Z*Magazine: 11-Apr-89 #152

From: Atari SIG (xx004@cleveland.Freenet.Edu)
Date: 09/25/93-03:48:10 PM Z


From: xx004@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Atari SIG)
Subject: Z*Magazine: 11-Apr-89 #152
Date: Sat Sep 25 15:48:10 1993


          |  ROVAC ZMAGAZINE  |
          |    Issue  #152    |
          |  April 11, 1989   |
          |Copyright 1989, RII|
          
                 
                
               
                           
                            
                             
 
 
 
        
        |This week in ZMagazine|
        
 


         Editor's Monitor 
             Harold Brewer

      World of Atari Update 

    Diamond OS Super Cartridge 
               Joe Lovett

    Computer Software Services 
                Bob Puff

     Machine Language Strings 
             Dennis Pitman

   Z*Net Newswire 8-bit Edition 
             Harold Brewer

                    


           
           |EDITOR'S MONITOR|
           
           
           |by Harold Brewer|
           


April seems to be the start of the
computer show season.  This month, 
ZMagazine associate John Nagy will be
covering both Comdex (happening now)
and World of Atari.

After reading the CSS press release
(found in this issue of ZMagazine) I
have to say that the word "excited"
almost covered my reaction.  Please
give it a look-see and perhaps post
your feelings.

Have fun with your 8-bit Atari--I know
I certainly do!

                    


        
        |WORLD OF ATARI UPDATE|
        

    Reprinted from ST-ZMagazine #15


           
           |"Press Release"|
           

April 22, 1989 at 7:30 p.m. at the
Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim California,
ST-WORLD/World Of Atari Show in
association with Keyboard Magazine,
STart Magazine, and KWAI America
present:

"Beyond The Threshold", a musical tour
of today's new technology, hosted
by Mike Pender of the Moody Blues with
special guest Mic Fleetwood of
Fleetwood Mac.  Starring Jake Flader
from the fusion group MAZE,
James Lee Stanely with a section from
his highly acclaimed new album
"Simpatico", John Black formerly of the
GAP Band, Marc Ritler and
Greg Welchel from the Pointer Sisters
Band, Chris Many and Gregg Levin will
do a song from their new album
"Too Close To The Sun".  Additional
groups will be named later.

Additional concert highlights include a
special demo of the Atari/HOTZ
MIDI keyboard by Mic Fleetwood and
Jimmy Hotz.  A rare classical piece
will be performed by Joseph Zawinul
from the group Weather Report.

The concert will take place in a 16,000
square foot hall with a capacity of
1000 seats.  Admission price is $5.00,
some free tickets will be made
available thru some of the paid
exhibitors.


             
             |SHOW UPDATE|
             

Here is a weekly update to the Anaheim
WOA Show.

The following developers will be
showing NEW products at this show.  

Atari, along with the Comdex products
will be on hand with other Atari 
related products such as the PS-3000,
the monitor with disk drive attached 
on sale for $349.00.  The New JVC made
SC1224 will also be on sale for 
$299.00.

Seymor/Radix will be showing the
DVT-VCR Hard Drive backup system.  This
product will plug in directly to the ST
cartridge port and supply RCA jack 
output for direct connect to your VCR.
Storage of up to 360Meg on any store
bought VCR tape.  Transfer rates are
well over 8Meg per minute.

Artison Software will be showing Graph
Maker.

Michtron will be demoing Fleet Street
Publisher which is exclusively 
compatible with drivers from Imagen.
Fleet Street is the only DTP package 
that works.

Technovision will be showing "DaVinci"
a new graphics editor.

Gribnif with NeoDesk 2.3 and updating
at the show.  Stay tuned for more 
details.  This is just a rumor.

Bill Skurski Enterprises on hand with
Video ST Tutor and selling
"Beginners Guide To The ST".

Moniterm with their new controller
board that will be compatible with old
and new version of TOS for the new
19 inch monitor output.

Robust Software will be showing
Edit-ST.  This is a full gem based text
editor with programmable keys, full
mouse configuration, ability to 
transpose to all languages like C,
Pascal, fortran and more.  Price is set
at $59.95

Gadgets By Small debuting Spectre GCR.

Avante Gard debuting PC-Ditto II.

Magnetic Images showing "Gold Of The
Realm"

Reeve Software showing ST Jr in
cartridge with applications software.

Stay tuned to ST*ZMAG next week for a
full listing of all developers and 
vendors.

                    


      
      |DIAMOND OS SUPER CARTRIDGE|
      
            
            |by Joe Lovett|
            

Miami Valley Atari Computer Enthusiasts


The DIAMOND OS Super Cartridge is a new
cartridge based GOS (Graphic Operating
System) for the ATARI 8-bit computers.
It provides a GOS similar to what you
get with the ATARI ST.  This OS allows
you to manipulate files and disks using
a mouse pointer.

Before I go on, I should explain what a
Graphic Operating System is.  If you
have seen an ATARI ST, AMIGA or MAC,
you have seen a screen with a line of
words at the top such as desk, file,
disk, etc.  On the rest of the screen
are a variety of objects ranging from
graphics of disk drives to a trash can.
You have also probably seen someone
moving a device known as a mouse (why,
I don't know) around on a table with
the effect of moving a small arrow on
the screen.

The line of words at the top of the
screen is the menu bar for drop down
menus, the objects on the screen are
icons, and the little arrow is known as
the mouse pointer.  By moving the mouse
pointer to icons and/or the menu bar
and menus, one can obtain a disk
directory and manipulate files just as
one can from any DOS.  The only
difference is, it's easier.  No more
typing in file names, or trying to
remember file name spellings.

Diamond is set up to work with DOS XE
or DOS 2.x, but it may be re-configured
to work with most any DOS.  In
addition, it allows the use of a wide
variety of input devices (keyboard,
joystick, ST mouse, Koala pad, etc.).
However, I have found that the ST mouse
works best.

My Diamond cartridge came two days
after I had gotten my SpartaDOS X
cartridge and I started out by trying
to use them together.  Unfortunately,
it took me a whole day to get this to 
work.  The Diamond manual failed to
inform the user that you must write a
special CONFIG.SYS file.  It also
failed to note that the SDX cartridge
must be called from the file
DIAMOND.SDX.  Once I figured this out,
things became somewhat better.

I moved the mouse pointer over the one
disk drive and pushed the button twice
(this is known as double clicking).  In
the center of the screen a
window-shaped box (called a window,
believe it or not) appeared and filled
up with a disk directory.  Around the 
perimeter of the window are small icons
which allow you to scroll through the
disk directory, increase or decrease
the size of the window, close the
window, or cause the window to use the
full screen and thereby give a full
directory including time and date 
stamps.  By putting the pointer on the
title at the top of the window and
holding the button down I could "drag"
the window to any place on the screen.

By moving the pointer over a file name
and holding down the button I could
then manipulate that file in a variety
of ways.  I could drag it to a second
window opened on another directory and 
copy it to that directory.  Also, I
could drag it to another disk drive
icon and copy the file to that drive.
In addition, I could drag the file to
the trash can and file it in the
circular file.

This all brings a rather nice feature
of Diamond:  it supports many of the
features of SpartaDOS X and DOS XE.
These include Time/Date stamping and
subdirectory support.  By double
clicking on a directory name in the
files window I could get a listing of 
what is in that directory.  Diamond
also allows the user to create new
subdirectories and to copy files to
them.  Diamond will also call the ICD
disk formatter if you are using
SpartaDOS X.

By placing the pointer over a file and
double clicking I should be able to
load that file.  Unfortunately, I have
been having some trouble doing this as
there seem to be some incompatabilities
between SpartaDOS X and Diamond.  I
have been in contact with Alan Reeve,
and he has just recently obtained a 
SpartaDOS X cartridge.  He informed me
that he will be looking into these
problems and will get back to me
shortly.  I will pass along any new
information on this as soon as I get
it.

By moving the pointer along the menu
bar I could select the various
functions by clicking on them.  The
first menu, titled "Desk" holds two
items.  The first, "Info", will place a
short message on the screen about what
program you are using (in this case
Diamond).  The second, "Reboot", will
do just that, except with SpartaDOS X.
It seems that Diamond just does not
want to recognize the SpartaDOS X
cartridge sometimes.  You can have 
other choices under the Desk heading
such as a calculator, and these may be
available soon.  These "Desk
Accesories" as they are called are
usually very short and are loaded when
you start up Diamond.

The next choice on the menu bar is
"File".  The first option under this
choice "Open" allows you to open a disk
directory (also accomplished by double
clicking on a drive icon).  The second
choice "Status" will let you rename a
file and/or change whether it is
protected or not.  The next choice
"Duplicate" permits you to duplicate a
file.  This choice is necessary if you 
wish to copy a file and have only one
disk drive.  The fourth option is "New
Folder".  This option allows the
creation of a new folder or
subdirectory.  Finally, the last option
"Close" allows a directory window to be
closed.  Below the "Close" option is a 
sixth choice printed below a line.
This choice, "Quit" lets you quit to
BASIC.  You can then return to Diamond
from BASIC by typing DOS.

The third heading in the Menu Bar is
"Disk".  The choices under this heading
are "Format" and "Copy".  The "Format"
option is self-explanatory, and it will
call the ICD disk formatter from 
SpartaDOS X.  The "Copy" choice will
copy an single density disk.  Not a
very useful choice since most people
are using either dual or double
density.

Finally, the last heading is Options.
The options under this heading allow
you to change how directories are
displayed, whether or not Diamond gives
you a warning before you perform some
operations, and permits you to install
more disk drives into the system.  In
addition, there is a "Save Desktop"
choice which will allow you to save
these configurations along with your
placement of icons on the screen.

The Diamond cartridge comes with a
programmer's manual which can allow you
to create applications which work with
Diamond.  Unfortunately, I can make
neither heads nor tails of it.  Reeve 
software is going to be coming out with
several application programs that will
make use of the Diamond environment.
These include a paint program, a word
processor, and a desk-top publisher,
among others.

One problem with Diamond has been
support.  I have had a lot of trouble
getting in touch with and getting
answers from Reeve Software.  I
originally got Diamond on the disk
version, and then when the cartridge
came out, the registered disk users
were supposed to be sent upgrade
information.  I never was.  I called 
Reeve Software, and tried to contact
Alan Reeve on CompuServe.  It took
about 2 months of this to finally get
the cartridge.  Since then, I have been
trying to get information about the 
problems I have been having with
SpartaDOS X.  It was not until
recently, when I got in touch with
Alan Reeve that I started to find out
some things.

In addition, it seems that Reeve
Software has been having some trouble
with keeping up with demand.  This
seems to be related to the supply of
the cartridge cases which are made by
ICD.  As ICD also uses these cases for
SpartaDOS X, which has been an
extremely popular product, this
shortage could last a while.

For the most part, Diamond is a very
useful piece of software. 
Unfortunately, it does seem to have
some problems, most notably with
SpartaDOS X.  Occasionally, when doing
some operations, Diamond will lock up
and some functions will cease to
operate properly.  Because of this, for
most DOS applications, I have found the
SpartaDOS X menu function to be more
useful.  As soon as these bugs are
ironed out, Diamond will be much more
useful to me and other SpartaDOS X
users.

        
        |   Reeve Software    |
        |20W150 Old Farm Lane |
        |Warrenville, IL 60555|
        |    312-393-2317     |
        

                    


      
      |COMPUTER SOFTWARE SERVICES|
      
             
             |By Bob Puff|
             


            
            |New Products|
            


         > The Black Box <

The Black Box is a device for your XL
or 130XE computer that adds tremendous
power to your 8-bit Atari.  It has two
buttons, two switches, and a set of dip
switches visible from the outside.  It
plugs directly into the back of the
600XL, 800XL, and 130XE computers.
There will be conversion kits made
available for the 65XE and XE Game
system units.

The Black Box performs three main
tasks:  interface to a SASI/SCSI bus
device (hard disks), Parallel printer
port, and a RS232 port.  A fourth
option, available soon, will be a
floppy disk port, especially useful to
XF-551 owners.

> The SASI/SCSI port provides the
necessary signals for hooking up most
common hard disks.  You may partition
your hard disk into as many drives as
you wish; up to 9 can be accessed at a
time.  By pressing one of the buttons
on the Black Box, you will enter the
configuration menu, where you can
re-assign drive numbers, etc.  When you
exit, you will be right back in the
program you were running when the
switch was pressed: the Black Box does
not disturb anything!  You may
partition up to 48 megabytes per drive
(for a total of 432 megs!), as the
Black Box can handle 3 byte sector
numbers (a special version of MYDOS
will be provided that supports this
feature).  Imbedded drives (drives with
built-in controllers) that use 512 byte
sectors will present no problems.  You
can write-protect all hard disks with
the flip of one of the switches on the
Black Box!

> The Parallel printer port will allow
you to hook up any printer that uses
the standard Centronics interface.
As an option, you can use the
computer's extra memory as a printer
buffer, or order the Black Box with 64K
of on-board RAM.  You may assign
printer number and line-feed options
within the menu (for use with multiple
printers).  Another amazing feature of
the Black Box is the built-in screen
dump.  By pressing a button (on the
box), the contents of your screen will
be dumped to your printer (you can
define text or graphics modes with a
switch)!

> The RS-232 port supplies the full
RS232 specification signals for
connection to a modem or another
machine (for null-modeming).  The
handler for the Black Box's modem port
is built-in and takes up NO memory!
The port handles rates up to TRUE 19.2K
BAUD!

> A future upgrade for the Black Box
is a floppy disk interface board.  This
will allow the addition of up to four
5.25" or 3.5" mixtures of floppy drives
to be used with the system.  The drives
will act like standard
single/enhanced/double density disk
drives, but up to 10 times faster!  All
drives will be Super Archiver
compatible, and support up to 2 sides
of 80 tracks.  Along with this hardware
upgrade will come software capable of
reading, writing, and formatting disks
in IBM's MS-DOS format and the Atari ST
format, and allow you to transfer files
between those disk formats and the
Atari's format.  (Please note this will
NOT allow you to run IBM or ST programs
on your 8-bit, but will allow you to
use text files, created on one machine,
on another.)

The projected release date for the
Black Box is the Summer of '89.  The
Floppy interface card will be available
by the Fall of '89.  The price of the
Black Box will be $169.95 for the basic
unit, and $199.95 with 64K of RAM (for
the printer spooler).  The price of the
Floppy interface card has not yet been
determined.


        > The Multiplexer <

The Multiplexer system allows you to
network up to 8 Atari 8-bits together
with 1 "master" computer, allowing the
"slave" computers to share common
drives (hard disk or floppy), and a
common printer.  Into each slave
computer goes a unit that plugs into
the cartridge slot of your 8-bit
computer (400/800, XL/XE).  A single
cable runs from the master unit to all
slaves.  All operation between the
master and slave is done through this
parallel bus, at blinding speeds.  A
special operating system gives each
slave computer the ability to get data
from the master, from a drive connected
"local" to the slave, or from another
slave.  You can transfer programs
between slaves without having to access
a drive!

> One example of how this is used is
in a multi-user BBS.  One such BBS will
be available in the future, custom
designed for the Multiplexer.  But the
software provided gives examples so you
can write your own programs to utilize
the Multiplexer to its fullest.


     > Other Future Products <

Cartridge Port Extender:  Relieve the
frustration of the new stackable
cartridges!  Now you can put them where
YOU want them.

EPROM Programmer: Burn all 2732 thru
27512 PROMs/EPROMs VERY quickly!  A
2732 can be burned, and verified twice
in less than 12 seconds!  Full
read/program/verify functions, and full
support of lower voltage PROMS.

                    


       
       |MACHINE LANGUAGE STRINGS|
       
  >Programming for the 8-bit Atari<
           
           |by Dennis Pitman|
           

Miami Valley Atari Computer Enthusiasts


The most common way to use a machine
language subroutine in a BASIC program
is to convert the object code into
decimal numbers, put the numbers into
DATA statements, then READ the numbers
and POKE them into memory. 

This technique has been used for a long
time, in fact it is still being used
today.  However, if you'd like your
programs to initialize faster, or if
you're using up too much memory,
there's a better technique you should
consider: converting the machine 
language into strings.  Using string
assignment statements instead of DATA
statements will not only save time
required to POKE the numbers into
memory, it consumes only about
one-third as much RAM.  There is,
however, one main limitation of this 
technique: the machine language routine
must be completely relocatable, which
is not too hateful for short (under
256-byte) routines. 

The listing, after this article, is a
clever utility program that converts a
machine language subroutine into the
fast-executing BASIC string statements
and stores them on disk for later use.
This program, "ML STRING CREATOR",
requires a mere 16K of RAM.

       
       |Execution From A String|
       

The string technique works because,
essentially, these statements are
equivalent: 

10 DATA 33,37,106,47,122,65 
20 A$="%j/zA" 

If the subroutine contains internal
JMPs (Jump to New Location) or JSRs
(Jump to New Location Saving Return
Address), which aren't relocatable, you
must use the conventional DATA
statement technique.  When the ML is
relocatable, it is very possible to 
execute the subroutine directly from
the string with this: 

30 X-USR (ADR(A$) 

The ADR() function will let you find
the beginning address of the string,
and therefore for your subroutine.
This assumes you have previously
encoded the ML into the string variable
A$ with ML STRING CREATOR. 

The string assignment statement is
preferable when you're trying to
squeeze a few more bytes into a limited
memory.  All ML bytes have a decimal
value in the range of 0-255.
Representing this in a decimal DATA
statement requires as many as 3 bytes,
plus a comma to separate the entries.
In a string assignment, each ML byte is
represented as a single character. 

There are a few other limitations,
however.  It is not possible to
represent the decimal values 155 or 34
inside quotes in a string assignment.
Value 155 represents a carriage return
or EOL marker that cannot be embedded
in the assignment statement, even as
part of an escape sequence.  Value 34
represents the double-quote character
used as a delimiter in the assignment 
statement.  

         
         |PUTTING IT TOGETHER|
         

Keeping the limitations in mind, you
can use ML STRING CREATOR to locate an
ML subroutine somewhere in the memory,
turn it into one or more string
assignment statements, and LIST the
statements to your disk.  The
responsibility is yours to initially
load the ML into the memory.  If you're
using an assembler that lets you 
switch to BASIC without erasing the
memory, you can assemble directly to
memory and load ML STRING CREATOR to
convert the object code into strings. 

This program begins by requesting the
first and last memory addresses (in
decimal) of your routine, name of the
string variable to be created, and a
line number for the first string 
assignment statement.  A maximum of 80
bytes can be contained in a single
statement string, and the maximum ML
program length accommodated by the
program is 256 bytes. 

The string variable name, however, is
limited to seven characters, including
the trailing $ symbol which must be 
present.  The line number for the first
string assignment statement must be
greater than 190, and the subsequent
lines are to be numbered in increments
of ten. 

The ML STRING CREATOR is also
self-modifying: the string assignment
statements become a part of the
program.  However, the part of the
program which is taking care of
business protects itself from
modification.  This program may also be
used repeatedly without being reloaded,
but it will continue to grow in size. 

The self-modification feature is also
used to produce a LIST statement in
line 150.  In the listing below it
appears as a REM statement, but after
the string assignment statements are
created it will be modified. 

ML STRING CREATOR will prompt you for
the filename of the disk file in which
it will store the assignment
statements.  This filename and the
first and last statement numbers of the
created statements are concatenated
with 150 LIST, in addition to the 
appropriate commas and double quotes,
to form a genuine LIST statement.
Before the program retires, it will
indicate the memory locations at which
a decimal value of either 155 or 34 was
encountered.  The program will
substitute a value of zero in these
cases.  Now, if there happens to be
more than ten occurrences of 34 or 155,
the program will stop with an error 
message. 

The technique used to create the
strings consists of printing string
assignment statements on a previously
cleared screen, just as you would do
from the keyboard if you were typing in
a BASIC program.  After the last string
assignment statement is placed on the
screen, a CONT statement is written on
the screen in immediate mode (that is,
with no statement number). 

Another feature of the program is the
automatic RETURN.  The Atari has a
switch which makes pressing the RETURN
key optional.  It is location 842,
which usually contains a 12.
POKE 842,13 switches to automatic
RETURN. 

The processing takes place rapidly when
the computer presses RETURN, so be
prepared.  The commands to be processed
must be both correct and in the right
place on the screen, and the cursor 
must be positioned on or above the
first statement.  In case an error is
detected, a message will be written on
the screen, but the Atari, using the
automatic RETURN, will process the
error message as a command and a syntax
error will result. 

With a little imagination, you can
modify this program to accept other
forms of input of decimal or
hexadecimal values to be converted to
character strings, or to accept a ML
object file from disk. 

If you are planning to adopt some of
these techniques to your own programs,
there are a few things to watch out
for.  First, when placing the cursor at
the top of the screen prior to
activating the automatic RETURN, be
sure to allow sufficient room so the 
screen text produced by the STOP
statement will not overwrite the 
statements which your program placed on
the screen.  Also be sure to turn off
the automatic RETURN (POKE 842,12) when
you're done. 

           
           |ML STRING MAKER|
           

1 REM ML STRING MAKER
2 REM Writes string assignment statements from up to 256 memory locations and LISTs them on disk. 
10 DIM NAME$(10),RTN(11),RTN1(11) 
20 ? CHR$(125);"ENTER-":? "START ADDRESS";:INPUT FBA:? " END ADDRESS";:INPUT LBA 
25 ? " STRING NAME";:INPUT NAME$:? "FIRST STATEMENT NUMBER";:INPUT FSN:SN=FSN-10:I=LEN(NAME$) 
30 IF LBA<FBA OR LBA-FBA>255 OR I<2 OR I>7 OR NAME$(I,I)<>"$" OR FSN<191 THEN? CHR$(253):GOTO 20 
35 ? CHR$(125):? :DISP=-79:FBA=FBA-80 
40 SN=SN+10:FBA=FBA+80:DISP=DISP+80:GHIJKLMNO IF FBA>LBA THEN GOTO 85 
45 RANGE=79:IF LBA-FBA<79 THEN RANGE=LBA-FBA 
50 ? SN;" ";NAME$;"(";DISP;")=";CHR$(34);:FOR I=FBA TO FBA+RANGE:J=PEEK(I) 
60 IF J=155 THEN J=0:K=K+1:RTN(K)=I:IF K=11 THEN 190 
65 IF J=34 THEN J=0:L=L+1:RTN1(L)=I:IF L=11 THEN 190 
70 ? "(ESC)";CHR$(J);:NEXT I:? CHR$(34) 
75 GOTO 40 
85 ? "CONT":POSITION 0,0 
90 POKE 842,13:STOP 
100 POKE 842,12 
110 ? CHR$(125);"ENTER-":? " FILE NAME";:INPUT NAME$ 
120 ? CHR$(125):? :? :? "150 LIST";CHR$(34);"D:";NAME$;CHR$(34);",";FSN;",";SN-10:? "CONT":POSITION 0,0 
130 POKE 842,13:STOP 
140 POKE 842,12 
145 ? CHR$(125);"LISTING ";NAME$ 
150 REM LIST statement will be inserted here. 
160 ? CHR$(125):IF K>0 THEN?"Zero substituted for 155 @":FOR I=1 TO K:? " ";RTN(I);:NEXT I 
170 IF L>0 THEN? :? "Zero substituted for 34 @":FOR I=1 TO L:? "";RTN1(I);:NEXT I 
180 END 
190 ? CHR$(125):? "TOO MANY 155s AND/OR 34s":END 

This program was written by Tom Sak and
received from Compute.

                    


     
     |Z*NET NEWSWIRE 8-BIT EDITION|
     
           
           |by Harold Brewer|
           


 While speaking with ICD's Howard
about a problem concerning SpartaDOS's
ability to deal with 21st century
dates, he informed me of a fix in the
restoration half of ICD's FlashBack!
(hard drive and Multi I/O backup
utility).

Howard said that both halves of 
FlashBack! (backup and restoration)
are currently at version 2.3.  Owners
of FlashBack! version 2.x can receive a
free upgrade just by sending in their
original FlashBack! disk along with
return postage to ICD, or by calling
ICD's BBS and leaving a pertinent
message to the SysOp to arrange for a
download of the upgrade.  Owners of
earlier versions (1.x) would have to
comply with ICD's upgrade policy to
recieve the current version of
FlashBack! (send original disk and $10
to ICD).

          
          |    ICD, Inc.     |
          | 1220 Rock Street |
          |Rockford, IL 61101|
          |BBS:  815-968-2229|
          |   Attn: Howard   |
          


 "GEnie announces new prices
effective May 1, 1989.

"First, the prime-time rate for GEnie
will be reduced from $35.00 per hour to
$18.00 per hour for 300, 1200, and 2400
baud access speeds.

"Non-prime pricing will be
re-structured by access speed.
 *  300 baud will remain the same at
     $5.00 per hour.
 * 1200 baud will increase from $5.00
     to $6.00 per hour.
 * 2400 baud will decrease from $12.50
     to $10.00 per hour.

"In addition, the CB Club Fees will
change from $50.00 per month to $30.00
per month with a $3.00 per hour connect
fee.  The CB Club still only applies to
U.S. users during non-prime hours.  The
60 day waiting period for new GEnie
subscribers has been eliminated.

          GEnie Rates Summary:
 
  Speed       Prime-time    Non-prime
 300 baud     $ 18.00/hr.   $  5.00/hr.
1200 baud     $ 18.00/hr.   $  6.00/hr.
2400 baud     $ 18.00/hr.   $ 10.00/hr.

CB Club*         N/A        $  3.00/hr.

     * (any speed, plus FX surcharges,
       if any)
     * plus $30/month CB Club
       membership fee.
 
"FX surcharges will remain the same for
designated locations.  Prime-time is
8AM to 6PM Mon-Fri local time.
Non-Prime time is 6PM to 8AM Mon-Fri
plus all-day on Saturdays, Sundays and
designated holidays.
 
"GEnie announces the following rates
effective May 1,1989 for Canada GEnie
users.

            GEnie Rates Summary
(Amounts below are in Canadian Dollars)
 
  Speed       Prime-time    Non-prime
 300 baud     $ 30.00/hr.   $  7.00/hr.
1200 baud     $ 30.00/hr.   $  9.00/hr.
2400 baud     $ 35.00/hr.   $ 15.00/hr.

"The CB Club option is not available in
Canada and therefore Canada users are
not affected by the CB Club pricing
change.

"FX surcharges will remain the same for
designated locations.  Prime-time is
8AM to 6PM Mon-Fri local time.
Non-Prime time is 6PM to 8AM Mon-Fri
plus all-day on Saturdays, Sundays and
designated holidays."

This information is courtesy of GEnie.

                    


 
 |   Rovac Industries, Incorporated  |
 | P.O. Box 74, Middlesex, NJ 08846  |
 |          (201) 968-8148           |
 |Copyright 1989  All Rights Reserved|
 

        CompuServe: 71777,2140
             GEnie: ZMAGAZINE
            Source: BDG793

     ZMagazine Headquarters BBSes:     
      Centurian BBS--(314)621-5046
                     (618)451-0165
          Chaos BBS--(517)371-1106
       Shadow Haven--(916)962-2566
 Stairway to Heaven--(216)784-0574
            The Pub--(716)826-5733


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