********************* QL CLUB INTERNATIONAL ********************* ISSUE 99 EMAIL.106114,710 COMPUSERVE.COM MIKEKENNEALLY1@COMPUSERVE.COM ALL SOFTWARE SENT TO THE CLUB IS ASSUMED TO BE PD UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED AND WILL BE TREATED AS SUCH. QXL2 WITH A PACKARD BELL ATTACHMENT 2XQL'S,1X3.5 DISC DRIVES,TRUMPCARD,CANON BJ4100 COLOUR PRINTER. HELLO EVERYONE, BY THE TIME YOU RECIEVE THIS NEWSLETTER,MARGARET WILL HAVE MADE AN HONEST MAN OF ME.YES WE DID!WE GOT MARRIED ON THE 2nd JUNE AT 11.30 AT MACCLESFIELD.NOT BAD CONSIDERING I FIRST ASKED HER 23 YEARS AGO,ALMOST TO THE DAY! THE NEXT BIG ITEM THIS MONTH IS THE 100th EDITION OF OUR NEWSLETTER,AS YOU KNOW WE ARE GOING TO BE THE COVER DISC FOR QL TODAY JULY ISSUE.SOME OF YOU I KNOW ARE NOT TOO HAPPY ABOUT THIS.OKAY I ACCEPT THAT,BUT MY REASONING BEHIND IT IS THIS:SOME OF YOU OUT THERE WHO HAVE BEEN WITH US A LONG TIME ARE NOW MOVING ON TO PC'S IN A FAIRLY BIG WAY,AND NO DOUBT,WILL LEAVE US EVENTUALLY.THIS HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE WAY WITH THE NEWSLETTER,PEOPLE JOIN US AND THEN LEAVE US.SO BE IT.BUT WE LOOK TO THE FUTURE,THOSE WHO MAY OR MAY NOT LEAVE US AND I SINCERELY HOPE THEY DON'T,HOLD A MINE OF INFORMATION,MAYBE NOT ON PAPER BUT IN THEIR HEADS,THIS WE SHALL ALSO LOSE.THERE ARE STILL PEOPLE OUT THERE WHO NEED THE HELP THAT A CLUB LIKE OURS CAN GIVE THEM. THEREFORE IF BY APPEARING ON THE COVER OF QL TODAY WE CAN ATTRACT EVEN ONE PERSON WHO IS WILLING IN SOME SMALL WAY TO SHARE HIS OR HER EXPERIENCE WITH US,THEN I SAY IT WAS WORTH IT! I THINK THE MAIN BONE OF CONTENTION IS THAT IT WILL MAKE US APPEAR A LOAD OF "DUMMIES",WE ARE NOT AND NEVER HAVE BEEN,WE ARE A GROUP OF ENTHUSIASTIC USERS OF A GREAT MACHINE AND THIS WILL BE POINTED OUT IN AN ACCOMPANYING LETTER TO QL TODAY. I AM WRITING THIS BEFORE I READ ANYONES LETTERS SO I CAN GET MY SAY IN WITHOUT IT BEING CLOUDED BY ANYONE ELSE'S VIEW. COULD I PLEASE ASK ALL OF YOU TO SEND YOUR LETTERS AND PROGS IN EARLIER FOR THE NEXT NEWSLETTER,HOPEFULLY YOU WILL ALL WRITE SOMETHING,EVEN IF ITS TO PRAISE ME FOR ALL MY HARD WORK(JUST KIDDING!)IT WOULD BE NICE TO GET EVERYONE TO WRITE TO CELEBRATE OUR 100th BIRTHDAY.SO DON'T FORGET GET IT TO ME EARLY,PLEASE. SO NOW LET'S HERE WHAT OTHERS HAVE TO SAY. MALCOLM ROBERTS APPEARS TO BE HAVING SOME PROBLEM WITH HIS NEWSLETTER BETWEEN ME SENDING IT AND HIM RECIEVING IT AND VICE VERSA,I HAVE RECIEVED HIS DISC THIS MONTH AND IT APPEARS WE ARE STILL HAVING PROBLEMS,AS NO-ONE ELSE SEEMS TO BE HAVING THE SAME PROBLEMS AND IT APPEARS AS IF IT IS A RECENT HAPPENING THE ONLY THING I CAN SURMISE IS THAT THE POST OFFICE MUST BE USING A SOURCE OF MAGNETISM OR ELECTRICKERY THAT IS CAUSING US PROBLEMS,IT MIGHT BE WORTH LOOKING INTO MALCOLM.UNTIL WE CAN COME UP WITH AN ANSWER I WILL SEND YOU A HARD COPY MALCOLM.CAN ANYONE ELSE COME UP WITH A SUGGESTION?THE PROBLEM IS:WHEN I SEND HIM A DISC,AFTER CHECKING IT MYSELF THAT IT WORKS,WHEN IT ARRIVES WITH HIM IT IS CORRUPT WITH,IN THE LAST NEWSLETTER 28 BAD SECTORS,WHEN HIS ARRIVES WITH ME I GET THE MESSAGE 'NO FILES FOUND'ANYONE ANY IDEAS? I AM SORRY MALCOLM,BUT YOU WILL RECIEVE YOUR NEWSLETTER A BIT LATER THAN I THOUGHT,THE CARTRIDGE HAS JUST RUN DRY ON MY PRINTER,I WILL GET IT TO YOU A.S.A.P. IT APPEARS WE HAVE A SHORT NEWSLETTER THIS MONTH,AND ONLY A FEW PROGS COURTESY OF DARREN,HOPEFULLY THAT BODES WELL FOR THE ANNIVERSARY ISSUE,EVERYONE IS SAVING THEMSELVES FOR A BUMPER ISSUE,AREN'T YOU?IT WOULD BE NICE IF EVERYONE WROTE FOR THE 100th ISSUE NEXT MONTH. MIKE. FROM:Graham Buck, INTERNET:grim@spuddy.mew.co.uk Mike Sorry, but I have not been able to manage a contribution this month. I will have to try harder for next month and the big one ton or have we gone European; the big one tonne ? NO MATE 1 TON WILL DO. I will post a blank disk to you. Regards Graham Buck -- grim@spuddy.mew.co.uk * Meeeow ! Call Spuddy on (01268) 515441 for FREE mail & Usenet access * FROM:Martin Wheatley, INTERNET:martinw@ndirect.co.uk *! Martin Wheatley martinw@ndirect.co.uk QL, SuperQboard, Twin Disc Drives, Green Screen Monitor Mersey Mouse, PC running Xchange Graham B made some suggestions about a Web Page. Since this is of limited interest to most people here (and also required something a bit quicker than a two-month letter and reply cycle) I have had some correspondance off-list with Graham about the swings and roundabouts of this. Needless to say at the moment we don't even agree what are the swings and what are the roundabouts let alone the answers to them! It'll probably sort itself out in time! Graham B wrote --------- Martin W, in replying to Ian P you suggest that QTPI doesn't support 'Scripting'. In deed it does and always has. It just needs someone to show us how. Dennis S says --------- Martin Wheatley:> Presumably QTPI does not support scripting ------ Yes it does and has done for a long time, very flexible. -------------------------------------- Seems like you two should get together! Dennis Smith also wrote ------ How to get QL files from PC. Receive the Zip file on the PC,copy the zip to a PC disk, put the PC disk into a QL running SMSQ/E and unzip, done. ----------------- Perhaps this is a time to gently remind people that ClubQL is for people with all levels of expertise and ALL levels of equipment. Telling people they must upgrade is seldom a helpful answer - we leave that sort of approach to the Quanta newsletter (says I knowing that the probable future editor is a ClubQL regular and will read this!) MAYBE QUANTA WILL COME DOWN TO A LEVEL THAT EVERYONE CAN UNDERSTAND,AT LEAST SOME OF IT ANYWAY.WHO KNOWS I MAY EVEN SUBSCRIBE! There are many people in ClubQL who don't have SMSQ/E and are not likely to ever be able to. I have a SuperQboard which is below a Trump card on the evolutionary scale. SMSQ/E may be the answer to World peace and have the cure to the common cold but it is not very relevant to someone like me who is never likely to be able to afford the hardware and software upgrades neccesary to run it! It seems to me the most useful thing any of us can do is to try and give an answer appropriate to the equipment they already have (one of the reasons why we ask people to list their equipment at the top of their letter) This is not intended as a criticism of what you wrote Dennis - you just had the misfortune to provide the example - we all do it from time to time! ME MOST OF ALL MARTIN. Dilwyn wrote ------ I'll resist the temptation to ask for help on Windows 95 --------- Go right ahead - I'm sure Mike will be able to answer all your questions! I PRESUME THIS IS A BIG HOUSE WITH 95 WINDOWS?GOD HELP THE WINDOW CLEANER,I CAN'T EVEN FIND ONE TO DO MINE.DO YOU KNOW THAT WINDOWS 3.11 HAS A ANTI-VIRUS PROGRAM,YET WINDOZE 95 DOES NOT,ALL THAT MONEY AND THEY CAN'T EVEN GIVE YOU A ANTI-VIRUS PROG! Our esteemed editor wrote - GET CABLE DILWYN,SUNDAY AFTERNOON,STAR TREK,NEXT GENERATION,DEEPSPACE 9 AND VOYAGER ON ONE AFTER THE OTHER,ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL! ----------------------- Assuming of course that Dilwyn can get cable - less than half the country can. Not everyone is as fortunate as you (Although I am about to be - they are digging up the road as I type this). As far as I can see if you already have a satellite dish, it's far more expensive to get the same progs via cable than to have a Sky subscription direct anyway! The phone connection however does have it's attractions. THIS IS TRUE MARTIN,A SATELLITE DISH IS CHEAPER BY A LOT,`26.99 A MONTH AS AGAINST `36.99 FOR CABLE.BUT AS YOU SAY PHONE CALLS TO OTHER CABLE USERS ARE FREE AFTER A CERTAIN TIME AND I GET A 10% DISCOUNT ON MY INTERNET CALLS.HOPEFULLY NEXT YEAR THEY WILL BECOME A SERVICE PROVIDER. Martin Wheatley #! Colin Baskett 30 May 1997 EQUIPMENT: QL FITTED WITH SUPERGOLD CARD; MkI MINERVA - version 1.82; SUPERHERMES; 170 MB HARD DISK; SINGLE 3.5" HD DISC DRIVE; PHILIPS COLOUR MONITOR; SERIAL MOUSE; PRINTER ???; XCHANGE 3.90L; various other pieces of QL equipment shared with daughter, Wendy. Dear Mike, QUBIDE, TRANSLATES ETC, ABACUS FORMULAE, Z88 I really must stop being so mean. If only I had printed out my QUBIDE manuals it would have saved me a lot of time trying to remember how Win_Drive and NorBack worked. The amount of time I have wasted!=0C Thanks to Graham Buck for the reminder about where to look for ESC sequences and for his offer to look them up for me. For my BJ10SX and Wendy's BJC4200 I think I have all the control commands I need for printing text. Where I may be struggling soon is in printing in graphics mode. This I just do not understand. Also, I am contemplating getting a new printer, if I find, for some reason, that I need to use a Hewlett Packard then I shall have to find a whole new set of ESC sequences. But that is still in the future. It was remembering what key strokes I had used for the translates that was the problem and also remembering what a particular printer driver would do 12 months after writing it. Dennis Smith's suggestion to list the translates in a "HELP" file on Xchange_Quill is brilliant. Thanks Dennis! I had vaguely wondered why on earth I might want to edit the HELP file. Now I know. I have tried Dennis's other suggestion of printing out a key but then I can never find the piece of paper when I need it. Oh dear! Can I hear someone saying why not punch two holes in it and place it in the QL USER GUIDE, which is just too big ever to lose. Sir Clive got many things right. Thanks to Graham again for his tips about copying formulae in Abacus. I had remembered reading some (perhaps all) of this previously, but I could not remember to whom I was indebted for the ideas. I imagine it must have been Graham. QUITE POSSIBLY MALCOLM WHITE AS HE IS OUR GREAT ABACUS USER! Apologies for not remembering the source. Incidentally, I have a feeling that I have tried Graham's final tentative suggestions about references to cell ranges. If I did, it didn't work; but perhaps I did something wrong - as usual. Incidentally, I bought Wendy a Z88 for her Christmas present when I ran into problems with the BJC210 I had intended to give her - rather doubtfully I must admit, but one of Bill Richardson's special offer seemed too good to miss and I was stuck for a present. Somewhat to my surprise I find she has been using it extensively and even finds that she can do some things on her Z88 that she can not easily do in Xchange. Printing in columns, I think she said. I must get into the car and find out wwhat she is doing. I believe that one can get, or used to be able to get, a battery pack that would hold five rechargeable batteries. This apparently can be used to power the Z88. The built in battery holder takes four cells and delivers only 4.8 volts with rechargeable cells - just enough to bring the Z88 to life but with its low battery warning in force. Does any one know whether such a battery pack is still obtainable? THE ONLY THING I CAN SUGGEST IS YOU LOOK IN THE ARGOS CATALOGUE,THEY HAVE A FEW THINGS IN THERE THAT MAY HELP ie A MULTI PRONGED POWER SUPPLY FOR THE MAINS,IT WORKS ON MINE! Best wishes Colin B FRANK MERRISON, 23-5-1997 GEAR includes 2 x JM QL's: Gold Card: DMP: Epson Stylus 800 printer: 2 x HD disc drives. Knee deep in paper & problems! I don't know what happened to my last month's contribution _ I can only assume that it either got lost in the post or arrived too late for inclusion in QL98. Not that it held much of interest! IT ARRIVED LATE FRANK,YOU WILL PROBABLY FIND IT HERE SOMEWHERE WHEN I GET TO IT! I have recently had a major list of problems with my gear and all because I switched on my printer on it's own instead of with everything else. Result a blown Gold Card and some of the chips in the QL. I cannot understand why this happened since I did something that I have always done for the past twelve years. With a Tony Firshman spike cleaner I have never had this problem.. this unfortunately happened while I was in the middle of upgrading my disc drives to HD from DD. It could develope into a long sad story but I'll spare you the agony of it all! It now seems that I may be getting problems with the MicroVitec monitor - that looks to be playing up now. A phone call to MicroVitec at Bradford for the address of their London agent was not of much assistance either. YOU ARE REALLY HAVING PROBLEMS FRANK. My thanks to Dilwyn for help with formatting discs to odd sizes. I SEEM TO BE HAVING SOME PROBLEM WITH MY DISCS FRANK,WHEN I TRY TO FORMAT HD DISCS WITHIN THE QXL/QPACII I GET AN AWFUL LOT OF FORMAT FAILURES,MAYBE 3 OUT OF 4 REFUSE TO FORMAT IN QL FORMAT.MAYBE ITS ME BUT I DON'T THINK SO. I have no doubt got it wrong but not having Colin B's original question about 'esc' codes and Abacus formulas I am not sure if I follow Graham Buck's remarks correctly. As I see it he was explaining how he copies formula from one cell to others in Abacus. Why the quotes? Why not simply use the echo command? I WOULD HAVE THOUGHT THAT WAS THE BEST IDEA MYSELF. Graham also talks of 'esc' translates. This is a bit confusing to the learner as these 'esc' codes are "printer control codes" designed by Epson. I may sound nit-picking but I have often been confused by writers who know themselves what they mean but such in-exact use of terms can be worrying to beginners; as I say. VERY TRUE FRANK,AS I HAVE LEARNT TO MY COST OVER THE YEARS WITH YOU TRYING TO BEAT PRINTER CODES INTO MY HEAD! Just a thought...... If one is using one of the new set-ups as seen at the London sub-group can one really be considered a QL user? A new casing holds a super Gold Card, Aurora, Minerva, new graphics card, ED disc drives etc. Is a card plugged into a PC still a QL? Come back Clive... all is forgiven! I WOULD SAY YES FRANK,THE AMOUNT OF TIME I SPEND ON THE COMPUTER IS I WOULD SAY 85% QL RELATED AND ONLY 15% PC RELATED,AS I TEND TO USE THE PC MAINLY FOR GRAPHICS(AND MY DAUGHTERS AND MARGARETS HOMEWORK!) Best wishes all... Frank Merrison. ps: I seem to have lost my disc with ql92 to ql96 newsletters. Can you put as many as possible on this disc Mike? NO PROBLEM FRANK,BUT I AM AFRAID THEY WILL BE ZIP FILES! #! Dennis Smith, 99 Field St, Codnor, Derbys. DE5 9RS 01773-748740 NET1(downstairs) =3D (installed in a mini tower) Aurora, Super Gold card, SuperHermes, Qubide, 420Mb hard disk, 2 ED drives, (SER3)US Robotics 14.4 modem, (SER6)3 button serial mouse, Printers: (SER1)Star LC10, (PAR)HP 540 Deskjet, 15 inch SVGA monitor. Operating system =3D Minerva 1.97, SMSQ/E. NET3(upstairs) =3D (installed in a mini tower) Gold card, Hermes, Qubide, 540Mb hard disk, 1 HD drive, 2 DD drives. Printer: (SER1)Brother HR5 thermal with fax roll paper. Operating system =3D SMSQ/E. I think that's everything in the lists above, can you see anything missing Mike? YES MATE,13 FIELD STREET!FOR SOME UNKNOWN REASON I ALWAYS ASSOCIATE YOU WITH 13 FIELD STREET,AND THERE ISN'T ONE!HOW DO I KNOW?I FOUND FIELD STREET IN CODNOR ONE SUNNY AFTERNOON AFTER DELIVERING ABOUT 5 MILES FROM YOU!I MUST REMEMBER IT'S 99 AS IN A CHOCOLATE STICK IN AN ICE CREAM! Hello happy QLers, I've been busy during the last week or so organising a new monthly sub-group, the first meeting was on Saturday the 24th of May. The meeting was not very widely publicised as we had a core group to "test the water" first time out. The whole thing went very well as it happens, drinks, something to eat and all this with nice clean surroundings. Intense QLing from 1:00 pm until 5:00 pm, great. The star QL personalities in attendance were; John Southern, Graham Underwood and Derek Stewart. YES,I HEARD ABOUT IT FROM JOHN.WELL DONE YOU. Moving on to another meeting, the East Midlands Quanta Workshop has been organised for Saturday 13 th September 1997. All the usual traders will be there including Jochen Merz. We are trying to get a few 'extra' internationals to come as well, we will see. Hopefully the meeting will see the British unveiling of the Goldfire add-on card for the Aurora from Ron Dunnett, the prototype is close now, by September, ready for retail? Zeljko Nastasic (Aurora, Goldfire etc. designer) has gone to America for the time being, that may slow things down a bit but equally may not alter the September release. Is there anyone else fed up of waiting for the Aurora colour driver apart from me? It has been released and tried by "the few" but it doesn't work correctly yet. I say Aurora but it is actually anything that runs SMSQ/E with capable hardware. I'm sure there are hectic bursts of programming going on here and there, we know they won't let us down when it's so close. The post beckons, I will away. 'til next time, Dennis. Terry Williams 26/05/97 GEAR: 2 JS QLs, 1JM QL,SGC,GC,TRUMPCARD,TWIN EHD DRIVES,TWIN HD DRIVES,TWIN DD DRIVES,14", QMIMI MOUSE, GOLD STAR COLOUR MONITOR , 9"SONY TRITRON MONITOR, 12" FERGUSON GREEN MONITOR, SPECTRUM 48K WITH TELETEXT ADAPTOR Hello Again! MIKE: Many thanks for the spelling corrections to my QL97 contribution, I was not feeling myself ('and we are glad of that as it was getting a bad habit, did I hear you all say?'), as I warned you in the first sentence. NO PROBLEM MATE,I HAVE TO DO SOMETHING TO WARRANT ME SITTING HERE! I proceeded to get worse and ended up in The Royal Gwent Hospital with a suspect minor heart attack!! . After a week they let me out again and I now feel 90% again with a good excuse for getting others to mow the lawn!. I am still under the doctor (he ain't half heavy), I have got my licence back after the statuary one month and am not so tied to the house. I have been invited to join the Cardiac Rehabilitation program for six weeks. TAKE YOUR QL WITH YOU AND SHOW THEM WHAT A GOOD COMPUTER WILL DO! Its quite right hospital does soften the brain cells and it takes a while to get back into the swing of things.=0C Many thanks to all of you who added their comments about my QPAC2 problems in QL97 It's marvellous to get so much help and very much appreciated. Thats all for now Terry P. McPHERSON, 24th MAY 1997. Fraternal Greetings Everybody, Current equipment includes: 3xQLs (AH roms), one fitted with a Gold Card and twin Cumana 3.5" floppy drive, one with a Trump Card and a single 3.5" and the third is a bare 128K machine, an Amstrad DMP 3160 printer c/w a Miracle Serial Interface. Having had a bit of spare time whilst I was in hospital last month, I was able to catch up on a bit of reading which may be of interest to members with access to the Internet who are also into photography or electronic imaging. There are quite a few imaging programs available on the Internet, either as public domain or as shareware. Good examples of these are: "NIH IMAGE" which is a powerful scientific image analysis and processing program for the PC or Mac which can also be used for image editing. It's adress is: "http://rsb.info.nih.gov/nih-image/" "LVIEW PRO" which is also primarily a scientific tool which can also be used as an excellent image editing, processing and manipulation package. It's address is: "http://world.std.com/%Emmedia/lviewwp.html". There are, of course, hundreds of Web sites dealing with photography, digital imaging and computer manipulations run by companys such as Kodak, Nikon, Polaroid, Agfa and Ilford amongst a multitude of others. Ones that are really are worth checking out must include: Ilford on "htpp://www.Ilford.com" Ansel Adams on "http://wwwadamsgallery.com" Apple UK on "http://wwweuro.apple.com.uk" Kodak on "http://wwwkodak.com" UK Plus on "http://www.ukplus.co.uk" Photolinks on "htpp://;31www.ira.de/-klaus_s/photolinks.htr#3" Speedgrapic_co.uk on "sales@speedgraphic.co.uk" In terms of commercial software availability, all the following require a MINIMUM of a 486 complete with Windows 95, 8Mb of RAM and a 75Mb hard drive. Thise worthy of checking out include: Hama Photostudio at `100, Microsoft Picture It! at `80, Softkey Photofinish 4 at `40, MicroGrafx Picture Publisher 6 at `95, Coral Photo Paint at `199, IMSI Picture This at `24, MGI Photosuite st `49.99 and Adobe Photo Deluxe at `75. All of this software has to have VAT added to it's price to give you the retail price. All of this leads me to this months series of questions: that one of the more experienced members of QLCI may be able to answer for me:- Are there any decent, easy to use TIFF and JPEG programs available for use on the QL equipped with a Gold Card? What on earth is Aurora? Has anyone got any more details on Goldfire? INTERESTING QUESTIONS,ANYONE GOT THE ANSWERS? Bob sends his regards and wants me to let you know his jump IS from 15,000ft, but he will be doing a "tandum" jump with an experienced parachutist! He's completed his first two GCSE exams (Business Studies and Humanities) and only eight more to go and then hopefully he will return to normal - theres been no living with him of late because of the stress and too many late nights revising. PRESUMABLY HE HAS ALREADY MADE SOME JUMPS?AS THE PARACHUTE SCHOOLS AROUND HERE WON'T LET THEM JUMP FROM THAT HEIGHT EVEN IN TANDEM.ANYWAY GOOD LUCK TO HIM,THE HIGHEST I EVER GOT TO WAS 12,000 AND I WAS PAID TO DO IT! Yours Fraternally, Paul & Bob UNT NOW,VE HAF FRANKS MISSING LETTER! FRANK MERRISON, 3-5-1997 GEAR includes 2 x JM QL's: Gold Card: DMP: Epson Stylus 800 printer: 2 x HD disc drives. Knee deep in paper & problems! Mike! I don't know what has gone wrong lately but I am having trouble reading the disc on it's return. My guess - for what it is worth - is that the problem is conected with the fact that the newsletter is being compiled on a PC. (your favourite machine!) A copy I got from Colin Murphy was OK and I believe that he gets his from the "net". AH!SO WE DO HAVE SOMEONE ELSE WITH THE SAME PROBLEM,IS ANYONE ELSE EXPERIENCING THIS PHENOMENUM? I don't think I can offer anything this month as I have been very busy since my QL went haywire one evening when I switched on my printer. The QL failed along with the Gold Card. Tony replaced a couple of chips at the London workshop & AGM and all seemed well. I also got a replacement Gold Card from QBranch. That evening the QL on it's own was OK until I plugged in the new Gold Card where upon that went on the blink as well. To cut a very long story short It now appears that the QL still has some sort of fault in it. The second new Card works OK in my spare QL but not in the repaired one. Oh! well back to Tony! I also managed to blow up my son's PC power pack and a replacement proved to be unobtainable although the machine is only two years old. The result is that we had to take it to a professional in Harrow who salvaged SOME of the parts and built a new PC. Fortunately the hard disk was OK because a lot of Franklyn's work was on it including the bit that enables him to plug into IBM's computer system. As I said I just havn't had time to breathe lately. Sorry I can say no more. After twelve years I really have run out of things to say - perhaps the time has come for me to give up! NOT UNTIL YOU HAVE WRITTEN ALL YOUR QL EXPERTISE DOWN ON PAPER,THERE THAT SHOULD KEEP YOU WITH US A FEW MORE YEARS! Frank Merrison Mike Dodd 19 May 1997. Gear Now Working; QL + TRUMP 896K Minerva 1.92 3.5" and 5.25" Drives Plus an EPSON FX 80 Printer. Dear Mike + Members, As CH5 seems to be a problem with some members, here is a list of channels for it. Transmitter Ch. Transmitter Ch. Belmont 56H Londonderry 31V Black Hill 37H Mendip 37H Black Mountain 37H Mounteagle 67H Blaen Plwyf 56H Nottingham 34V Burnhope 68H Oxford 49H Caldbeck 56H Perth 55V Cambrett Hill 37H Plympton 30V Chelmsford 63H Presely 37H Churchdown 48H Redruth 37H Craigkelly 48H Sandy Heath 39H Croydon 37H Selkirk 52H Durris 67H Sheffield 67V Emly Moor 37H Storeton 39V Fawley 34H Tacolneston 52H Fenham 56V Tay Bridge 34V Huntshaw Cross 67H Winter Hill 48H Lichfield 37H This is a copy of Page 597 of CH5-Ceefax. As you see it is not just CH37. NO WONDER PEOPLE ARE HAVING PROBLEMS WITH IT! All the Best , Mike D. Darren Branagh, 20th , 1997. QL & COMPUTER GEAR INCLUDES: 2QL's one JS and one Running MINERVA v1.97, Miracle Trumpcard, Microvitec CUB 653 Monitor, Twin NEC 3.5" DS/DD Drives & Twin Miracle DS/DD Drives both joined by a Miracle Disk Adaptor (flp1_ to flp4_), 150+ Disks of Software, Epson EPL4000 Laser Printer, Serial 8056 Thermal Printer, Joysticks, SERmouse, Tandata 3 stack Modem, American Megatrends 386 Power PC, Zenith Minisport 286 Laptop PC, Cambridge Z88 Laptop, Sinclair ZX Spectrum 128K +2a, Sinclair ZX81, Zeon 128K Personal organizer, Shergar the Racehorse, Lord Lucan, etc. (And now my Brother M1109 9-pin printer which I found in the loft!) Hi everybody, Thanks mike - If I hadn't been up in the attic last month looking for your spectrum software, I'd probably never have found my old Brother M-1109 printer up there - which I used to use with the speccy. It couldn't have come at a better time, too - as my Laser is still in need of repair, and I don't relish the thought of spending over `100+ getting it running just yet. I'd completely forgotten about the M-1109. DILWYN:- RE: Channel 5, funny you don't get it, as over here I can just get a very, very, bad picture in B&W - and no sound whatsoever. I thought you might be a lot better off in Wales. Still, 5 broadcasts now on Channel 63 via Astra 1D, so you can watch It on Satellite - I'm watching the 9 O'Clock movie as I write. And yes Mike, Sky 1 on a Saturday afternoon is "Trekkie Heaven" - I haven't seen a live footie match since they started the 4 hour trek fest!! BTW, Dilwyn, The joke book is nearly ready - I've been changing some stuff to be QL related - its a QL joke book after all - Hopefully it should be ready for ql100 - I'll send in a clean censored version!! THAT'LL BE A CHANGE FOR AN IRISHMAN! GRAHAM D. LUTZ:- Re: the new front end - I personally don't think quill is needed on the disk, as this would take up a fair amount of space, and we all have a copy of Quill already - how about comfiguring it to load quill via Flp2_, from a copy we own already, and not from the same disk? This should=0Cfree up = at least 200 sectors or so on Flp1_. Just a suggestion. I also think that one of the biggest advantages of the fact that QLCI is disk based is that some wonderful programs can be included every month - unlike Quanta or QLtoday - although both of these run libraries or occasional cover disks, we have this available each and every month - The point being that all too often the disk is less than half full. I'm sure some of you have written some excellent progs and are afraid to send them in - do it! I try to send in at least one prog every month, some of my own, and some PD. Hopefully the 100th issue will be a truly excellent one, and packed to the hilt with progs and useful info. I think it would be a terrible shame if it wasn't. WE ARE TRYING TO DO AT LEAST 3/4 OF THE DISC WITH PROGS IF NOT MORE,AND HOPEFULLY GRAHAM WILL BE PUTTING A NEW ONE ON IT AS WELL. MARTIN WHEATLEY:- I thought I was right about Steve Jobs - Thanks for the clarification. Mind you Its hard to keep up - Steve Wozniak is now in an advert on telly for U.S. Robotics - the modem manufacturers, even though hes back at apple as an advisor! MIKE DODD:- I liked the idea of a Speech QL, I have an original Currah Microspeech Unit which I used to use with the 48K speccy I gave Mike last month. Let me know if its of use to you. It includes the PCB and the phono leads etc, and the manual, and is still in the original box from 1985. Anyway, I'll sign off - I'm working on a few things for next months 100th - see you then! WOULD IT BE POSSIBLE FOR YOU TO CO-ORDINATE YOUR EFFORTS WITH GRAHAM LUTZ? Included on the disk is RE4MAT - a quick disk reformatter prog - I got this from QLTODAY - in a very different form, in german, by Jochen Merz and it was originally three separate progs (one each for DD, HD or EHD disks) and I wrote the three progs together into one for convenience, and made it more user friendly. I find it useful and it saves a lot of time. MAYBE THIS WILL CURE THE DISC PROBLEMS I AM HAVING,I'LL TRY IT AND SEE. Darren. P.S. Hilary sends regards - hes busy putting the finishing touches to a prog for next months disk. BTW, who is the best person to send a sick gold card to for repair these days?? TRY ROY WOOD,ANYONE ELSE KNOW WHO? +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ #! Martin Burke, 12th , 1997. Dear Mike and Friends, JM version + Trump 768 + twin 3.5" disks, Philips CM8833 colour monitor (under repair) and its Tandy twin, 8056 printer, Epson RX80 F/T, and Brother HR10 daisy-wheel printer; PSION3a. Graham Lutz: I never print out the newsletter. But what is meant by "Smashing Quill"? Is this a form of zipped file? Also, who/what exactly is this cover disk meant for. If it is "QL Today" we cannot answer for all its readers. WE HAVE NO INTENTION OF ANSWERING FOR ALL THE READERS OF QL TODAY,SOME WILL LIKE IT SOME WON'T ISN'T IT ALWAYS THE WAY? I don't think I can offer much for the "QL Today" cover disk. Except perhaps to mention the idea of an "EncyQLpaedia" that I first mooted years ago. I am still surprised by the amount of information and tips available. The real problem often is knowing what you are looking for before you search for it. One of my first quibbles with quill was the inability to save just parts of the file to disk. It was ages before I found out that I could "print" to a file. I may have actually read this somewhere in the manual(s) but it would not have made sense to me before I needed to use it. An "EncyQLpaedia" would need to anticipate the confusions an ingenue encounters: not an easy task, when so many related novelties may be involved. For me printing meant paper: printing to a file was a nonsense. An index heading something like "Transferring files and part files to media and RAM" would be needed along with all the words that cover this: save, print, export, ... It should also link to the way disks can be formatted - or partially formatted - to different densities. The number of variables involved in meeting someone's exact requirements can be awesome: usually the solution is less than optimum. And happily that keeps me happy most of the time, if only because I don't know any better. Yours, Martin Burke. #!