STix - July 1991
From: Atari SIG (xx004@cleveland.Freenet.Edu)
Date: 03/02/94-12:52:11 PM Z
From: xx004@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Atari SIG)
Subject: STix - July 1991
Date: Wed Mar 2 12:52:11 1994
STix
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ST Information Exchange JULY 1991
A Monthly Publication of the ST Information Exchange
[---------------------------------------------------------------]
| IN THIS ISSUE |
| ------------- |
| From the Editor's Mess |
| |
| PD Picks |
| |
| GEnie's "End of Time" by Steve Balch |
| |
| _WordPerfect_ Classes Begin |
| |
| Nibbled News |
| |
| 00: The Laugh Track |
[---------------------------------------------------------------]
>From the Editor's Mess
A month has gone by since the STix Newsletter began
publishing again. As promised, you are now the proud owner of a
July issue. A lot has happened over that month, some good and
some bad. Let's start with the bad and work toward the good.
INFO-1: Bad Signs
Last month's editorial concerned the decline of Atari stock
at Info-1, a store that has been Oklahoma City's Atari outlet for
many years. I was a bit peeved that half of the Atari display
area had been turned over to IBM Windows programs. Once bought,
little Atari software seemed to be replaced by new (or old)
releases.
Another trip to Info-1 in June showed another bad sign,
posted on the front door: Atari software was on clear-out sale.
When asked, an unnamed Info-1 person claimed it was just
time to face facts.
I must be a little unclear on the facts. Atari has
released its new line of STe and Mega STe computers. The TT is
being classified by the FCC for American use. All of the
magazines I read show new software developments: Lexicor's new
graphic packages and Goldleaf's publishing software come to mind.
Atari Corporation is introducing new dealership plans and gearing
up advertising for the coming year. The Portfolio, a continuing
top seller, is being expanded with new memory cards and palm-size
hard drives. The STix user group has 70 members, and there are
many more non-member Atari users out here. Are these the facts I
am to face?
To give them credit, Info-1 is a business. And, like any
computer store, money is not made on the sale of systems. The
money is in the software and support afterward. The majority of
people walking into Info-1 probably already own IBMs, and thus the
preponderance of IBM books, soft and hardware.
Still, this seems a low blow to the Oklahoma Atari community.
It disappoints those STix members who trek to the store once or
twice a month before meetings and find shrinking stock. If no
attempts to keep abreast of Atari developments are made, then an
attempt to keep software stock fresh would be appreciated.
STix Newsletter: Good Signs
I recently became a member of Cleveland Freenet. Based at
Cleveland's Case Western Reserve University, Freenet is much like
GEnie and Compuserve except in one respect: Freenet is, like its
name suggests, free. Although Freenet has a regular phone number,
calling through the Internet system even defrays long distance
costs.
The Atari SIG on Freenet is growing steadily. Message bases
are increasingly used. Review and Help areas are filling up.
And, a call was put out for user group newsletters. Seeing that
as my cue, I signed up as a contributor.
What does this mean? It means STix Newsletter is now in
ASCII format. It is posted on Freenet so that others can see what
is happening in Oklahoma. (Notes are added to the ASCII version
as to what can and cannot be used or distributed without
permission.) I figure this is one other way to build a network of
support for Oklahoma Atari users.
The Editor Takes a Bow
It is now official. I will be leaving in July for the
Washington, D.C. area. As much as I'd like to stay here and edit
the newsletter, enjoy the low cost of living, and continue
visiting my mother monthly, I cannot. There are no jobs for me
here. The chance to go to Washington is something I cannot miss.
The newsletter will continue, however. John Cummins, with
some assistance from anyone he can rope into the work, will carry
on. And, I hope to still help out as I can. (After all, John
didn't know about the new ASCII STix Newsletter, so someone will
have to create them, right?) So, don't look at this as losing an
editor; look at it as gaining a Washington correspondent!
Until next month,
Michael D. Lewis
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PD PICKS
Club's Library Grows!
During a recent trip to Canada, Moh Severson, STix's club
librarian, added considerable to the club's PD and shareware
software collection. Moh acquired _Current Notes Library's_
SyQuest Catridge # 1 which contains approximately 44mb of
material. Everything has been compressed and put onto 42 double-
sided diskettes for member's use at club meetings.
Following is a list of most of what Moh acquired, mostly from
documentation provided with the cartridge. In future newsletters,
we hope to spotlight certain particular programs or disks. In the
meantime, however, see what catches your eye here. Information
about _Current Notes_ is included on the disks for those who wish
to order directly. Enjoy!
CURRENT NOTES ST LIBRARY
CNCART 1: JULY '89 TO JUNE '90.
CN# K Disk Name
==== === ==========================================
CA01 - ADVENTURES
362: 150 A DUDLEY DILEMMA
363: 146 TARK
364: 150 RAPTURE & SUSAN (R)
365: 165 RING & PORK
CA02 - ADVENTURES
366: 338 THE ADVENTURE GAME TOOLKIT (AGT)
CB01 - APPLICATIONS
370: 171 NORAD
380: 112 THE REVOLUTION HANDBOOK
424: 108 MICRO RTX DEMO
CB02 - APPLICATIONS
440: 156 STAR 2000
441: 85 TCOS V1.2
452: 163 MONOCHROME PAINTING PACKAGE
455: 199 INVENTORY PRO, V3.0
---: 85 ARCHIVER
CD01 - DEMOS
459: 84 ATARI CASH REGISTER
386: 304 JIL2D(tm) DRAFTING PACKAGE
456: 344 PAGESTREAM DEMO, V1.8
CD02 - DEMOS
420: 199 .ACCESS DEMO
450: 173 MASTER TRACKS JR. DEMO V1.10
CG01 - GAMES
387: 108 EMPIRE MAP COLLECTION
388: 249 BREACH SCENARIO COLLECTION
426: 331 MEAN 18 COURSES
CG02 - GAMES
438: 370 GAME DISK NO. 27: Gilgaled
356: 210 BOLO
429: 192 GAME DISK NO. 25: GranPrx
CG03 - GAMES
373: 120 STRIP BREAKOUT (R)
390: 256 GAME DISK NO. 21: PileUp
391: 99 GAME DISK NO. 22: Super Breakout
446: 205 PILEUP V2.1
CG04 - GAMES
389: 201 GAME DISK NO. 20: Startrek
360: 179 BERMUDA RACE II
428: 176 GAME DISK NO. 24: Orbit
CG05 - GAMES
348: 153 GAME DISK NO. 18: Trivia
359: 131 PENTIMO
383: 169 THE AMERICAN PASTIME BASEBALL SIMULATOR
CG06 - GAMES
447: 132 BLOBBRUN & VIRTUE
CH01 - GRAPHICS
368: 694 VIDI-ST NO. 1
CH03 - GRAPHICS
417: 685 SATURN
CH04 - GRAPHICS
394: 688 SPECTRUM PICTURES NO. 8: Cars & more
CH05 - GRAPHICS
392: 679 SPECTRUM PICTURES NO. 6: People
CH06 - GRAPHICS
371: 197 BERTHOLD'S PICS NO. 2
393: 565 SPECTRUM PICTURES NO. 7: Space
CH07 - GRAPHICS
410: 247 SPECTRUM COLOR CLIP ART
CH08 - GRAPHICS
369: 383 VIDI-ST NO. 2
408: 148 ANI ST
CP01 - DTP
442: 646 CLIP ART NO. 14: ANIMALS
CP02 - DTP
353: 147 PRINT MASTER ICONS NO. 3
354: 152 PRINT MASTER ICONS NO. 4
416: 197 CLIP ART & TIME WORKS BORDERS
431: 67 KIDPUBLISHER PROFESSIONAL DEMO
457: 167 PUBLISHER ST BORDERPACK
CP03 - DTP
357: 192 PAGESTREAM FONTS NO. 1
358: 232 CALAMUS FONTS NO. 1
CT01 - TELECOMMUNICATIONS
381: 169 VANTERM V3.8
347: 201 MOTERM ELITE 1.41
449: 198 HAGTERM ELITE & MINIBBS
CU01 - UTILITIES
374: 163 CODEHEAD UTILITY COLLECTION
385: D. C. SOFTWARE SHAREWARE SAMPLER
CU02 - UTILITIES
375: 182 DAREK MIHOCKA UTILITY COLLECTION
CU03 - UTILITIES
376: 251 NEODESK ICON COLLECTION
CW01 - WORD PROCESSING
372: 124 MAGNIWRITER ST
401: 2 ST WRITER V3.4
430: 238 ST WRITER ELITE, V3.8
REMEMBER: Many of these programs are shareware. Please support
shareware authors.
-----------
_WordPerfect_ Classes Begin
Word Perfect training sessions will be held at the Saturday
STix meetings starting July 13th. Saturday meetings are held the
second Saturday of each month starting at 2 p.m. at the Nicoma
Park City Hall. Carolyn Lumry will teach the classes beginning
at 2 p.m. and continuing until the meeting closes or the day's
topic has been thoroughly covered.
The first session on July 13th will cover the basics of Word
Perfect for the Atari ST. Included will be information of the
program's major strengths and uses, an overview of its commands,
as well as some configuration tips for various ST and printer
combinations. These basics will not be covered in future
sessions, so try to attend this first meeting.
These sessions may be the perfect way to learn a few new Word
Perfect tricks or share some of your own tricks. If you use
another word processor, here is a chance to compare WordPerfect's
capabilities to your favorite's.
-----------
GEnie's "End of Time"
Part 1 of 2 Copyright 1990-91 by Steve Balch
GEnie (General Electric Network for Information Exchange), a
commercial online communications service which supports several
areas of interest to Atari ST owners, announced an enhancement to
their services for personal computers. In an announcement in the
Sept./Oct. 1990 issue of _GEnie Livewire_, the bimonthly
publication sent to GEnie subscribers, GEnie introduced "The End
of Time" and the availability of "GEnie Star*Services," a flat-
rate service that includes unlimited, non-prime-time use of a
number of existing online products and services.
At a flat-rate of just $4.95 (U.S.) per month you gain
unlimited access to such services as: GEmail, the electronic mail
service; news, weather, and sports; various hobby, leisure, and
human interest bulletin boards (sorry, the computer RoundTables
are NOT included, and neither are the file areas of some of the
Bulletin Boards [BB's] that ARE included in the flat-rate
service); the single player online games (Black Dragon, et. al.);
travel services such as American Airlines' EaasySabre; the GEnie
Mall and the stores and services therein (and you will have to PAY
for the producxts you buy, sorry); and, of course, the GEnie
Administration and Information areas (such as the PC ALADDIN, ST
ALADDIN, Genie Users BB's, billing and rate information, terminal
set-up, local access phone numbers, and the online manuals).
The services and products included in the Star*Services flat-
rate are indicated in the new menus with an asterisk ('*')
preceding the description. The keywords for these services also
start with an asterisk and are in the 8000 series page numbers.
If you wish to access GEnie for only the flat-rate $4.95 per
month and not pay $6.00 per hour connect time charges, be sure to
stay within the 8000 series page numbers or use only those
keywords that are prefaced with an asterisk. It is quite possible
to use GEnie extensively and still stay within the flat-rate
Star*Service areas. (ALADDIN ST users should stay with the older
numbers, those below 8000, when using GEnie. The 8000-series
numbers, at this time, seem to merely be "pointers" to the older
page numbers.)
A current and complete list of all GEnie services, including
Star*Services, is available online by using the keyword *INDEX
(turn on your capture buffer and select option 2 from the menu).
GEnie eliminated the $29.95 sign-up fee. At the same time,
GEnie announced the introduction of new rates, effective October
1, 1990. The new rates include access at 300, 1200, or 2400 bits
per second at $6.00 (U.S.) per hour, reduced from $10.00 (U.S.)
per hour. These are Non-prime-time rates applicable to all
services and products not included in the Star*Servies flat-rate,
except those that require a separate subscription fee or are surcharged.
The various computer RoundTables (RT's) and all of the file
libraries (including the libraries of the BB's included under
Star*Services) are NOT included under the flat-rate plan. Prime-
time rates for 300, 1200, and 2400bps connections are billed at
$18.00 (U.S.) per hour. Note that the Star*Services flat-rate is
NOT applicable during prime-time hours, which are defined as 8
a.m. thru 6 p.m., MOnday thru Friday (except holidays and other
special days as indicated).
Communications surcharges may apply to connections made from
some locations or thru come communications network services.
Fortunately, the Oklahoma City area local access number is NOT
surcharged.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Sorry to cut Steve's article short. It was so
chock full of info, and I thought it best to halve it. Next month
Steve tells how to sign on to GEnie and discusses what
Star*Services has for us Atari users!
-----------
NIBBLED NEWS
The following informative tidbits were taken from various
sources. Two of the sources were the online electronic magazines
Z*NET INTERNATIONAL and STREPORT. For those of you with modems
who cannot find these on a BBS near you, it would be worth your
time to convince a SysOp to carry them.
Atari Warps into the 23rd Century
In an agreement with Walter Koenig (who plays Chekov in _Star
Trek_), Atari is providing the actor with a Mega STe4 and SLM605
laser printer. John Eidsvoog of CODEHEAD Software has already
started helping Koenig get the maximum use out of his new system.
Koenig and the computer will be featured in a print ad campaign
geared to coincide with the release of _Star Trek VI: The
Undiscovered Country_ in December.
CODEHEAD Utilities 4 Released
The latest collection of utilities, number four, has been released
by CODEHEAD Software. The two disks have 1.5mb of software
including 21 new or upgraded utilities, 7 shareware programs, and
7 demos of upcoming or popular CODEHEAD software. The disks are a
steal at $34.95! A must for either the casual or power user!
-----------
00: THE LAUGH TRACK
-- provided by Steve Balch
>From "IS TECH NEWS" Vol.6 No.1, April 1991
Via "SNAPDUMP" Vol.5 No.6, June 1991
Just For Fun
The Motorola Lunch Bunch is proud to announce it's latest
development...
The DARK Computer
The Dark Computer is a technological breakthrough destined to
eclipse the recently announced "light" computer. The Dark Computer
is the result of years of study, research and development in the
dark. It is faster than the light computer because dark travels
Faster than light. (Proof: Before light gets anywhere, dark is
already there.)
The Dark Computer uses the newly discovered subatomic particle, the
dark quark. Our research has determined that two dark quarks
combine to form the basic elementary particle of darkness, the
offon. Three dark quarks combine to form the elementary particle of
management, the moron. The Dark Computer requires very little power-
-so little, in fact, that it is completely powered by a single lunar
cell (similar to a solar cell, but more efficient in high-dark
conditions).
Some of the unique hardware features of the Dark Computer are:
Multiple shift registers for left-shift, right-shift and night-shift
operations.
One biggabyte of memory composed entirely of shadow RAM with a fully
dissociative outta cache.
Music synthesizer with demonstration tunes such as "Moonlight
Sonata", "Dark Eyes" and "In the Still of the Night".
Sidereal-time clock with a granularity of 28 days (known as 1 lunar
tick).
A DGA (Dark Graphics Adaptor) display composed of one million (1000
x 1000) DEDs (Dark Emitting Diodes). These are similar to LADs
(Light Absorbing Diodes) in the same way electron-flow resembles
hole-slow theory.
Optional Interface to the MLB Digital Holstein (we're really milking
this!). With a Digital Holstein connected, processor output
increases to 32M Complex Orthogonal-Weighted Floated Operations Per
Second (32M COWFLOPS).
The MLB Dark Computer is especially useful for applications such as
blackhole research, dark-side-of-the-Force computations, blindfold
tests, vampire tracking and mushroom management. Military
applications include SDI, Stealth research and RFP (Request For
Proposal) generation. The Dark Computer is Powerful enough to handle
computations on matter, anti-matter and doesn't matter.
Don't be left in the light!
[----------------------------------------------------------------]
|The _STix Newsletter_ is a monthly publication of the ST Infor- |
|mation Exchange (STix). STix is a place for people who own or |
|are interested in Atari ST, Mega ST, STe, and TT line of compu- |
|ters to meet and discuss common interests. Any use of brand |
|names, company names, logos, and other proprietary items associ-|
|ated with companies mentioned in the _STix Newsletter_ are |
|intended as a means of identifying said companies and are not |
|meant to infringe upon the owner's rights. All articles are the|
|sole property of the authors and reflect the author's views. |
|Articles do not necessarily reflect the views of _STix News- |
|letter_, ST Information Exchange, its officers, or its members. |
|Attempts have been made to give proper credit wherever it is |
|necessary. |
[----------------------------------------------------------------]
STix Officers: Pres. : Steve Balch _STix Newsletter
V.P. : Fred Hoipkemeier is always looking
Sec. : Kenneth Love for articles. If
Treas. : Carolyn Lumry you would like to
Lib. : Moh Severson contribute, you
News Ed.: Michael Lewis may send it to our
John Cummins address or give it
Hospit'y: Bill Puckett an officer.
Comm. : Bill Hallman
STix Newsletter July 1991
--
Michael Lewis "Now that you're dead, your usefulness
ar224/ CWRU Freenet to me has ended!! But I'll keep your
shoes. HA HA HA!!" -- Lightning Bug
'J-Men Forever'
-----------------------------------------
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