clearing house, so to speak, for the new proposal. You can contact Bob Blair via his own BBS (a sister to THIS one!) at 1-703-922-5497. Please let us know if this sounds like an idea that you would help support. You can leave us feedback either here, on Bob's BBS or on Larry Overman's BBS at 1-714-775-1603.
****************************** * AKRON ADAM BBS * * 216-882-4720 * *****************************
A7953 19:59 Aug-03-1989
TO: ALL
FROM: Big John (SYSOP) 111
SUBJ: NATIONAL NET
I read the messages on teh
CIS message base of a few
days ago. Let me make one
thing perfectly clear. I
AM NEUTRAL on the use of
any particular pice of BBS
software. I have offered
people an incentive to run
compatible software to
this to make it easier.
Thanks BJ
A7955 18:58 Aug-04-1989
TO: Alan Neely
FROM: Big John (SYSOP) 111
SUBJ: CIS # 81348
I am offering a free clockboard to "anyone who will run an AKRON compatible board " for one year. I do this only becuase we are implementing software to allow the merging of other boards messages so that they can be read as messages and not as an ASCII file. We still intend to use the A-NET messages in the NET libraries, though we we will have to make them into files that can be typed. BJ
A7963 17:02 Aug-05-1989
TO: ALL
FROM: Big John (SYSOP) 111
SUBJ: TDOS
Did you know that TDOS is
not PD nor is it for sale.
You may not buy or sell
it nor may you distribute
it on a BBS. If someone
is selling it, we would
like to know. Thanks
BJ
A7964 20:14 Aug-05-1989
TO: All
FROM: Larry D. Overmnan Sr SUBJ: NET
Ihave been getting some
very good responce so far
on this NET and I do hope
it continues to increase
in a short amount of
time...Thanks to everyone
whoo has participated so
far in this
endeavor.............
A7983 22:03 Aug-08-1989
TO: Anyone interested
FROM: Robert Leach 259
SUBJ: R80 game boards
On a recent order to
Jameco Electronic, I
noticed that they had
Coleco game boards for
$3.00. I ordered one. It
looked brand new and
turned out to be a working
R80. It tested out fine
on EOS and 80CVU TDOS.
There was some
interference on my color
monitor in 40 columns but
a perfect picture on the
80CVU. So I ordered 4
more to find out if it was
a fluke. One appeared new
and the others either had
identical prototype work
or repairs made to them.
Two of them were R80s that
worked as good as the
first and one did not have
40 col video but worked
fine with the 80CVU. The
forth board in the secord
order had a broken reset
switch. Overall seems like
cheap backup. Jameco's
phone# is (415)562-8097
and they require a minimum
$20.00 order. The person
I ordered from said they
had over 700 boards at
that time. They seem
pretty nice and probably
would honor a request to
send out the unrepaired
boards if they have them.
Couldn't hurt to ask.
A7989 15:02 Aug-09-1989
TO: ALL
FROM: Big John (SYSOP) 111
SUBJ: SCANNER
I need to know if there is
enough interest in a hand
held optical scanner to
warrant developement of
one. My approach will be
to interface a hand held
PC type scanner to the
ADAM. This will save any
hassels with trying to
install something on your
printer when your printer
should really be available
to print. IF there is the
interest, I would like ot
do this one. It would be
done as the hard drive is.
At user group cost only.
(You will have to buy the
scanner yourself, and we
will supply the interface
and the software). BJ
FROM THE AKRON BBS:
Sep-02-1989
TO: All
FROM: Ron Collins (SYSOP)
SUBJ: Old Avatex 1200
For those of you using the original old Avatex 1200 modem (I still use one and get great service from it!), if you want to use ZMP properly, you may have to change the modem init string. The Avatex 1200 is the one with the 3 buttons on the front that allow you to turn it on or off, set the baud rate and switch from data to voice. When using ZMP on my modem, I couldn't get it to dial. I could see the lights flicker, but it just wouldn't "sieze" the phone line. To solve that problem, I took a look at the string used in IMP for modems requiring verbose access. I installed then new string using the CONFIG option within the ZMP program. The new string for you to use is ATE1Q0V1X1H0! I can now use it with any computer and have no problems at all. IF you've been having the same problem, give it a try. * Ron *
A Sep-01-1989
FROM: Rick Lefko
SUBJ: MEMORY EXPANDERS
BJ: I was asked if you have any plans to release the "HOW- TO" make
a 256K memeory expander at home book! Maybe you have??? How about
it?? Do you have bare boards and other necessary goodies to make
them?? . I will relay your answer! . Thanks,
Rick
Sep-01-1989
TO: Rick Lefko
FROM: Big John (SYSOP)
SUBJ: DO IT YOURSELF
I am going to sell blank boards for everything that I ever built at cost to users groups. The only catch is that I must have orders ( prepaid ) for 100 of each before I can order them. A 256K will cost about 50 dollars at todays memory prices, a PIA2 about 5 dollars and a serial card a little over 10 bux. BJ
APPLE TO ADAM CONVERSION CHART
This chart taken from Adam Resource Directory, Second Edition. Submitted to them Courtesy of NIAD Uploaded to the TRADING POST, for your convience By: H Mason Jr. Note On Adam & Apple when 2 address es occure the first is Low value & the second is High value.
APPLE/ADAM Equivalents
APPLE ============== ADAM
32 Left Edge 71202 (1)
33 Line Width 17199 (30)
34 Top Edge 71201 (0)
35 Bottom Edge 17198 (23)
36 Cursor Horz (col) 17002 or
position 0
37 Cousor Vert (row) 17001 or
v pos (0)
48 Lores color 18633 GR
window
50 Text format
83 invse 127 flash use
255 normal commands
51 Promt Character 1146
105-106 Lowmem pointer 16095/16096
107-108 Start array spa ------
109-110 End array space ------
111-112 Start strng spa 16111/16112
113-114 End string spac 16115/16116
115-116 Himem pointer 16089/16090
APPLE ============== ADAM
CALLS
FOR THE ADAM
CALL # COMMAND
CALL 6047 END CALL 6159 RUN CALL 6336 TRACE CALL 6341 NOTRACE CALL 6356 NEW CALL 6378 STOP COMMAND CALL 6387 CONTinue CALL 8109 CLEAR ERROR (CLRERR) CALL 8141 CLEAR CALL 8313 RESUME CALL 8477 RETURN CALL 8493 POP CALL 9482 RESTORE CALL 11050 FLASH CALL 11055 INVERSE CALL 11060 NORMAL CALL 11065 TEXT CALL 11070 GR CALL 11075 HGR CALL 11080 HGR2 CALL 11090 HOME CALL 12137 GET$ CALL 17008 TEXT CALL 19504- 19526 PRINTS CHARACTERS CALL 19520 HOMES CURSOR W/O CLEARING SCREEN CALL 19526 END PAGE (symbol) CALL 19529 STOP CALL 19550 BREAK CALL 63585 WARM BOOT CALL 64560 TYPEWRITER CALL 64885 LAST KEY PRESSED
END OF CALLS
Uploaded by H Mason Jr. from the 1986 ADAM RESOURCE DIRECTORY, Second Edition.
CALL # COMMAND
CALL 6047 END CALL 6159 RUN CA
10REM ADAM WAR BASIC PROGRAM 20REM Load basic, then run AWARPROG 30REM PD Program by Barry Wilson 40REM Dedicated to those who have given their 50REM lives in the Adam Wars. 60? " FROM THE CREATOR OF EZ-RUMOR COMES A NEW EXCITING ADAM PROGRAM ":? 70? " ADAM WARS, THE GAME":? 80GOSUB 6000 95 ee=0: sc=0 100? " THE ADAM WARS............":?:? 110? " A series of battles which pitted hardware producers against hardware producers.":?120? " Software producers against software producers. BBSs of one type against those of another type........":? 130? " National newsletters against local newsletters, BBSs against newsletters........":?
140? " programmer against other programmers and EVERYONE AGAINST ADAM...........":?:? 150GOSUB 6000 160? " THE ADAM WARS DID NO GOOD, THEY ONLY DID HARM TO ADAM. They were mean, cruel and evil. ":GOSUB 6000
170? " KNOWING ALL OF THIS DO YOU WANT TO PLAY THIS GAME, KNOWING IT WILL ONLY HURT ADAM ?????":?:? 180GOSUB 5000 190INPUT "Y(es) OR N(o) ----->"; an$ 195IF ee>1 THEN sc=sc+1:GOTO 220 205IF an$="Y" THEN sc=sc+10:GOTO 230 207IF an$="y" THEN sc=sc+8:GOTO 230 209IF an$<>"Y" THEN sc=sc+1:GOTO 210 210 ee=ee+1:GOTO 100 220? " COME ON, PLAY THE GAME EVEN IF IT HURTS ADAM, EVERYONE ELSE DOES.":?
230? " GOOD !! I AM GLAD TO SEE THAT YOU WISH To RUN ADAM PROGRAMMERS, SUPPLIERS, HARDWARE PRODUCERS":? 240? " BBSs, AUGS, NEWSLETTERS, ETC. OUT OF BUSINESS. LETS SEE IF WE CAN DO WHAT COLECO FAILED TO DO":?
250? " LET'S RUN ADAM INTO THE GROUND & OUT OF EXISTENCE.":?:GOSUB 6000 260? " DO YOU WANT TO BE ......... l. HARDWARE PRODUCER 2. SOFTWARE PROGRAMMER 3. BBS SYSOP"
270? " 4. NEWSLETTER EDITOR 5. ADAM OWNER 6. AUG OFFICER ??????" 280GOSUB 7000 290IF a=1 THEN sc=sc+5: a$="HARDWARE PRODUCER":GOTO 340 295IF a=2 THEN sc=sc+5: a$="SOFTWARE PROGRAMMER":GOTO 340 300IF a=3 THEN sc=sc+6: a$="BBS SYSOP ":GOTO 340 305IF a=4 THEN sc=sc+9: a$="NEWSLETTER EDITOR":GOTO 340 310IF a=5 THEN sc=sc+9: a$="ADAM OWNER":GOTO 340 315IF a=6 THEN sc=sc+8: a$="AUG OFFICER":GOTO 340 320GOSUB 8000:GOTO 260 340?:? " WHAT DO YOU DO FIRST ????? l. CHECK THE FACTS 2. TRY TO TALK TO YOUR FOE 3. SPREAD LIES "
350? " 4. SPREAD RUMORS 5. TELL THE TRUTH 6. STEAL FOE'S SECRETS ????":?:GOSUB 7000 360IF a=1 THEN sc=sc-5 365IF a=2 THEN sc=sc-8 370IF a=3 THEN sc=sc+6 375IF a=4 THEN sc=sc+4 380IF a=5 THEN sc=sc-9 385IF a=6 THEN sc=sc+9 390IF a>6 THEN GOSUB 8000:GOTO 340 400?:? " HOW WIDESPREAD IS THE WAR AREA ??? l. BBS only 2. Newsletters"
405? " 3. Word of mouth 4. Letters 5. ALL of the above ?????":?:GOSUB 7000 410IF a=1 THEN sc=sc+5 415IF a=2 THEN sc=sc+4 420IF a=3 THEN sc=sc+3 425IF a=4 THEN sc=sc+6 430IF a=5 THEN sc=sc+12 435IF a>5 THEN GOSUB 8000:GOTO 400 440?:? " GOOD BEGINNING. YOUR SCORE AT THIS POINT IS "; sc:? 450? " NOW WHO DO YOU WANT TO FIGHT l. HARDWARE PRODUCER 2. SOFTWARE PROGRAMMER 3. BBS SYSOP"
460? " 4. NEWSLETTER EDITOR 5. AUG OFFICER ??????":?:GOSUB 7000 470IF a=1 THEN b$="HARDWARE PRODUCER" 475IF a=2 THEN b$="SOFTWARE PROGRAMMER" 480IF a=3 THEN b$="BBS SYSOP " 485IF a=4 THEN b$="NEWSLETTER EDITOR " 490IF a=5 THEN b$="AUG OFFICER " 493IF a>5 THEN GOSUB 8000:GOTO 450 495 ff=0 500?:?:?:GOSUB 9000 510IF RND(-sc)>.5 THEN ? b$:?:? " Attacks you ":?:GOTO 530: sc=sc+2 520? " YOU attack ":?:? b$:?: sc=sc+6 530GOSUB 5000 540GOSUB 9000:IF rnd>.5 THEN ? " YOU spread lies about ":?:? b$: sc=sc+9:GOTO 558
550? b$:?:? " Calls you a crook & liar ": sc=sc+3 553? 558GOSUB 5000 560GOSUB 9000:IF rnd>.5 THEN ? " YOU steal ideas from ":?:? b$: sc=sc+8:GOTO 575
570? b$:?:? " pirates your ideas": sc=sc+6 573?:GOSUB 5000 575?:GOSUB 5000 580GOSUB 9000:IF rnd<.5 THEN ? " YOU try to steal Adamites from ":?:? b$: sc=sc+7:GOTO 600
590? b$:? " spreads rumors on BBS about YOU ": sc=sc+6 600GOSUB 5000:?:? " YOUR SCORE AT THIS POINT IS":? sc:? 610GOSUB 9000:IF rnd<.5 THEN ? " YOU WANT TO QUIT FIGHTING BUT CONTINUE ANYWAY DUMB!":?:?:GOTO 630
620? b$:?:? " WANTS TO QUIT FIGHTING BUT DOESN'T WANT TO LOOK SILLY SO THE FIGHT GOES ON ":? 630GOSUB 5000 635IF ff>2 THEN GOTO 650 640GOSUB 9000:IF rnd>.55 THEN ff=ff+1:GOTO 500 645IF ff<1 THEN GOTO 500 650?:?:GOSUB 9000 660IF rnd>.5 THEN ? " YOU DEFEAT ":?:? b$:?:? b$:?:? " GOES OUT OF BUSINESS ":GOTO 700
670? b$:?:? " DEFEATS YOU, YOU QUIT ADAM ":?:GOSUB 5000 700?:? " BUT REALLY WHO WON & LOST ?":?:? " ADAM and ALL ADAMITES ARE THE REAL LOSERS.":?
705GOSUB 5000 710? " YOUR SCORE WAS "; sc 720? " ADAMS SCORE WAS ZERO AND SO WAS THAT OF ALL ADAMITES.":GOSUB 5000 730?:? " WHEN THERE ARE ADAM WARS, WE ALL LOSE, THERE ARE REALLY NO WINNERS":?:GOSUB 5000
740?:? " DO YOU WANT TO PLAY ADAM WARS AGAIN ????? IF SO PRESS D FOR DUMB OR S FOR STUPID." 741?:? " OR PRESS N IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO CONTINUE & THINK THE ADAM WARS HAVE GONE ON LONG ENOUGH.":?
742?:INPUT "S, D or N & return----->"; q$ 743IF q$="N" OR q$="n" THEN GOTO 1000 750?:GOSUB 5000 760? " DID YOU REALLY THINK THAT ADAM WOULD ALLOW YOU TO PLAY ADAM WARS AGAIN.....":GOSUB 5000
770TEXT:? "DUMB":? " DUMB ":FOR x=1 TO 1000:NEXT x 780GR 785TEXT:? "STUPID":? " STUPID ":FOR x=1 TO 1000:NEXT x 790GR 795GOTO 770 800END 1000 fin=0 1001?:? " THANK GOD SOMEONE HAS SOME COMMON SENSE. MAYBE ADAM WILL SURVIVE AFTER ALL"
1010?:?:?: fin=fin+1 1013IF fin>3 THEN GOTO 1025 1015FOR x=1 TO 2000:NEXT x:HOME:GOTO 1001 1025?:?:? " THROUGH THE EFFORTS OF GOOD ADAMITES LIKE YOURSELF ADAM WILL LIVE LONG & PROSPER !!"
1030END 5000? "------------------------------":FOR x=1 TO 5000:NEXT x:?:RETURN 6000?:? " PRESS ANY KEY TO CONTINUE:"; :GET k$:HOME:RETURN 7000?:INPUT "Press number & return ----->"; a:RETURN 8000? " WRONG NUMBER PRESSED...... SELECT AGAIN":? 8010GOSUB 6000:RETURN 9000 rnd=RND(-sc) 9010RETURN
With all the Adam Wars that go on endlessly, continuously, inevitably (?), etc. I get confused.
Unless you follow and read ALL the newsletters and logon ALL the BBSs, you may miss a few here or there. Or maybe not find out about them until they are half-way finished etc.
Also there are so many that it does tend to get confusing. Now was the Hardware Wars, the lst, 4th or (hopefully) last of the Adam Wars ???
I don't know and feel there are many other Adamites also confused by this issue. Well I have some suggestions to help remedy this confusion.
They are listed in order in which I would like to see them solved.
l. Stop the Adam Wars. (I know it will give a lot of people a lot of free time to work on improving Adam but sometimes you just must sacrifice. ).
2. Hire a Historian. We need someone professional, who is used to keeping track of this kind of stuff. That way we can always refer to the historian's papers and know who is fight whom, when, where and why (except the why is never really clear).
3. Develope a standard nomenclature for these Wars. Some thing like the World Wars. We could have Adam Wars III, or Adam Software Wars II, something like that. It would be easy then to tell if you were getting infor on the current Adam war, just look at the number.
I know some romantics would like us to stick with names like the French & Indian War, etc. Names which give more of the flavor of the war. I am not really against this as Adam Hardware War VI may not really bring to mind exactly who fought it, etc. But some standard system of naming these wars is required.
4. A peace keeping force. We could get armed Adamites from several AUGS who would go into trouble spots and keep the combatants apart, killing them if necessary to preserve the peace. It remains me of an old favor of mine. Bring peace to the Adam World, Kill a Pirate a day For Adam. Only you can prevent Piracy.
5. So as to have a minimum disruption of the Adam world, let each side choose its own warrior to represent it. Then these two (or three if its a 3 sided war) would meet armed in a locked room and battle until only l lived. This would settle the Adam War with a minimum of blood shed.
I know you may have other thoughts on this matter but I feel we should end these wars once and forever and have given my possible solutions above.
Thinking it over I am not sure these are Really in the order I would like them. It seems like # 5 should be much higher up on the list. What do you think ?????????????????????
REMEMBER........ADAM WARS ARE ADAM'S WAY OF SAYING GOODBYE......
BARRY WILSON (ST.L.AUG, Adam News Network)
*************************************
TO: ALL
FROM: Big John 1
SUBJ: SCANNERS
Have orderd the first
scanner. TOny already has
one in hand and work is
beginning. THis will be a
PD offering when it is
done. And it will be hand
held as opposed to hanging
something on a printer
making it useless as a
printer until you remove
the thing. Minh Ta,
will send you specifics as
soon as I have some for
you... BJ
FROM THE AWAUG BBS.
P0 10:12 Aug-14-1989
TO: Barry Wilson
FROM: Bob Blair 3
SUBJ: NATIONAL BBS NETWORK
The ADAM Washington Area
User's Group is offering a
free AVATEX 1200HC to any
ADAM Users Group that
needs one (it must be used
on the BBS) and that will
operate a BBS and
participate in the
NATIONAL ADAM BBS
NETWORK. We don't care
what BBS system is used
(A-NET, AKRON or
whatever). We would prefer
that the BBS operate for a
7 day week, but it is not
required . I hope you
will spread the word. The
only caveat is that if the
BBS does not participate
as a part of the NET for a
full year, it must be
returned, otherwise it's
theirs. Bob
Portions of the Barry Patch are being reprinted here for the benefit of those sharing certain very serious and grave concerns about the Adam Computer.
Contributions from Readers are welcomed, either by calling the BBS or by writing to ST.LAUG.
MODEM USES: I use my modem for only a few hours a day and got to thinking what the heck can you do with it the rest of the time.
Well others uses for the Modem became an ongoing project of the Barry Patch with the following results:
^AMODEM USES: l. Paper weight 2. Hang on belt as a fake pager for status. 3. To hammer nails (do carefully) 4. Defensively on nuisance callers, hit em with carrier tone. 5. To balance out your Adam set up. CPU on top of Printer on top of Drive # l on top of Drive #2, on top of power supply. Sometimes you need to wedge modem under it for balance.
6. Fishing sinker or weight (Ricki Gerlach) 7. Anchor (Ricki Gerlach) 8. Tape to window for fake burglar alarm. 9. Surf board for mice l0. Put wheels on it, skate board for mice. ll. In winter as sled for mice. l2. As a frisbee 13. As a base for baseball game. 14. Tie string on it & run in strong wind, A kite. 15. Raft for insects. 16. Landing carrier for insects. 17. Put stick under it, some cheese, mouse trap. 18. Put stick under it, some birdseed, bird trap. 19. Put stick under it, some software, Pirate trap. 20. Bug Killer (Keith Jefferson) 21. Wire to wall outlet, use as a hot plate. (Steve Majors) 22. Stick in back pocket, people will think you have a lot of money in your wallet. (Zonker)
23. Stick in front pocket, women will think .......... (Zonker) 24. Book Ends (Jay Bolton) 25. Decorate home in early Adam or early Computer. (Jay Bolton) 26. Hockey puck 27. Kick tee for foot ball. 28. Rattle for baby (especially if used for hammer lst). 29. trace squares in school. 30. For telecommunication (I know that's probably cheating). 31. Birth control. Keep wedged tightly between knees, do not open knees enough to let it drop.
32. Balance it on your head, helps give you good posture. 33. Rub two together to start fire. 34. Women can put under blouse, men think my they are big & square? . 35. Men put in shorts as athletic protector. 36. As a discus. 37. Put in shoe to make you taller.
By BARRY (TC11) Do you recieve your disks folded, bent, stapled &/or mutilated after going thru the mail system. I DO. I have some sug gestions that I have tried to over come this problem. A) DO NOT mark fragile or do not bend a s this seems to be waiving a red flag a t a bull (headed postal worker) who wil l meet the challenge each time. B) Try the decoy method. Mail an empty envelope (of disk size) mark it fragile ,magnetic media, do not x-ray, do not b end. Mail your disk in a plain envelop at the same time. The postal employee will spend so much time trying to find an x-ray machine & magentic to use on t he decoy, that the real disk will slip by him. WHAT DO YOU DO ????? .
By BARRY (TC11) IN RESPONDING TO THIS POST PLEASE KEEP IN MIND THAT THIS IS A FAMILY BOARD & Y OUR RESPONSE SHOULD BE DELICATELY WORDE D SO AS NOT TO OFFEND ANYONE. I received a letter from an Adamite,who I will only identify as a prominent hi gh ranking offical in the Busch Cabine t to protect his reputution. Anyway he asked how he could tell the sex of his modem. I did not ask him why he wanted to know & I think we might pass this ov er in our responses, we probably really dont want to know why he is interested. I DONT KNOW HOW TO TELL THE SEX OF THE MODEM, All I know is that mine are app arently ALL the SAME sex as I have neve r found little modems around in the day time (or maybe they're sterile) or may be, well who knows. CAN SOMEONE HELP OU T ON THIS ONE ?????
-- RESPONSE #1 -- By SHAMAN (UID#1) Uh, Barry, you have to take the covers off the, uh, mode(u)ms for absolute verification of gender. Which reminds me that there are gender menders for those who might like to have a nice fast lady modem. SHA
-- RESPONSE #2 -- By BARRY (UID#11) AL, I have a SHY modem, it won't let me take its cover off ??? I have tried l iquor, sweet talk, gifts, candy & flowe rs but am having no luck.
Maybe that means its a male modem and t herefore not interested in me
OR
Maybe it is a femal modem and I am NOT attractive to it. Who knows. Where is Dr. Ruth when you need her.
-- RESPONSE #3 -- By DUFFY (UID#6)
To tell the gender of a modem place a s crewdriver on the side of the modem wit h the modem standing on its other side tape gently until modem comes apart and if the wires inside are blue then its a male BUT if the wires are pink then o f course its a female!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-- RESPONSE #5 -- By BARRY (UID#11)
REMEMBERING THAT THIS IS A FAMILY TYPE BOARD, KEEP YOUR RESPONSE PROPER.
Do you know how to use a modem as a birth control device ??????
Details next week OR add your own thoughts now.
-- RESPONSE #6 -- By KEITH (UID#7) Yes in CP/M there is a program called T rojan.COM which should be used before i ntroduce your modem to other strange mo dems.
Oh well I tried... Keith (Moti) -- RESPONSE #7 -- By SHAMAN (UID#1) On Sat Jul 29 1989 12:09 PM
Very personally, uh, I prefer SPARTA.COM But its not a PD program so don't ask me to share. SHAMAN
-- RESPONSE #8 -- By BARRY (UID#11) Modem use as birth control device. Possibly might even get approval of the Church. Place modem between knees, keep knees t ightly together to hold modem in place. DO NOT allow knees to open far enough for mode to fall from between them. If female member of pair will do this t he modem should function properly as a birth control device.
By BARRY (TC11) Jim Duffy & myself have been having a f riendly argument or discussion on the b est way to go 1200 baud. Jim seems to
feel putting 4 300 Baud adamlink modems (one in each expansion port & one in si side port) is the way to go. I feel tha t putting 300 Baud SOFTWARE in each of
2 disks drives & each of 2 tape drives is the proper way to go. Can any of you technical people out the re give us some help on this ??????????
1200 baud or bust
-- RESPONSE #2 -- By KEITH (UID#7) On Sat Jul 29 1989 1:39 AM
The speed of the modems depends on the sneakers it wears. The sneakers are ne ever seen because when not in use they are retracted as a turtle does its body Go to the nearest computer dealer and buy 1200baud MODEM sneakers. Since it s quite difficult to get into the MODEM and put on the new sneakers most people just buy a new one with 1200 baud sneak ers already being worn. Am I getting better?
Keith (MOTI)
Using MADAM7
-- RESPONSE #3 -- By BARRY (UID#11)
Are you on your 7th Madam or is tha the 7th house you are visiting. ALso how come you dont share your information & addresses wit the rest of us guys ???
Jerome Hess, 1st CPM column from July MOAUG:
Welcome one welcome all to the first BIOS CALL!!
Hi, I'm Jerome Hess and I'm your new CP/M librarian. I'll not waste the space with an introduction in hopes that over the next few months we'll get to know a lot about each other.
Instead I'm going to just jump right in and start off by glossing over the CP/M starter pack that I have put together. On this Disk (or DDP) are 18 of the PD utilities that I think that everyone should have in order to get comfortable with CP/M. Over the next several articles I will be going in depth about each of the programs as well as answering any questions that might arise. The starter pack is yours for the asking; all that is required is that you supply me with a SYSGENED CP/M DDP or Disk that will show me that you have a legitimate copy of CP/M and that I won't be breaking any laws by handing out the revised BIOS.
Enough of that, on with this show.
FILE EXTENSIONS - and how they are used.
On this "pack" you will notice 4 different file extensions (the 3 letters that come after the "." in the file name), .DZC , .COM , .4Z , .LBR . These extensions are short indicators of what kind of files these may be. The .COM files are all "command" files that may be "run" by merely typing in the first part of the file name ; ie: TRUE30 <return> . This will load and run the file from the drive that is indicated.
Secondly there are .LBR files. These are actually groups of files that have been arranged together in a "library" so as to save space and make storage more efficient. Usually all the files in a single "library" are related. To access these files you must use NULU.COM. For those of you who can't wait for the article on NULU I'll give you this: You must put a dash "-" before all of the one-letter commands and -m or -h will give you the command screen.
Lastly there are the .DZC files. These are Documentation files for programs or they may be information files. The "Z" in the second position indicates that these files have been "crunched" using CRUNCH.COM. As they are, they are only good for saving space, but by using UNCR20.COM you can turn them back into completely readable text files.
The other file extension present is 4Z and that is really just another crunched file. It's not a CP/M program, but a SmartBASIC program; but I think that it is such a great program that everyone ought to have a copy. Once you've uncrunched it, use CPMADAM.COM to transfer it to an EOS tape and run it from there.
On to the STARTER PACK! The first thing that you will notice when you boot up this pack is that the LOG-ON screen is different from the original. This can be changed using CONFIG.COM, but since I don't have a color monitor I just left it the way it was. The Smartkeys along the bottom are missing, but if you really like them, they may be toggled back by using SHIFT-UNDO in sequence. Several other modifications are that a DIR will show files in single column and that the size of each file as well as the space used and remaining are displayed. These are just a few of the mods, for more info, uncrunch ADAMNEW.DZC and print it out. If you do this please disregard the INSTALLATION instructions for the new CCP, as you already have it installed on your STARTER PACK.
Upon Boot-up I would STRONGLY encourage EVERYONE (who doesn't have an 80 column display) to use TRUE30.COM. True30 is a utility that allows ADAM CP/M to use a 30 column display instead of the "moving window" format that it originates in. Merely type TRUE30 <return> and when it asks if you would like the 80 columns changed, just hit the "y" key, and it will implement the change for you. Any other key will result in the program aborting. Next there's UNCR20.COM, that will allow you to get at all those .*Z* files. This is a very easy program to use and I'll even step-by-step an example for you: Let's get at ADAMNEW.DZC. When using UNCR20 always make sure that you have twice as much free space as the file is when it's crunched. For example ADAMNEW.DZC is 3k so we need at least 6k of free space on the DDP or disk that we are going to use. Once that is established type (at the command line) UNCR20 ADAMNEW.DZC <return>. Uncr20 will now go to work uncrunching the file and putting it into a useable form. The author of UNCR20 was thoughtful enough to give us a display to show us that the program is actually doing something, and for those larger files, something to look at while it's working.
Once the program is uncrunched, you may "TYPE" the file to read it on the screen (TYPE ADAMNEW.DOC) or you may use one of the enhanced functions called LIST. List will send whatever file follows to the printer (LIST ADAMNEW.DOC).
Well, I think that should get everyone started. The best suggestion that I can make for you is to "backup" your STARTER PACK and then just start running the different programs. The programs are PD, so they're free. And there really isn't too much harm you could do with what is here (except for ABP25.COM - PLEASE read those Docs first!) And if you do make a mistake you can always get another one!
I realize that this first column is rather disjointed, but I want to make sure that if anyone who has the pack already needs any questions answered then they can ask at the next meeting. If you would like a copy of the STARTER PACK, just bring a ED DDP or DISK to the next meeting, or send one to me with adequate return postage (college students are inherently poor) and I'll get it out to you. If, on the other hand, there are specific programs that you need or questions you'd like answered, drop me a line :
Jerome Hess P.O. Box 678203 Orlando, Fl. 32867
Or leave a message on the MIDAS touch ADAM ECHO (which was procured for us by prospective member Richard MEIZLIK:) (407) 648-1133 648-1133
Welcome to the second installment of BIOS CALL, your most up-to-date (?) CP/M source! Before launching into yet another action-packed column, I'd like to propose an idea that may help us to expand our public domain libraries. Over the past few weeks I've received several disks and DDPs in trade for the starter pak. First let me say - GREAT! I'm glad that the interest has started to show. Now here's my proposal. For everyone who sends a disk of DDP in for the pak, why not load it down with YOUR favorite PD programs! They don't have to be CP/M. EOS, RLE, Clip Art, maybe even just some information text files that you've picked up somewhere. Even if you're REAL SURE evrybody MUST already have a copy of the program, send it anyway! There might be people out there who are looking for just that file and haven't been able to find it! Chances are if you like it, then someone else will, too. Now back to your regularly scheduled column! Last month we discussed (among other things) the file compression technique known as crunching, which utilizes the file extension .*Z*. This month I'd like to tell you about one of the most popular IBM file compression techniques that is now available for the ADAM! It's called ARCing. The ARC or PKXARC operates in a very similar way as crunch, but works 15 to 20% more efficiently. The method that ARC uses is much too involved to go into in an article as brief as this, but I will say that the ARC format is used in several files that have been ARCed into a single file with an .ARC extension. This method will allow the easy transfer of several files at one time, and it will save file storage space as well. Before I go any further, let me point out that files from an IBM that have been ARCed will still NOT OPERATE in CP/M. But if the files are from an IBM that have been made to run under CP/M, or if they are CP/M files, or if they are text files that have been ARCed to save space, then yu can use UNARC1.COM to decompress them and take a look at them! On your starter pak, you'll find a program called UNARC1.COM. This is the utility that has been designed for use in CP/M to "UNARC", or extract, the files in an archive. There are two methods to unarc a file. If you know the name of the file that you'd like to extract then your format would be:
UNARC1 A:FILE.ARC B:FILE.EXT
Where A: is the drive that the archive is on, and B: is the drive that you want the extracted file to go to (they could be the same drive.) FILE.ARC is the name of the file as it exists in the archive; FILE.EXT is the name you want to give the unarf it was a warm boot or a cold boot. To execute STAT. COM in the simplest form you will type this:
A>STAT <CR>
The response might look something like this:
A: R/W, Space: 105K
This tells us that the disc on the A:Drive is a read and write disk and that the disc has 105 Kilobytes of available space remaining on the disc. A disc can be designated as a Read Only disc which means that you will be unable to write anything to that disc. This is the same kind of protection afforded to a disc with a write protect tab. STAT.COM is the utility program that enables you to change the status of a disc to read only (and back again). This information obtained above is not especially overwhelming. It tells nothing about the files on the disc.
You can use STAT.COM to give the status of a disc (or DDP) on another drive by typing this kind of command:
A>STAT B: <CR>
This will provide somewhat less information about the
B:disc. The resthe first method described.
Well, I think that should suffice for this month. As
always, you can write or call me:
Jerome Hess
PO Box 678203
Orlando, FL 32867
Phone: (407) 380-0457
CHAOS CORNER
By Aaron Hamlett
This month I want to talk about quite a few things, give you some facts, some opinions and hopefully an interesting column. To start off there were three articles on the ADAM in this month's "COMPUTER SHOPPER" which was two more than any other "classic computer". However the news was fairly routine and you can get much of the same here in your very own St. Louis Newsletter. (Unashamed plug)
If you have ever written a BASIC program that was very large, around 24 blocks long, you may have tried running the program only to get an "Out of memory error". You might use the FRE(0) command to find out how much memory you have left and discover that you have a few hundred bytes. How can it be out of memory if you have hundreds of bytes? Besides the space required to store the actual program, memory is needed when a variable is given a value. Real variables or "floating point variables" take ten bytes to store a number. If you just name a variable with letters it is classed as a real variable, even if the number actually assigned to the variable is an integer. If an integer is all that is needed and no division is used then use an integer variable. The percent sign (%) is used to declare an integer variable. An integer variable uses only five bytes of memory. The last variable type is the string variable and it is denoted with a dollar sign ($). These variables use at least five bytes and usually more since it requires one byte for each character in the string. One key item with variables, the variables K, K%, K$ are all different variables, whereas the variables KAT, KAY, and KANDY are really all the same variable since SmartBASIC only uses the first two letters of a variable name to keep track of it. If you have ever heard Grace Hopper, an early computer pioneer and officer in the U.S Navy, talk about computers you have probably been introduced to her nanosecond, and microsecond. Like most people, she had a hard time understanding such small units of time. Even experienced computer users who toss around these terms may not really understand how small these numbers are really. She pestered the engineers until they presented her with some concrete examples. What the engineers did was to calculate how far light traveled in a milli, micro and nanosecond. A millisecond is one thousandth of a second and in one millisecond a beam of light in space will travel 187 miles. A microsecond is one millionth of a second and a beam of light in space will travel 990 feet in that lenght of time. A nanosecond is one billionth of a second and this speedy beam of light will travel 12 inches every nanosecond. The engineers that Grace Hopper was working with cut some wire to illustrate the nanosecond and microsecond. The cost of 187 miles of wire was deemed to high just to be used as a demonstration for the millisecond, besides it would be very heavy. What does this have to do with the ADAM? Well, just think of that 990 feet of wire whenever you write a program and waste a microsecond. ly understand how small these numbers are really. She pestered the engineer
WELL HERE IS AN EASIER ONE ............... WHICH CAME FIRST THE PIRATE OR THE COPY PROTECTION ?????
Obviously the Pirate came first and as a result of the Pirate we now have increasing copy protection. Several programmers have recently written on this subject and I want to say that I feel they are justified and I support them strongly.
In the beginning there was NO copy protected programs with Adam but the wide spread piracy in the Adam world soon changed this.
You must keep in mind that with Adam there is a much smaller user base than with many of the other computers. Therefore piracy has a much greater effect as this small potential market is made even smaller by Piracy.
I know some pirates and I know some programmers and the programmers are right. They are entitled to a right on their investment of time.
The Adam programmers are not rich, large companies. They are indiviudal Adam owners such as yourselves who are spending late evenings working on Adam programs when you or I are relaxing, watching TV, etc.
They are entitled to something for the harsh words and dirty looks they get from the family for ignoring them to spend time on programs for you & I to make our Adam more usable for us.
MY POSITION AS STATED BEFORE REMAINS: KILL A PIRATE FOR ADAM, ONLY YOU CAN PREVENT PIRACY.
There is the back problem and that is a legitimate concern. I feel that programmers would be better off raising their prices a FEW dollars and automatically including a back up with each order. That should satisfy the back up problem.
I would like to see some of those complaining about the copy protection spend many hours of their time for no return and not be upset about it.
There apparently is an even worse problem than the individual pirate, some programmers feel that some retailers are making unauthorized copies and selling them. The greater majority of Adam retailers are fine and honorable people, serving the Adam world well. However some programmers do feel that some retailers are taking short cuts.
On the subject of copy protection, I had proposed in the past that the software programmers join together. That they internally mark each disk so they can tell what disk came from where etc. If you then suspect a certain retailer as being a pirate, write down the internal coding, and also put the internal coding info in a sealed envelope and mail to yourself, so it will get post marked and do NOT open when it comes back. That way, we can prove in the future what the coding was and the time at which we established that fact. Then for the retail cost of your item, I will have an Adamite, not well known or associated with myself or you, place an order for that item from that retailer. He would forward it UNOPENED to you or myself and we would open the item in the presence of some impartial witness. Then if the coding showed it to be a pirated version, we would be set to take some action.
The action could include: (l) my making an attorney demand on the retailer for a full accounting, payment of royalties, etc.; (2) publishing this info in the Adam world and trying to isolate this retailer, Adamites should boycott him & his products; &/or (3) refering the matter to the authorities. I would like to see the producers agree to work on such a plan or any other plan they may come up with.
I also had thought that each AUG and newsletter could make a condition of their membership or subscription that the subscriber-member, etc. agree not to condone, cooperate in or engage in piracy. Then if we caught an individual the groups &/or newsletters would be justified in dropping him as he broke his agreement with them and we could start isolating or cutting off these pirates from their Adam contacts. Again just a thought.
I have known both pirates and programmers and since working with several programmers on Adult items as well as general family stuff, realize what the programmers go thru for the very scant return.
I feel that if we solve the piracy problem, the copy protection problem will then disappear. To borrow that now old saying, IF OFFERED PIRATED SOFTWARE, JUST SAY NO.........
This is a problem which we can solve if we all work together on it. I suggest you read the articles of Ed Jenkins in August Adams Alive and Jim Walters in his Walters Software newsletter to also have the benefit of their thoughts on this matter.
REMEMBER............PIRACY IS ADAM'S WAY OF SAYING GOODBYE.......
Barry Wilson (ST.L.AUG; Adam News Network).
IT WAS DOWNLOADED FROM CIS.
For some technical reason beyond my understanding the fact that my disk drive goes at a different speed than my 1200 Baud modem, means that the modem must wait for the drive (or the buffer ) to get caught up but then it sometimes scrunches the letters together when it starts rapidly transmitting again. So if they are a few lines of jumbled or scrunched letters, I apologize.
A Short Concise Look at the Public Domain CP/M
Modem Programs for the Adam.
Rob Friedman (Syp Adam CP/M on CompuServe's
Computer Club)
As Adam users, we have the opportunity to use several modem progams at absolutely no cost to us whatsoever. These are referred to as Public Domain, which are available to everyone free of charge. All the progams that will be discussed here are used for downloading all files, binary or text. Binary files are those that are PMprograms, also known as .COM files, which these all are. There are 2 for the Adamlink Internal 300 baud modem, and 4 for use with a serial port <like the Orphanware serial port, or the SP-1> and 1200 baud external modem. The internal modem programs are Madam7, a variation of the original Modem and Modem7, and Mex114, which stands for Modem EXecutive, a very complete scripting program. The external programs are Mex114, Imp245, which stands for Improved Modem Program, Csexec, which iich simply means free in celtic>.
Together they give us a variy of programs to fill our needs. The brief descriptions and opinions <mine> follow below.
First starting with the first program I received and the earliest Adam CP/M program, Madam7 by John Moore. This is a very capable program for the internal modem. In fact, this was the program I used until I bought my serial port and Avatex1200 modem from Orphanware. The commands are simple, and are displayed by using M for Menu. It has a built in function-key display, and a built-in phone library. They are installed with the companion programs M7Lib, and M7fnk. The program uses xmodem transfers, using either CRC or Checksum for file checking, and uses 128-byte blocks. As we get it, it's ready to run on the Adamlink Modem. To recieve a file, you must first set up the system you are calling to send the file to you. Then, you must manually set your own system to receive the file by going into the COMMAND mode via a Cntrl-E, then uusi >R Filename.Typ transfer for you, then return you to Terminal Mode. A very easy program all around, and a very easy one to learn. High ratings.
Mex114, by Ron Fowler, on the other hand.. is a very complete program with features I haven't even used yet <both the internal and external versions>. Mex114 will work very similar to Madam7, or run a script file and be fully automated. The program comes with a help file <Mex.Hlp> and a large doc file. One unique feature is it's cloning ability. This, with the built-in phone library and function key, allows you to save the settings and phone numbers you had before. No external program needed. Mex also has a little known feature. It will do both 128-byte and 1K downloading <use the RK Filename.Typ version for 1K>. A special note here.. the external version of Mex <as set up for the Adam> currently doesnt let you switch baud rates. There are two versions available..a 300 baud, ana 1200 baud. Also.. the original version allowed you to use either Xmodem or CompuServe type-A a atmti,and a little bit faster. But,
about a 18 months ago, CompuServe changed their system, and Mex114 CIS-A no longer works. There is a commercial version called Mex+ that has the CIS-A, along with a few other features, but the PD version no longer functions. This has become another favorite of mine, basically, because the program works on most telecom systems, and BBS's without incident. Also.. you can set various features on the fly from the command mode. <I usually turn off the bell..since my terminal has a bell without a switch> This uses the same procedure as Madam7 to download with the exception of using Esc instead of Cntrl. One of the all time better programs.
Imp, by Irv Hoff, for the external modems only, is similar to Madam7 <which is based off Irv's Modem7> in commands, except you use ESC-E instead of Cnt-E to get into command mode <like Mex>. Imp is unique in that it is the only PD program that will autoselect 1K protocal for transmissions if the system is capable. If not.8-yeblcs.Ipalso has two companion programs for the phone library, and the function keys. And the Set Baud rate feature is implemented. Like Madam7, this is
a very easy program to run..since it has a built in Menu, and very few commands. <Unlike Mex which is chock full of options.. that one needs to constantly refer to the Doc or Help file for help> This is my prime modem program ,though occasionaly some BBS's wont download with it. If you have a problem downloading with Imp.. try Mex instead. A big hit in the CP/M world.
Now we come to the two different ones. Kermit, and Csexec. Both a little strange, Kermit is actually designed for use between mainframes and microcomputer and was developed at Columbia University. Kermit is not the frog, buts celtic for free. The current version is use is called the generic one, because it will work on almost any system. <I think I've seen a version of Kermit set up for the Internal modem, but i've never used it>. Kermit uses kermitprotocal, not Xmodemu..tisastandard in that several systems <mainframes> are using this
and Kermit will run on most systems. Of course it will download or upload only from systems running Kermit. <CompuServe recently implemented Kermit in addition to their own CIS-A, CIS-B, Xmodem, and ASCII <this is a nonchecking mode that can be used for basic or text files. This is what Adamlink 2 uses. Also known as file capture, or Xon/Xoff>. To use Kermit on an Adam with an external modem, you must first set the I/O port by using the command Set Port TTY. This will let Kermit work your modem. Then, use the Hayes commands for your modem . Ie: ATDT 2127771221 . The modem will operate and dial your numberTo recieve a file, you must let the system know the name you will use on your disk, then go into command mode, and use RECEIVE <no filename needed..you already told the system>. This is an interesting program because of it's usage to get progams from sources that don't use xmodem. Nice, after setting the port, but slow.
Casactually a commercial program from CompuServe that was put into Public Domain by CompuServe after they decided that CP/M was on the downswing. I came across it on CIS, and installed it for the Adam's serial port with a 1200 baud modem. There are no function keys, but it has a very, very simple script file feature that has to be seen. When I use Csexec, and have it use the script file, I hit the command to execute the default file, and when it's done..I've ended up in Computer Club. Nothing else to press. Csexec use CIS-B protocal which uses 512- byte blocks, which is faster than standard Xmodem on S. It as no function keys, or a phone library, but you canse up the different phone numbers in individual scrip files. To download with Csexec on ompuserve, all you do after requesting to use CIS- B protocal is to tell it the name for your disk, then Csexec does the rest. You don't have to do anything else. This protocal is also known as Vidtex-B. A definate plus when speed is of the essence.
What fow smytst f download times using all the external programs at 1200 baud on Compuserve's Computer Club. The system as I have, is an Adam module 3 with a ColecoVison <converted to direct video by myself from an old article by John Moore in ECN>, 2 ddp's, 2 disk drives, a PIA2 <Original!> and a Panasonic KXP1080i, a Orphanware Serial port <version 1> pluged into a used TRS-80 DT-1 terminal for an 80 col display, a second serial board with an Avatex1200 modem, and a 512K Orphanware Ramcard/memory expander. As most peoplon CIS know..I almost never run anything other than CP/M.
PROGRAM TESTED FOR DOWNLOADING TO RAMDRIVE:
WP-100.LBR showing as 37376 blocks online.
PROGRAM BLOCKS USED TIME TO DOWNLOAD MIN:SEC _______ ___________ ________________
IMP.COM 292 11:03 MEX12.COM 292 11:08 CSEXEC.COM 74.5 7:46 KERMIT.COM 564 18:53
Also, here is how Crosstalk version 3 larcmmrila progam that has it's own protocal, as well as Xmodem.
XTALK.COM 292 11:21
I hope this will give you a good overview of what is out there for us, and a brief comparison, so you can decidewhih is right for you.
Rob Friedman
East Rockaway, LI, NY
June 22 , 1988
<This was typed on my Adam using VDE265.COM..an excelnt PD editor>
SYSTEM MAINTANCE: as people CIS know..I almost never run anything other than CP/M.
PROGRAM TESTED FOR DOWNLOADING TO RAMDRIVE:
This article appears in September, '89 MOAUG newsletter under the title "Editorial Comment: DEJA VU." It was written by Patricia Herrington.
PIRACY. Oh, JOY. I can imagine some of you flinching out there. Presumably, you are all just as weary of this topic as I am. And I am good and tired of it. I thought we had said everything there was to say about the subject, and that we had pretty much settled on our policy. It's generally conceded by virtually everyone that the future of ADAM is best served by scrupulously avoiding illegal copying of software (or hardware, for that matter.) I had hoped never to have to talk about this again. . So, imagine my dismay when I opened the August issue of Computer Shopper and eagerly turned to the ADAM section, only to find an article which appears to justify the duplication of Coleco software!
. The article read, in part, "What about the software Coleco produced for the ADAM? What is its status since Coleco is in bankruptcy, and not expected to recover? ...This means that there is no software, and nowhere to buy any. ...Is it now public domain? No one seems to have the answer."
. Well, here is the answer: Coleco can NOT release that software into the public domain, because it does not own all the copyrights. The copyrights are owned by the people who developed the software: third parties such as Digital Research, Sierra Online, and all the other companies who worked with but not for Coleco; and by individual programmers. Rob Friedman, sysop of the ADAM CP/M forum on Compuserve, did extensive research into this area. He repeatedly telephoned Coleco representatives to see if there were any new developments. The answer was always the same: it can't be done. With the exception of SmartBASIC, to which you are entitled by virtue of having bought the system, and ADAMLINK II, none of the software is public domain and none of it will be public domain any time in the forseeable future.
. Most users' groups have taken the tack that the UNRELEASED programs are PD by virtue of the fact that nobody has ever sold them, and nobody can be hurt by our copying them. This is tenuous logic but MOAUG's policy is that, since those unreleased programs are sold as PD by the larger national groups, we small fish will consider them to be PD, too.
. But the software that was commercially released is still being sold. It IS available... from MANY sources! What's more, legal copies are available at a fraction of the cost we paid for them when Coleco was selling them. One of the most important functions of users' groups is to help put their members in touch with the vendors who sell it.
. I know many people are angry with Coleco for what they perceive as very shabby treatment of the customer. But who gets hurt when Coleco software is pirated? I can assure you it's not Coleco! No, the people who get hurt are the very people who are trying to keep ADAM alive; the people who were willing to take a chance by investing in Coleco's surplus merchandise. We NEED our vendors, and we can't afford to cut their throats. Even MOAUG bought a good deal of Coleco software from the department stores when they were closing it out, purely as a philanthropic gesture, so that ADAMites who need it in the future will be able to buy it. We have a lot of it left, all at closeout prices. And, of course, it comes with all the manuals. (What good is LOGO without the manual, anyway?)
. What will we do with our stockpile if people feel that it's okay to copy and distribute copyrighted software? We'll take a beating on it, that's what. Even at that, we ARE small fish. But there are vendors who have invested a great deal of money in the future of the ADAM; they deserve our gratitude and our patronage.
. If a few of the less popular games have become difficult to find, so what? The new games being produced by our own ADAM developers, such as ADDICTUS by Reedy Software, the new Pitman games, and scores of others, are widely available and in many cases superior to the Coleco originals. With the imminent release of GODOS, we are on the verge of a whole new generation of software. There is more software out there than ever before, and no end in sight. No one person could make full use of all that IS available. We do not need to stoop to piracy to keep ourselves afloat.
. The real danger is that, once we condone any kind of copyright infringement, it is all too easy to convince ourselves that it is okay to copy a new purchase to give to "just one friend." Such rationalization is easy to slip into, and is very hard to curb. The outcome would be that we would drive our most dedicated people out of business. We have already lost a few, including our best-known hardware developer, to piracy. Most ADAM developers operate on a shoestring. And most do it just because they enjoy working with ADAM and for ADAM owners. But this work is very time-consuming, and NOBODY can afford to devote that kind of time and energy without making a profit.
. I want this to be the last editorial I'll ever have to write on the subject. Please! I really am sick of it. But I just couldn't let that Computer Shopper article pass without comment. After all, Computer Shopper is the one source that carries ADAM news to people who have not yet learned to access our vast information network. Among CS' readers are people who don't even know how to buy ribbons and tapes, as Monte Neece is finding out. I devoutly hope that CS will, in the future, set a better example in the message it sends those people. It would be much more valuable to investigate sources of software, and pass that information on to the magazine's readers. The information is definitely out there; ADAMites are justly famous for their willingness to share such news. With more careful research, we could do a lot more for newcomers, and avoid leading them to dangerous conclusions. And that would be a lot more in keeping with the high quality we have learned to expect from the Computer Shopper ADAM columns!
--- PJH MOAUG 8/29/89
ect. Please! I really am sick of it. But I just couldn't let that Computer Shopper article pass without commen
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I promise you this... you are going to LOVE your new disk drive! Not only is it super-fast and convenient, but you are going to save a lot of money on media. I'm sure you've already thoroughly read your manual, but I'll bet you still have questions. What else do you need to know as a proud new disk drive owner? Well: . When you unpack your drive, SAVE THE STYROFOAM CONTAINER. It will be handy later when you need to transport your drive for some reason (like to ADAMCON!) And when you do have to move your drive, the experts advise you to insert a disk and close the drive so that the head doesn't rattle around and get damaged. (Please note: it is exactly the opposite for double-sided drives. With a DS drive, insert a disk but leave the latch OPEN so that the heads don't knock against each other.)
. Turn your disk drive on BEFORE you turn your computer on. This ensures that your drive is properly "logged on". Some software will not recognize the drive otherwise. SmartWRITER (the built- in word processor) is a prime example. If this is your SECOND disk drive, be aware that SmartWRITER will NOT recognize it. Ever. Coleco wasn't planning that far ahead in the beginning. But that's the only "program" you're likely to find which refuses to recognize your second drive, so take heart.
Always remove any disk in the drive before shutting it off. A neat trick to help you remember that your drive is occupied: Place a thin strip of fluorescent tape on the top ledge of the latch. You won't be able to see it when the drive is open, but it will be visible when the drive is closed, and will remind you to remove your disk. . Go down to Radio Shack and purchase a disk head cleaning kit. This usually consists of a special disk with cutouts exposing a material that you soak with some liquid (alcohol?) which is included in the kit. The kit is good for several cleanings. You don't need to clean your drive very often; depending how much you use it, every six months or so should suffice. If you get read errors, try cleaning your drive before you panic.
. If, when you insert a disk, the light comes on and you can hear it whirring but it doesn't stop, remove the disk. Chances are good that you put it in upside-down, or that it has not been formatted. You MUST format your disks before using them.
. Your drive comes with a formatting utility. It works, but I don't like it much. There are LOTS of format utilities out there, and most of them are far superior. Walters Brothers, Orphanware, and many others have some really superb disk management utilities. Backup+3.0 works fine for standard formatting. A VERY GOOD, and very cheap, choice is the PD contribution by Digital Express called "One Minute Formatter". If you just purchased a SECOND disk drive, you can't live without this utility, which can format disks in BOTH drives at once. It also gives you choices for directory size, etc.
. If, when you try to store something on a disk, you get a "CANNOT WRITE TO THIS FILE" message, check to see if you are trying to store to a disk with a write-protect tab on it. If so, remove the tab (or change disks.)
. QUIT SMOKING, or at least don't smoke around your disk drive. Big John loves to point out to me that my smoking is as bad for my electronic equipment as it is for my own health. I confess I haven't attained the state of grace required to follow this advice, but maybe you will.
. There are a few programs that do not translate well from datapack to disk, including some of Coleco's original software. Your SmartBASIC datapack, for example, will continue to search for the default tape drive as the number one drive. Some programs, such as Recipe Filer, won't work, period. To get a disk version of BASIC, you can use a number of tricks. If you have Backup+3.0, use the "copy BASIC" option. (This will give you a modified version of BASIC; just be aware that it's not "plain vanilla". There are now so many disk versions of BASIC that it's not worth trying to describe them all. We have Gregg Noblett's "Plain Vanilla BASIC for Disk" if you need it.
. For disk versions of such programs as Recipe Filer, check your catalogs for patches designed by Walter Brothers. Ron Collins has also converted many programs to disk, notably "Cabbage Patch Kids". Digital Express contributed a PD patch to convert Troll's Tale to disk. And there are many others. For the most part, though, you will have no trouble running your software from disk. Almost everything that's come out in recent years will run fine.
. Your drive does NOT require any kind of special disk. You can use any brand you like. Some people have favorites, but ADAM isn't fussy. They are called 5 1/4" floppy disks (or diskettes.) Most these days are DS/DD (Double sided, double density) but you can also use SS/DD (single sided, double density.) They DO have to be double density, but then, I don't think I've ever seen a single density disk! Disks are usually packaged in boxes of ten.
. Don't pay $10 for a box of disks. Most generic disks work like a charm. You can get them really cheap by mail, particularly if you order in quantity. Sometimes the quantity disks are packaged in plastic only (no individual boxes.) If this matters to you, check the ads carefully or ask the sales clerk. Almost all companies include disk sleeves (these may be paper or Tyvek) and color-coded labels in the price of the disks. Most also include write-protect tabs. All these items are sold separately (cheap.)
. I have ordered disks from about a dozen different companies. The larger suppliers of disks all have 800 numbers, they guarantee their products and their service, they accept charge cards, they have great prices, and they are prompt. I guess that's why they are large!) I do, however, avoid buying disks at flea markets. You never know where those disks came from or how they've been treated. Until you hook up with a mail order house, buy your disks at a computer store or a department store.
. If you've ever tried to back up a tape and accidentally switched the source and destination, you will appreciate the advantage of write-protect tabs for your disks. To prevent accidental erasure, all you have to do is put the tab (a small piece of paper with adhesive backing) over the square notch on the side of your disk. You can then read the disk, load it into memory, and copy it to another medium, but you cannot change the information on the disk itself. If you want to write to the disk, simply remove the tab.
. Disk organizers come in many sizes and shapes, from small plastic boxes to huge cabinets, and even notebook inserts. They are available locally, but the best price I've found is from MEI/Microcenter. MEI also has the very best prices on stiff cardboard disk mailers, preprinted with all the standard "handle with care" notices. These are a super buy at only nineteen cents each, in lots of fifty.
. Organizing your disks is easier with color-coding. Besides colored labels and containers, you can also get colored disks. The best source for these is DISKS & LABELS TO GO. They carry
* SEVENTEEN * colors, including yellow, red, orange, tan, pink, light and dark green, three shades of blue, lavender, two shades of grey, white, brown, maroon... even fuchsia! They are sold in lots of 20 (one color per lot) and cost just 41 cents each. . For years, people have been putting extra notches in their disks so that they can use the back side of the disk, too. In order to do this, you make a cardboard template or use an old disk as a pattern, and then cut out a second square notch on the second side of the disk. That's the easy part. The hard part is to take a hole punch and punch two more round holes close to the hub of the disk without ruining the disk. According to all the experts, YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO DO THIS. But it's practically irresistible. One of the big advantages is that you can mail two disks for the price of one when you trade disks with a friend.
. It is also very handy to put two programs that belong together on the same disk. For example, I have PowerPAINT on the front of a disk and CLIPPER on the back; I also have SpritePOWER on the front of another with FontPOWER on the back. Obviously, you would not want to do this with any important files UNLESS YOU HAVE MADE BACKUPS. I've never had trouble, but you never know.
. On the other hand, this homemade notching business is time- consuming, and it's possible to destroy a disk if you are not careful with the hole punch. In short, it's a pain! I have better things to do with my time, so I stopped double- notching disks years ago. I used to have a source to buy them, but that source dried up. I have been trying to find more ever since. On a hunch, I checked with DISKS & LABELS TO GO, and guess what! That's right, you can buy them from that company for 42 cents apiece. (Ask for "flippy" disks.) It beats the tar out of doing it yourself, IF you are going to ignore the experts and do it anyway. The choice is yours... but at least you have a choice.
. Subscribe to COMPUTER SHOPPER, or pick it up at the checkout stand. Not only does it have some great ADAM columns by Paul Pappas and Faye Deere, but you will find bargains galore on disks and disk accessories (among other items.)
MEI/Micro Center: 1100 Steelwood Road Columbus, OH 43212-3972
1-800-634-3478
Disks & Labels To Go: Route 206, East Hampton Business Park
Mt. Holly, NJ 08060
1-800-426-3303 (Tell Lisa I said "Hi!")
Walters Software: RD#4 Box 289-A Titusville, PA 16354
(814) 827-3776
Ron Collins: 529 Grandview Barberton, OH 44203
OR access the Akron BBS: (216) 882-4720
(Use Ron's address to find software formerly distributed by Orphanware, including Tony Morehan's super patches & utilities.)
"Digital Express" products and Solomon Swift's public domain software are now being distributed by The SoftWORKS Factory. Contact Sol or Tony Patterson at:
TSF PO Box 732 Ocean Springs, MS 39574
--- PJH MOAUG 9/1/89
ou will find bargains galore on disks and disk accessories (among other items.)
MEI/Micr
Ron Collins, of the Akron AUG, left this report on CIS:
[AS reported to us by the lovely editor of the MOAUG news, Patricia Herrington, THANKS PAT]
"...I spent the last hour looking at the program with SuperZAP. Sol has done some really amazing things. First, he borrowed from the Coleco SmartBASIC interface just enough to make the system recognizable to our system ROMs and also familiar enough to US for easy use. He has added a massive amount of new command syntax and capability. I saw references to turning speech on and off, setting mouse speed, drawing and erasing circles, blocks, etc. Accessing the colors of text/borders/screens is also a piece of cake now. Still not enough? He has added enough other stuff to the software that makes it really useful. My best description of it, based on what I saw with the block editor and my own trials to date is that GoBASIC is a super modified version of SmartBASIC blended expertly with the finest sound and graphics capabilities of LOGO. I think (a proposed) online RLE viewer might be a bit easier to realize under GoDOS. The pull-down menus are also quite nice... as is the ability to change character fonts on demand....
I have finally been able to compare the two programs... GoBASIC and French SmartBASIC+. There is NO comparison! The beta release from Sol and Tony is... astounding! * Ron * "
Ron is on target about the LOGO-like commands. While you are waiting for GODOS to become generally available, which should be any day now, you might as well dust off your LOGO tape and play with the demos. Many of the GoBASIC graphics commands are similar to LOGO commands. Remember, "sprites" in Basic are the same entity as "turtles" in LOGO; it's just always been so much more complicated to use them in Basic. That's a thing of the past. The more comfortable you are with LOGO features, such as hiding turtles, rotating them, and changing their shapes, the easier it will be to jump into the GoBASIC sprite-handling commands.
You won't believe how flexible the fonts are, too... you can change fonts to any of six sets already in memory, or you can use your own; and you can easily rotate them, reverse them, or display them in mirror-image, and place them anywhere you like, even scrolling them in windows. I've tried before to describe this, but you just have to see it.
The documentation has been the major holdup in getting GoDOS distributed, and even though TSF has been working steadily on it, it's still on the skimpy side. Knowing Sol and Tony, I am positive that they will write reams about GoDOS and GoBASIC eventually, but at this moment we have to make do with descriptions of the commands. (Which is why I really appreciate the early PD releases by other parties!) The doc files on the commands are thorough and clear, though. We have included in this issue several of the files from the doc disk, so you can get a general idea even before viewing GoBASIC. There are over 300 of them, so we didn't have room for all of them in one issue. (We'll run more next month.)
We appreciate Ron Mitchell sharing this information with us.
WHAT MAKES A GOOD PROGRAM?
Surveying the many programs available for Adam, or any other comARTICLE BY RON MITCHELL, PRESIDENT OF AUFG (Adam User Friendly Group) of Ontario Canada.
We appreciate Ron Mitchell sharing this information with us.
WHAT MAKES A GOOD PROGRAM?
Surveying the many programs available for Adam, or any other computer for that matter, often begs a question.
What makes a good program?
How often have you paid good money for a piece of software that disappoints you or that you felt was overpriced? Or perhaps you've written a program or two yourself, left them for a while, and returned sometime later to find your masterpiece is not nearly as brilliant as you'd first considered it to be.
The truth is, there's no single easy answer to the question. It may well be that one group of target users will criticize software that has completely pleased another. The variance of preferences can be infinite, but there are some general rules. One author, Edward Yourdon, sums up his view of a good program this way:
- It works. - It works according to specifications. - It is ready on time. - It has no bugs. - It is flexible - The bugs, which are inevitable, can be fixed quickly. - It is well documented. - It executes quickly. - It makes efficient use of memory.
A few pages later, the author has elaborated on this criteria somewhat, and throws in another rather interesting set of criteria which he calls "devious, perverse, illegal and immoral programming practices.
- badly commented or uncommented code. - use of assembly language when a high level language will do as well. - misuse of (language) instructions. - programs that modify themselves. - sharing temporary memory storage and variables amongst several subroutines. - excessive use of macros - excessive use of "goto's". - non-nmemonic variable names
Much is written about knowing exactly who you're writing for. One rather interesting charactization of so-called 'professionals' reads as follows:
- They know little about computers. - They are not interested in knowing about computers - in fact, they may not even like them. - They know how to turn the computer on. - They (probably) know how to load the program and bring up the first menu. - They have probably not read any program documentation. - They cannot be expected to remember anything that is not presented within the context of the program - They will consistently ignore screen prompts, and will enter data that have inappropriate type, format, length, and other characteristics. - They are motivated to accomplish the function the program was designed to serve. - They resent it when things go wrong and will blame it on you. - They will write data to the program disk, if possible. - They will attempt to load data from an empty disk drive.
Take that for what it's worth. The same author, Henry Simpson, actually provides a definition of user friendliness.
"....a "user friendly" program is one with features that acknowledge human factors.....ie. the various characteristics of people which influence their performance - memory, ability to see and hear, motivation, motor skills, and so on."
"In general, a user-friendly program is easy to use, tolerant of operator errors, easy to learn, and acknowledges that human beings are imperfect creatures."
Let's deal with some other features.
As a user, you might have a preference for menus. You want the program purpose to be stated 'up-front', and you want full guidance as to how you'll reach your destination - the job to be done. The opening screen should present you with a series of choices, clearly and concisely stated in an opening format that is both readable and pleasing to the eye. At this point, choices should be selectable with a single keystroke, or at the very most, a single word. Depending on the complexity of the program, there may be branches at this stage to other menus.
Opening instructions displayed on the screen should state in a concise manner the purpose of the program and the essential things that the user needs to know in order to operate the program. It is not likely, as we have seen, that the average user will be willing to refer to documentation, so don't assume that the book has been read. Provide a few well worded hints to prompt the user from the beginning.
There should be a method of bypassing the initial instructions once the user has become accustomed to the program. Menus can be shortened to provide only essential prompting and the more routine program functions can become automatic. The Smartwriter program has been criticized in this regard for being almost too user friendly. The persistent question "Are you sure?" can become a source of annoyance to those who know exactly how the "delete" key functions.
The average user expects a certain amount of forgiveness in the area of command or data entry. Some programs will simply return you to the beginning when incorrect data formats or commands are entered. Others seem to be endlessly patient. Suffice it to say that the user should have at least one chance to foul things up without crashing the program. After that, a certain amount of assistance should be available in the form of a 'help' command. It follows then, that the program should be capable of error checking to some degree.
In the matter of colour and fancy screen layouts, preferences are so diverse that it is difficult to state any hard and fast rules. Some prefer a plain black screen with standard white letters; others may be using a monochrome monitor and will want colours that show up well on it. Others may expect all the colours, flashing, and other bells and whistles that the computer is capable of, and be willing to sit through whatever form of entertainment display the programmer cares to provide. The answer would seem to lie in making your program as flexible as possible. Provide choices.
Screen layouts are important. Some Adam programs sacrifice clarity and readability by cramming too much information onto the screen at once. Others provide so little information that the user has difficulty following. Flashing data can be distracting and hard on the eyes. In some cases, there is little distinction between one section or screen of the program and the next. These are all aspects which require careful consideration.
Documentation is another important area. There should be sufficient information provided in a .doc file or in written form to permit the user to learn how to use the program, and what to do if something doesn't go quite as expected. We'll be reviewing the characteristics of good documentation in a future article.
REFERENCES:
Design of User-Friendly Programs for Small Computers. Henry Simpson - McGraw Hill, l985.
Techniques of Program Structure and Design. Edward Yourdon - Prentice Hall, 1975. choices.
Screen layouts are important. Some Adam programs sacrifice clarity and readability by cram
FROM THE AUGUST MOAUG: HOTNEWS
From Ron Collins (Compuserve Message:)Pat, BJ (Big John Lingrel) left me a message... That's right! The Big Guy is going to try to make it to ADAMCON too! ...In some way or other, every piece of hardware & software we have is the result of someone's work in a related area. BJ's hardware led software developers to come up with better ways to use the hardware. The new solftware was so good that it forced BJ to come up with even better ways to use the software! Other developers came up with products which use both! Then someone else does it easier & better! Now we have GoDOS to handle it ALL! WOW! Tell Sol I can't wait to see him again. It's been a long time since my visit to West Virginia to watch him create SwiftBASIC 80 out of thin air! *Ron*
From George Havach (Compuserve Message:)To ALL: Be sure and check out the following full-service ADAM supply center:
Heritage House
2547 Second Ave.
Council Bluffs, IOWA
(712) 325-1672 (Ask for John)
They have lots of ADAM software and hardware in stock, and
they also do repairs.
From Chris Braymen (Compuserve Message:)...I've held off saying anything until I was sure it worked, but work it does! I've been playing 16 voice songs on 2 synthesizers through the MIDI interface I developed. So far, I've been writing the songs with VideoTunes and playing the files with another program. It sounds wonderful! I can hear the songs played by strings, brass, harpsichord, or whatever. Even dog barks if I want! But that is only half of what MIDI can do. I'll have the MIDI IN part of the interface working soon and I'm working on a full-blown multi-channel sequencer. I've been talking with a well- known hardware developer about making MIDI interfaces... Meanwhile, I've got one, it's a load of fun, and I can't wait to show it off at ADAMCON!
From Ricki Gerlach (mail):I'm back in the USA now. I have my wife's permission to attend ADAMCON; now if I can just get the Army to release me for a week of sun in Florida, I'm coming. I am donating my seven volumes of Happy Clips as a prize to give away at the convention. I can also donate the 2-disk edition of my latest release, "LEARNING TURKISH WITH ADAM V2.3", if you think anyone would want a copy! I hav found a source of ADAM cartridges for the game CARNIVAL. I'll sell them for the price I got them, $3.85 each, plus $1.50 postage. There are no instruction books, but if I find one, I'll copy it for each buyer. My new address is:
Gerlach Family Software
PO Box 175
Ft. Campbell, KY 42223
From Neil Wick (several Compuserve messages:)MTAG (Metro Toronto ADAM Group) just held our meeting, & it looks like up to a half-dozen members will be at ADAMCON (including Syd Carter, of course.) We hear that Canadians are also planning to attend from the St. Catherines group, Ottowa, and Edmonton. Two new products from out club alone sound really exciting; this convention is a real incentive for new product development! .. Some expect Syd's new "Extended Format DDPs" and Gary Bowser's new "ADAM Image Maker" video expansion module to overshadow even GODOS in importance!
... The Adam-Image-Maker (AIM) was announced by Gary Bowser of Oasis Pensive Abacutors at the meeting. Gary has been selling products for the TI 99/4A, which uses the same video chip as ADAM. The AIM is based on the V9938 chip which is software-compatible with ADAM's chip, but offers many enhanced capabilities. I've seen it running on the TI computer myself, & it's really quite impressive, especially for graphics. The unit will be an "expansion module" which just hooks onto the right side of the ADAM. There's nothing to take apart; installation will be really simple. The following is promised:
~Software for CP/M & SmartWriter to allow 80-column text! ~Complete assembly language & SmartBASIC programming guide! ~128k of video RAM (vs present 16k), expandable to 192k! ~RGB, Composite, and TV output! ~Mouse port with mouse included! ~256 by 192/212 graphics mode; each pixel can be any of 256 colors! ~512 by 192/212 graphics mode. Pixels can be any of 16 colors chosen from the 256 in the pallette! ~32 sprites with up to 8 per horizontal line!
PLUS, all your present software will work as normal. Cost will be around $300 Canadian (about $255 US) or even less! Expected availability is mid-November, though you should see a preview of it at ADAMCON.
Our membership is around 100 strong, and we hold two meetings a month; membership is $20 per year. We have a newsletter every two months. One recent newsletter ran 72 pages, but we're trying to cut down. Our address is:
MTAG, Box 165, 260 Adelaide St. E., Toronto Ontario, CANADA M5A 1NO
The president, Richard Clee, can be contacted at:
(416) 783-0316 after 7:30 PM or on weekends.
Any club who puts us on their newsletter mailing list will get their club on our own newsletter mailing list.
The following is slated for September MOAUG news if we have
room:
Norman Castro of OAC has developed a reputation for his
crisp reproduction work. Norman sells reduced instructions
for hundreds of games & software packages, not just for
ADAM, but for several other game systems as well. We
mentioned here that Norman has acquired permission to
reprint the excellent but defunct newsletter, Expandable
Computer News (ECN.) We just received word that Norman is
now selling reductions of The ADAM Technical Journal by
Serendipity Productions. This was a superb early newsletter
that lasted only 3 issues, and has been out of print for
several years. One of the articles in the Journal concerned
information which led to the development of ALL the binary
save programs now available, from the PD "Cruncher" program
to the improved commercial version "Turboload", and
eventually to even more sophisticated programs such as DEI's
"IntelLoad". You can now purchase reproductions from Norman
at $2 per issue, plus $1 shipping & handling per issue; or,
all 3 issues for $8 postpaid. Write Norman at 809 W. 33rd
Ave, Bellevue, NE 68005.
A SERIES of articles on LOGO by RICKI GERLACH. We hope to distribute future parts of this series.
Ricki Gerlach's 2nd LOGO column from July MOAUG:
Features that contribute to LOGO's simplicity are summarized as: 1. LOGO IS INTERPRETED AND INTERACTIVE. This means that LOGO will try to carry out your commands right away, one line at a time. An interpreted language makes it extremely easy to explore new programming ideas. An interactive language is the major characteristic that makes BASIC easy to use. A noninteractive language like FORTRAN or PASCAL must be 'compiled'.
2. LOGO IS MODULAR. Most modern languages today (except BASIC) share this property. This characteristic of LOGO allows programming projects to be broken up into several smaller, simpler parts. Each part, or 'program', is called a 'PROCEDURE'.
3. LOGO IS EXTENSIBLE. LOGO has certain built-in key words like PRINT and FORWARD. These key words are called 'PRIMITIVES', words that the computer already knows. However, you can create new procedures which are used just like the primitives. An extensible language uses the same 'syntax' for both primitives and programmed procedures.
4. LOGO USES NONTYPED VARIABLES. Most
languages have several 'types' of
variables: numbers, strings, arrays,
integers, real, etc. LOGO uses words
(which includes numbers) and lists of
words. The same variable in LOGO can
be an integer in one part of the
program and a character later on.
5. LOGO USES AUTOMATIC DYNAMIC MEMORY ALLOCATAION. This means you don't have to worry about or declare the size of lists or words before (or while) you use them.
6. LOGO HAS DYNAMIC SCOPING. Roughly speaking, this means that LOGO will use local variables first, if defined. Otherwise, it will look for global definitions.
7. LOGO USES HELPFUL ERROR MESSAGES. LOGO error messages explain what caused the error and where the error occurs. Debugging programs becomes easy to do.
8. LOGO HAS TURTLE GRAPHICS. Turtle graphics provide a marvelous way to begin learning a new language. The visual feedback is highly motivating and not only teaches the language's vocabulary and structure, but also builds a foundation for the ideas of structured programming.
A list is enclosed by brackets [ ] You can list instructions for ADAM to follow, as we did in Part 1. Another short procedure is:
TO STAR REPEAT 5 [ FD 75 RT 144] END
When entering a procedure, you enter the line: TO (Name of Procedure) and a second line will appear, with the same words. You must move the cursor down to the second line, and hit return, so that it will become part of the procedure. Remember to push Smartkey VI after you type END. Try this one:
TO SNOWFLAKE REPEAT 10 [ FD 50 BK 50 RT 36] END
Several commands that we need to know
are: HOME, CLEARSCREEN or CS, PENUP or
PU, PENDOWN or PD, CLEARTEXT or CT, &
CLEARGRAPHICS or CG.
HOME sends the current turtle to the center of the screen with a heading of 0 (facing north, or the top of the screen.) CS clears the screen of text and graphics, and sends the current turtle home. PU raises the turtle's pen, so that it will not draw on the screen. PD puts the pen down, so that it will draw a line as the turtle moves across the screen. CT removes only text from the screen, leaving the graphics intact. CG removes graphics only, leaving any text on the screen.
A SERIES of articles on LOGO by RICKI GERLACH. We hope to distribute future parts of this series.
PART 3
Once we understand how to move the turtles around, we can do some simple but nice displays. The easiest one would be to draw a tree. In order to do this, we first decide that we want to draw a branch. To do this, we write the procedure:
TO BRANCH: SIZE RT 90 FD: SIZE / 2 WAIT 30 TR2: SIZE / 2 BK: SIZE BRANCH: SIZE END
What we have done here is to define the procedure BRANCH. When you run the procedure, you have to input a number SIZE so that BRANCH will know how far to draw the branch.
Now we add another procedure, TR2, to add to the tree by extending the trunk and adding another branch. It places the added branch on top of the tree, at half the size of the first one. Add another procedure, TR2:
TO TR2 :SIZE IF SIZE < 10 [STOP] FD :SIZE WAIT 30 TR2 :SIZE / 2 BK: SIZE BRANCH :SIZE END
If we look at this procedure, we will notice several things. First, we are telling ADAM that if our number, SIZE, is smaller than 10, then stop the pro- cedure. Second, the WAIT command tells ADAM to stop for the count of 30 before continuing the program. Last, we see that we are dividing the number we inputted by 2 (shown in the line: <TR2 :SIZE / 2>.) We also see that the procedure BRANCH, which we defined earlier, is being called from within this new procedure.
We will write one last procedure, which we will call TREE. It will look like this:
TO TREE :SIZE IF OR :SIZE < 10 :SIZE >110 [STOP] ST CS PU SETPOS [ 0 -80] PD TR2 :SIZE HT WAIT 180 CT END
Now, you have to save this program under the name TREE. In order to do this, enter:
SAVE "TREE
Note that you will use quotation marks only at the beginning of the file name, not at the end. Make sure that you have a disk or datapack in your drive before saving the file. After it's saved, you can run the program by entering the name and any number. For example, try this:
TREE 50
...and see what happens. Notice you do not have to use the command RUN, as you would in BASIC. This program draws a very crude tree, but shows very clearly how complex recursion works. By calling back on itself, the program could go on and on forever. To prevent this, we added a test condition to stop the recursive calls going on indefinitely. The test condition is the " IF OR " found in the TREE procedure, line two. We've added a half second pause to let you see the turtle draw each of the trunks first, then draw each branch. One important factor, in recursive calls, is that the turtle MUST return to its previous position; hence the turtle goes back to the bottom of the trunk, facing up.
This is shown in line four, where we put the pen in the up position (PU) and set the position of the turtle, then put the pen back down (PD).
(continued next month)
Ricki Gerlach's lst LOGO column from MOAUG:
LEARNING WITH LOGO
PART 1
BY: RICKI J. GERLACH
WHAT IS LOGO ?
Logo has been described as being both a computer language and a philosophy of learning. The major theme of Logo's philosophy is to learn by doing, to learn by trial and error, to learn by exploring and discovering. Errors do not reflect failure, but 'bugs' that can be analyzed and fixed. The language itself was designed to reflect this philosophy by being easy to use and powerful enough for sophisticated applications. Logo achieves these two seemingly opposing goals by incorporating several major design characteristics. The most important Logo feature is its ability to respond to new user-created words or programs in the same way Logo responds to its built-in words. Every computer language has certain 'reserved' words that the computer knows and responds to. In Logo, these key words are called PRIMITIVES, and include such commands as, MAKE, AND, IF, REPEAT, FORWARD, and RIGHT. For example, the command
FORWARD 50
will cause the turtle to draw a line 50 steps long on the screen, while the command
RIGHT 90
will turn the turtle 90 degrees to the right. We can create some rather interesting programs using these primitives. Here is one of the easiest programs to visualize.
TO BOX REPEAT 4 [ FORWARD 50 RIGHT 90 ] END
Remember to push SmartKey VI after typing this, so that ADAM will store it in the memory, for later recall. Think of it as ADAM remembering what BOX is. Now the key point here, is that we can run this program, called a PROCEDURE in Logo, just by typing its name, the same as we run a Logo primitive. We can even include this newly defined procedure into other procedures. For example, here is a simple procedure that uses our BOX procedure.
TO STAR REPEAT 20 [ BOX RIGHT 18 ] END (SMART KEY VI)
Now just run STAR, and watch what happens.
The primitive TO is used to enter the Logo editor in order to define new 'vocabulary' words. When a language uses new words just like it uses its built-in words, we say the language is 'extensible' and uses the same 'syntax' for procedures as for primitives.
Some words may be abbriviated, as
RIGHT or RT FORWARD or FD LEFT or LT BACKWARD or BKThis means that the procedure you entered for BOX, could also be entered as
TO BOX REPEAT 4 [ FD 50 RT 90 ] ENDand the procedure for STAR could be entered as
TO STAR REPEAT 20 [ BOX RT 18 ] END
This is the AWAUG article as it appears in the September issue of MOAUG under the title "A Closer Look At AWAUG." There are two PowerPAINT pics that go with this article: "AWAUG.pic" and "AWAUG.pic2."
This month's column is a salute to the ADAM, Washington Area Users' Group (AWAUG for short.) AWAUG has been a pivotal force in the recent drive to develop a stronger and more unified information network among ADAM owners and users' groups. The group even offers a free 1200 baud modem to any group wishing to start an electronic bulletin board system!
The ADAM, Washington Area User's Group, based in Northern Virginia, was established in March of 1984 with membership from the Washington D.C. metropolitan area including adjacent portions of Maryland and Virginia. The organization grew to include membership throughout the U.S. by providing services and communications via mail and modem.
The club conducts monthly meetings, mailing all members a full agenda in advance which describes the planned demonstrations, presentations, hands- on experimentation, training, and often an auction of ADAM hardware and software. A very well-done news- letter is published bimonthly. It includes articles from AWAUG members as well as articles chosen from other newsletters with reciprocal publish- ing agreements. . The club also operates a 24-hour CP/M-based Bulletin Board Service at 300/1200/2400 baud rates with 20 megabytes of storage space (using an ADAM with a Hard Disk Drive) and over 800 programs on-line for downloading.
A hardware repair service, the pro- duction of formatted tapes, and a library of public domain programs on tapes and disks provides members with services and supplies at members-only prices. Any surplus from the member- ship fees ($15.00 per year) and club club services is placed in the club treasury. These funds are used for AWAUG operating costs, and also provide funding for an ever-changing variety of Group hardware and software projects.
Current Group projects include the production of serial interfaces and cables for the Government surplus 80-column terminals and 1200 baud modems that the club provides for members. Jim Howard (a Railroad worker) provides the energy and the leadership for the special group projects.
AWAUG members have been particularly adept in ADAM hardware and software innovations, including: ... a speech synthesizer developed by Minh Ta, with dual parallel/serial inteface ports. You can type a sen- tence and press return, and the synthesizer will speak it -- or it will speak an entire stored text;
... adapting a Commodore Mouse (wired through a Coleco game paddle) for use on the ADAM ... also by Minh Ta;
... programming the ADAM to use a Radio Shack Home Utility/Security system to turn on/off electrical appliances and security devices through regular house wiring (still another Minh Ta project);
A Pascal mortgage/loan calculation program (by Ralph Mason);
... a BASIC program which enables you to complete forms (e.g. Federal Government SF-171 resume form) on an ADAM printer (Joe Mendez);
... a "DUPER" to produce the group's formatted tapes and public domain tapes, two at a time -- used for over three years now for all of AWAUG tape production (Howard Kuhn);
... and a wide variety of other in- novations, including some which will be unveiled for the first time at the ADAM Convention in October! . The vitality of the Group has come from a balance of the long and faithful service of a few and the innovation and excitement generated by the many who opt for periodic involvement and active participation.
"There is no reason why everyone cannot have fun and share the spotlight from time to time, with no continuing obligation other than to contribute as long as it's fun," says AWAUG President, Bob Blair.
Bob, who is a Training Officer for the U.S. Department of Labor, strongly believes that a good Users' Group is one that is small enough to give personal service and large enough to effectively fill the hard- ware and software gaps that develop for the ADAM. With the total member- ship ranging between 90 & 140 over the last two years, the club seems to have established a good balance be- tween size and service. . AWAUG's Newsletter Editor, Jack MacKenn, is a retired Navy officer. He was preceded by two previous editors: Peter Hartzler (a carpenter who just became a computer program- mer) and Monte Jones (a radio news- caster.) Among the many other AWAUG members who have provided special service to the club are: Ginny, Cathy and Jay Bolton; Gene Manning; Cliff Sinopoli; Manford Patterson; Shon McCallum; and former club officers who continue to assist in club guidance: Mike King, Don Wendell and Jim Tyson.
AWAUG makes every effort to provide its members with bargain prices. The group has an exclusive contract to distribute registered copies of Word Star 2.0 to members for the incred- ible price of $20! President Bob Blair doesn't like to make too much of that, though, because he feels that the group's version of the public domain CP/M editor, VDE, is superior to WordStar.
We are expecting to meet AWAUG mem- bers at ADAMCON. At the very least, Bob Blair will be dropping by for one day of the convention. (AWAUG has donated a serial interface made by the group as a door prize.) One thing is certain: we are going to be hearing a lot more from AWAUG in the months to come!
AUG members who have provided
A most prolific hardware developer. He has been extremely active helping to install hard drive interfaces for AWAUG members, developing new hardware and software innovations and repairing hardware for AWAUG members. Minh, a native of South Vietnam, became a US citizen earlier this year. He is an Electronic Communications Specialist with a division of COMSAT.
He has contributed the adaptation of the Commodore Mouse to the ADAM via a game paddle, a Speech Synthesizer that also has serial and parallel interfaces for the ADAM, the connection of the Radio Shack home appliance/security system to the ADAM, and many current projects including a light gun, light pen, digitizer and MIDI sound synthesizer
MINH TA has agreed to allow me to download his technical articles from the AWAUG BBS (703-922-5497 8Nl, Bob Blair Sysop) for use on the Adam News Network (ANN).
We appreciate Minh's efforts on behalf of Adam and his sharing with us.
SEE THE FILE SEC SYS (security system) on this disk.
interfaces for AWAUG members, developing new hardware and software innovations and repa
A LOOK AT THE ADAMOUSE
From N.O.A.H. Hardware Reviews
Northern Ohio Adam Hackers
by Ronald Collins
Well, I have just acquired the "pivotal point" in Adamhardware for the next few years. It's been called a lot of things by a wide range of computer distributors, but it's only now been made available to the Adam Computer owner. It's called a mouse. Such an un-assuming name isn't it? Don't worry! This one doesn't squeek, crawl under your feet or scare the daylights out of your loved ones when seen! It's just another hardware device... or is it? The basic