CFOG's PIP, February 1986, Volume 4 No. 4, Whole No. 40, page 1

Kuykendall Uploaded to Prexy Cohen PIPed to Editor

President's Message

It has been said that the only thing that stays constant is change. CFOG has seen a few changes since the last issue of PIP:

- Elections were held on April 20th. Three new officers were elected:
President Vice Pres. Director At Large	Bill Kuykendall Mike Andrews Glen Ostgaard
Two of the former officers were reelected:
Tom Ferguson Rand Gerold	Treasurer Secretary
- Ben Cohen is the new Editor for PIP. Af ter serving two and a half years (to life) as President, Ben decided to move on to bigger and better things.
- RCP/M #2 went on-line March 10th, giving us a total of 70 Megabytes of stored public domain programs available 24 hours a day to any member who has a modem. The message systems on both RCP/Ms are now open to the public so that anyone can participate in the discussions. RCP/M #2 also has a public access downloading section.

Some of the changes we are facing are more serious however, which brings me to the subject at hand: The future endeavors of CFOG. The CP/M community is changing rapidly as more business users turn to PC-DOS and more "hobby computers" feature CP/M as an optional operating system. (The Commodore 128 supports CPM+ and new CP/M cards are now available for the Apple II and the TRS-80 Color Computer.)

CFOG has done a good job in the past of supporting such business packages as WordStar, SuperCalc and dBase II in the CP/M environment. Unfortunately, these packages are beyond the reach of many of the new users of CP/M.

In light of these changes CFOG's membership renewals are down 35% from 1985.

These, and other issues will be the subject of a special Board of Directors meeting limited to the topic "future planning" to be held June 10, 1986 at 7:00 pm. The meeting will be held at Ben Cohen's office downtown at 55 W. Monroe, Suite 2400. As always, members are welcome to attend. Part of the main (Sunday) meeting on June 22 will be set aside to discuss these issues in an open forum.

I hope that each of you will find time to attend the June meeting. The officers of CFOG are united in wanting to provide the kind of support that the majority of members would like to have. We can only do that with feedback from you. If you wish to attend the Board Meeting on June 10th, please contact Ben Cohen or myself by June 3rd, so that other arrangements can be made if there will be more people than Ben's office can accommodate.

I'd like to thank (I think) those of you who elected me to serve as President of CFOG this year. I hope 1986 will be a year of problem solving and growth for us so that CFOG can continue to provide the kind of support it has in the past.

- Bill Kuykendall

 

 

CFOG's PIP, February 1986, Volume 4 No. 4, Whole No. 40, page 2

Support Shrink Wrap Amendments

Last year our legislature, in its wisdom, passed a bill known as S.B. 800, the Software License Enforcement Act, making Illinois only the second state to enforce so-called 'shrink wrap' licenses. As part of the negotiations between proponents and opponents of the bill, an agreement was made to make certain changes and to postpone the effective date of the act to July 1, 1986 to allow the discussion of and introduction of amendments to S.B. 800.

The provisions of S.B. 800 are a disaster for users, and don't provide much help to sellers of software. The amendments provide to consumers rights which they reasonably expect to receive when they pay money for copies of software -- like the right to make backups, the right to modify the software to make it run, and the right to sell it when you're through with it.

This year state Rep. Ellis B. Levin of Chicago introduced H.B. 2927 as a vehicle for amendments to S.B. 800. At hearings before House Judiciary I Committee on April 22 (when ye ed was one of the proponents) and April 30 the committee indicated its support of the changes proposed. On the 30th the committee reported the bill to the floor of the House. By the time you get this it may be too late to contact your state representative -- check CFOG RCPM #1 for the latest information, or check for a message on the answering machine at 726-3569. If the bill is to get out of the House it must do so by mid-May. Your support for this bill can have an effect.

Democracy works, but only for those who participate. So call your state rep and senator. At the hearing on H.B. 2927 Rep. Tim Johnson told us that he received 50 to 100 letters from computer users in his district objecting to S.B. 800. That's effective. So, write letters -- you've got a computer, use it. If you haven't done so already, get the names of your state rep and senator and put them in a mailmerge data f ile so that you can quickly write a skeleton letter and get it out to both of them. That's the real meaning of the personal computer revolution - bhc

 

 

CFOG's PIP, February 1986, Volume 4 No. 4, Whole No. 40, page 3

A File to Look For

A new file in the Cincinnati Osborne Group's library is TOF.OBJ. This is as good a place as any to repeat that an OBJ file is simply a COM file whose name has been changed so that you can't run it while on a remote system (RCPM). Change its name to TOF.COM before you try to run it. TOF simply sends a formfeed to the LST: device (your printer). It's handy when you're using the ^P toggle to print files and the printer stops halfway down the page. Or when you're too lazy to get up and feed the page yourself. Source, in Turbo Pascal, is said to be available on request -- someone should find this and add it to our library.

 

 

CFOG's PIP, February 1986, Volume 4 No. 4, Whole No. 40, page 4

REINKING RIBBONS -- A REHASH OF SOME OLD STUFF and SOME NEW INFORMATION

by Benjamin H. Cohen

I've mentioned the MacInker before -- it's a small device that reinks fabric ribbons for printers. One drawback of the MacInker has been that you needed another MacInker for each ribbon type that you had. For people or offices with more than one printer this meant that the MacInker was not as economical as it might be and you had more MacInkers to store -- often meaning you couldn't find the right MacInker when you needed it. Well, Computer Friends has done it -- they've created a Universal MacInker. Well, actually, there are TWO Universal MacInkers -- one for cartridge ribbons and one for open spool types.

The Universal MacInker consists of a base with a motor, two holes into which to screw ribbon drivers, and a bunch of holes in which to position the ink holder and a ribbon positioner. The ribbon type Universal MacInker sells for $68.50 with one driver -- each additional driver costs $8.50. The spool type Universal MacInker sells for $66.95.

I've been using a MacInker for about two years. In the summer of 1984 I bought four ribbons for my Transtar 130. One of them got chewed up when I left it on the MacInker overnight and the gear mechanism failed. I'm still using the other three. Each one has been reinked eight or nine times. When I reink the ribbons, I get darker print than I got when the ribbons were new. I'll concede that sometimes I don't realize how light the ribbon has gotten, but my intent is to change the ribbon long before it gets to the point that I would throw out a ribbon if I couldn't reink it.

Reinking ribbons is not something for a "clean room". You're going to get a bit of ink on your fingers. It cleans off readily with WD-40 or waterless hand cleaner. On the other hand, using the MacInker is not "messy" -- you don't need to worry about getting ink all over, it's just that you can't avoid getting a bit on your fingers, no matter how careful you are. Keep a few paper towels around, and work on a few sheets of old newspaper, and you won't have any problems.

A 2 ounce bottle of ink costs $3 -- but they come in a box of 4 and the minimum order is $12! You might want to order an extra one when you order your MacInker. A bottle of ink lasts a long time. I don't have a count, but I'm sure that it's not far wrong when Computer Friends says it costs about 5 or 6 cents for the ink to reink a ribbon.

For those who don't use many ribbons, or who don't want to spend the $60+ that a MacInker costs, there is another inexpensive method that works well for some ribbon types. Two purveyors sell a pressurized spray can of ink. RE-INK-IT comes in a 5 ounce spray can from RE-INK-IT, Lynchville Park, Chatel Ave., Goffstown, NH 30345. I paid $8 for the can. EBONIZE comes in a 3 ounce spray can from UPWEGO Computer Supply, Inc., 120 West Madison Street, Chicago, IL 60602. I paid $14.95 plus tax.

Reinking ribbons with a spray can is, in a word, MESSY. You had best have a bunch of newspapers spread around. You have to pry open the top of the ribbon cartridge. This works well with some types, such as Epson, which have metal cartridges which you can easily open. With these you can also replace the ribbon in the cartridge. Once the cartridge is open, you spray the ink on the ribbon, trying to get it evenly all over the ribbon without getting too much on the newspaper or the carpet. Then you have to close the cartridge, a process that isn't so easy with some ribbons.

If the ribbon pops out, it's often not too hard to get it back in. Make sure the gear mechanism is in place properly. The best way seems to be to let it all hang out, put in a strip that goes through the cartridge, and close it up. Then get out a hand drill -- electric ones go too fast and put in a screwdriver bit that will fit in the bottom of the cartridge where the printer turns the ribbon. Most of the cartridges have either a star shaped driver that takes a Phillips head screwdriver bit nicely, or a straight slot that takes a straight screwdriver bit. Stick the cartridge in a vise, or have someone hold it, while you turn the drill and wind the ribbon into the cartridge. You can use a plain screwdriver, or the knob on top of the cartridge, too, but it's quite slow.

RE-INK-IT says that reinking a ribbon costs about 20 cents. Figure a bit more with EBONIZE, but in either event, it's a lot cheaper than new ribbons. You'll have to decide whether the extra mess with the spray cans balances against the initial expense.

 

 

CFOG's PIP, February 1986, Volume 4 No. 4, Whole No. 40, page 5

Changing Printwheels in WordStar Files

by George Blair

[Reprinted from COGWheels, December 1985, p.9]

If you're using a daisywheel printer, you may want to change type fonts inside a line. Let us say you're doing a text that's supposed to look like print, and instead of underlining or using boldface, you want to use italics for one word. This means stopping the printer, changing wheels, starting the printer, stopping it after the word, changing wheels again, and starting it up again.

Obviously this is a procedure to be used sparingly. But some may think it can't be done at all; because some daisywheel printers (especially the bi-directional ones) read the whole line before they print any of it. If you have one of these printers, your printer will stop all right, but with none of the line printed. Then when you change wheels it will print the whole line (and if your two stops were on the same line, it'll merrily go on printing the lines to come).

What to do? Create phony carriage returns where you want the printer to stop, using ^P^M (the overprint this line command), then putting ^P^C on the "next" line (the one that appears next on the screen, but won't be the next line when printed). Then you space the text over to where it's supposed to be (i.e., "under" the place where it belongs), do another ^P^M, another ^P^C on the "next" line, space over to the place where the rest of the text (now back to the original wheel) is supposed to go.

For example if you want the following line to have italics instead of underline:

Now is the time for all good men to come

it will look like this on your screen:

Now is the time for
                   ^Call good men^C
                                  to come

[Note that you'll see a "-" in the "flag column" at the right on each line when you enter the ^P^M.]

Stick in a dot command ".DM CHANGE TO ITALICS" (on the left margin, of course) above it, and print with MailMerge's M instead of P so that the message will appear on the screen, and you'll remember what to do instead of having a hert attack when the printer stops.

 

CFOG's PIP, February 1986, Volume 4 No. 4, Whole No. 40, page 6

Executives Wanted

CFOG's RCPM's are currently operating with two Osborne 1s and an Executive. The Executive is used on CFOG #2, while CFOG #1 runs on an O-1, with the second reserved as backup. Those who have been using #2 know how nicely Bill Kuykendall has set it up. Well, Bill and Glen Ostgaard, sysop of #1, would like to set up #1 on an Executive, too. Sooooooo, here are the questions:

• Does anyone have a used Executive for sale?
  We need two.
  
  
• Does anyone want to buy a used O-1?
  When the two Executives are acquired the old O-1s will be available for sale. While one of these has been used a lot, it has been run almost exclusively on the hard disk, so the disk drives don't get used that much.

Contact Bill Kuykendall, phone numbers are on page two.

---

CFOG's PIP, February 1986, Volume 4 No. 4, Whole No. 40, page 6

CFOG January 1986 Board Meeting

The Board ratified purchase of a 35MB Trantor hard disk for RCPM #2.

Continuation of advertising in ComputerPeople Monthly, with a smaller ad, was approved.

The next Board meeting date was set for February 25. Meeting dates will be established month by month. We will meet about every six weeks or so.

The May regular meeting will be rescheduled to May 18 at the Museum of Science and Industry.

A flea market meeting program will be set up only if someone can be found to manage the event.

The treasurer will order 2,500 envelopes.

FOGLIGHT subscriptions will be entered for the president, treasurer, and sysop.

An experimental downtown weekday evening meeting will be held.

The president reported on meeting with SouthSide Kaypro People [SKyP]. Some sort of cooperative arrangements between CFOG and other CP/M user groups will be further discussed in the future.

A subscription to the MicroPro Users Group newsletter was approved.

 

February Board Meeting

There was no quorum of the board itself. Therefore no business could be conducted. Those present heard reports presented.

The disk library has been converted to DD. There are now 85 disks in library. (02/23/86)

RCPM #2 is ready to go in action.

Dave Jacobsohn would like to know speaker one month in advance.

Cedrick Chernick is now maintaining the mailing list on our old Design One 10Mb hard disk.

Mike Andrews volunteered to be new Program Chairman.

We are still advertising in ComputerPeople Monthly with some success.

Tom Ferguson reported that our tax consultants recommended that we should eliminate Osborne specificity.

The proposal to go to a call-back system may be mooted by the impending death of call-pak unlimited.

We now have envelopes for CFOG business.

It was suggested that future planning should be made the subject of a special meeting devoted solely to that topic.

 

May Meeting at Museum

Don't forget that the May 18 meeting will be held at the Museum of Science and Industry's Information Technology Resource Center, in the East Wing of the Museum.

---

CFOG's PIP, February 1986, Volume 4 No. 4, Whole No. 40, page 6

Such a Deal!

by Benjamin H. Cohen

So Osborne Computer Corporation is "dead again". So what? Well right now, there seems to be a bunch of new stuff for your Osborne or other CP/M computer, some other stuff we've received news about that we thought might interest you, and some special deals for CFOG members. Here goes:

Microtech, distributors of the INOVA 500 and SKEYS, now have an INOVA 1000 1 megabyte memory board, with up to 800K RAM disk, $550 including SKEYS. Microtech reports these now have "sprint-loading" of one or two floppies in seconds and up to 60K print buffer.

Microtech also offers an 11 megabyte internal hard disk for the Exec, now at $995, with a low-noise high-volume fan, utilities, etc.

Not to ignore the O-1, Microtech offers the "ROMBO", a 512K enhancement with 256K of programmable ROM into which you "burn" your favorite software so that they are available instantaneously when you boot plus 256K RAM disk with print buffer, blinking cursor, and clock. ROMBO is introduced at $349, available as a kit (no cutting or soldering), installed free if you ship your O-1 to Microtech, and is compatible with OCC or Nuevo 80 column and DD boards, Drive C, and Ozrom. If you want to be able to reprogram the ROM from time to time, add $35 for an EPROM eraser. Contact Microtech at 842 Stanton Road, Burlingame, CA 94010, 415-692-1404.

This is a bit off the subject, but not too far -- Robert C. Marinace, Marinace Resources Group, offers Morrow MD3P portables for $695 each, less in quantity. The MD3P is a 4MHz Z80A CP/M 2.2 machine with 64K RAM, 2 DSDD 384K drives, that reads and writes Osborne 1 single and double density disks, Kaypro DD, Xerox 820 SD and DD, IBM PC CP/M-86, Televideo DD, and HP125 DD formats. Serial and parallel ports are included, 9 function keys, NewWord, CorrectIt, Logicalc, Personal Pearl, MBASIC, and Pilot, an elementary programming language that can be used for creating screen menus, games, etc. The 5x9 inch screen displays 80 columns by 24 lines. The Morrow systems include a "virtual drive" technique which automatically assign references to nonexistent drives to Drive A: followed by an on-screen message to insert a diskette in Drive A: for the operation. Morrow users can probably tell us a lot about how neat this is, and not just for those times that you goof and try to write a file to "N" which is only one character over from "B". Marinace can be reached at 787 Lippert Ave., Fremont, CA 94539, 408-262-9722. We hear that the MD3P may be a service problem as Morrow apparently didn't make it simple to open up the case with just a few screws. You might want to query local Morrow service outlets.

There's more. In addition to releasing the new version of PRESTO!, Spectre Technologies has released TWIST and SHOUT, two somewhat related programs for use with dotmatrix printers. TWIST prints your spreadsheets sideways, for those spreadsheets you have that are only 46 lines long but run about 350 columns wide. SHOUT prints banners sideways, somewhat like the public domain GOTHIC.COM, but with different typefaces and in varying sizes. TWIST and SHOUT are bundled together at $39.95 if I have it correctly in my memory -- a bargain if you have need for either one.

Still more. Nuevo Electronics is offering brand new Executives for $595. That's a very good price, and I'd recommend that you jump on them while they are still available.

Nuevo also offers a bunch of fancy Executive upgrades under the rubric "ESU". I've never seen any of these, but they sound absolutely fantastic. In addition to double sided and quad density drives, not new, they offer such new options as a SCSI/SASI interface, the ability to use your old SS drives as extra external drives when you upgrade your system to DS, Screen dump, compatability with WestWind products (Drive C and Trantor hard disks). ESU Executives read, write, and format about 20 different types of formats, and automatically recognizes them in the drives. My tongue hangs out when I read their materials. DD upgrades are down to $99 -- get 'em while they are hot, single density folks! DD + 80 columns for $269. Exec fans, which can also be used on the gray case O-1, $25.

And, WestWind weighs in with a "Dare to Compare Super Spring Sale". The MS-DOS clones start at $1395 for an XT compatible with 640K RAM, 2 360K floppies, hi-res Hercules compatible graphics, 14" hi-res monochromc monitor, parallel port, 1 year warranty, DOS 3.1, SC2, NewWord 2, SuperFile, RAM disk, print buffer, and NEC's V2O so you can run your CP/M software (now there's a new reason to get an MS-DOS computer -- so you'll be able to run your CP/M software when your CP/M system is down!)

For CP/M buffs, closeouts on the 384K Drive C: RAM disk peripherals are $350, [the 512K Drive C2 is $450, the 1MB $599], and there are spccials on small Trantor hard disks, 5MB is $595 and 11MB is $795. A "Turbo 5", the 5MB hard disk with a 1MB Drive C2, is $995. Dave Price says that with their new loader software and cache disk software this offers blinding speed and does a lot more for you than a Drive C2 plus their battery back-up, which they are not currently pushing, and apparently you'll have a long wait if you order one.

We're just one order short of getting a user group discount order together for CFOG members. If you're interested in saving from $24 to $100 or more on WestWind products, call Vic Kahn at (312) 435-1417. Some of us are anxious to get our orders in, so don't hesitate!

Rain Crystal Products in Menlo Park, CA, is offering a 64K parallel print buffer for $84.95, but we can save $10 bucks off that price if two are ordered. The same source has the Avatex 1200 baud modem for $149.95, $129.95 each if we order two. The print buffer has built in self-test, has its own power supply and a built in cable. At $75 this ought to be a good deal. Contact Ben Cohen at 726-3569 (answering machine, leave a message).