¢ *******************¢ HELLO ALL YOU ATARI COMPUNUTS- HOPE¢ YOU ENJOY READING OUR CLUB MINUTES!¢ *******************¢¢ MINUTES OF THE FEBRUARY 1991¢ MEETING¢¢¢ GENERAL MEETING:¢¢ ALEX PIGNATO opened the FEBRUARY OL'¢HACKERS ATARI USER GROUP meeting with¢a "MOMENT OF PRAYER" for our service¢men and women in the Gulf, in¢recognition of their loyalty and¢sacrafices. In addition the OL'¢HACKER'S MARCH/APRIL issue of our¢newsletter will be DEDICATED TO THEM!¢One previous newsletter, in MAY 1987,¢was dedicated to the service men who¢were killed when an Iranian missile¢hit the U.S.S. Stark.¢¢ Then ALEX introduced,JOHN HARDIE,¢direct from (FR)ANTIC, San Antonio,¢Texas. The Alamo Area Atari User¢Association, (AAAUA), (FR)ANTIC like¢the OL' HACKERS, it is strictly an¢ATARI 8-Bit User Group. JOHN orginally¢from New York, was sent to Texas as a¢member of the U.S. Air Force. He¢considered this a plus as there was a¢large community of ATARI Users in the¢area. JOHN had brought his first Atari¢in 1984. In a matter of a couple of¢months he was giving club¢presentations of DOS and Programs. For¢this he was made their Vice President.¢Being very active he enjoyed being a¢club member because he learned a lot¢and soon became a fanatic. Then he¢became a collector of ATARI¢Memorabilia, displaying two rare¢items, a 1090XL Expansion System and a¢XTC201 ATARI Thermal Color Printer.¢JOHN has fond memories of his ATARI¢life in Texas and now hopes to¢continue it in New York. Upon¢contacting AAAUA, they then put him in¢touch with our club. Here's hoping¢JOHN has found his Atari Utopia with¢the OL'HACKERS.¢¢ RON FETZER donated a large quantity¢of Antic Magazines for club members¢use. They were immediately put into¢our hard copy library. ALEX supplied¢the members with a listing of the many¢books donated by ALAN SHARKIS and NIEK¢VANDERLEE at the January meeting. This¢library has already been set into¢motion, as a couple of the members¢have taken advantage of this new¢library, which contains many out of¢print books. ¢ MINUTES/TREASURY REPORTS:¢¢ ALEX next read the lengthy January¢minutes report and AL ATKINS gave his¢up todate Treasury Report. Both were¢accepted as read.¢¢ MAIL & CORRESPONDENCE:¢¢ Surprise mail came to our Oceanside¢address from FRANCE, to be exact, an¢Atari Newsletter and Library Listing,¢in French no less. It was from "CLUB¢CENACLE ATARI", containing news of the¢XL/XE. The newsletter was passed to¢JACK GEDALIUS for translation and¢reporting back at the March meeting¢The CENACLE CLUB is a nation wide¢French ATARI User Group. Their purpose¢is to make the worth while 8-Bit live,¢though French supporters have¢considered that these computers were¢dead (sound familiar?). For over three¢years they have been publishing¢newsletters with disk, containing¢rograms born from the creativity of¢their members. They also have a Public¢Domain Library for which some members¢have produced hard and software. They¢are interested in corresponding with¢ATARI User Groups throughout the world¢for an exchange of information and the¢exchange of membership of Atari¢Groups. ALEX responded "Tout De Suite"¢endorsing their ideas and forwarded¢copies of our last three newsletters.¢¢ "CLUB CENACLE", B.P. 49, 95110¢Sannois, France. ¢¢ ALEX read a letter from HORST DEWITZ¢who said he cannot attend regular¢meetings. HORST our international¢correspondence member, is as well, a¢member of LIAUG and ABBUC, GERMANY. He¢would like to continue to act as the¢connecting link and perform the¢coordination of activities between¢GERMANY and the USA. ¢¢ DR. R.B. HERMAN, President of "THE¢W.A.N.D.", WESTCHESTER ATARI NEWS¢DIGEST an all 8-bit ATARI club, was¢contacted by ALEX at the suggestion of¢ROLAND FETZER. DR. HERMAN has agreed¢to an exchange of N/L's and articles¢between the clubs.¢ KEN WICKERT, A.C.E., SYRACUSE has¢really jumped into "DESERT STORM". He¢brought his 8-bit computers into the¢local school systems and to the¢support system for wives and families¢of affected servicemen and women. He¢has taught word processing to families¢to allow them to send mail to their¢loved ones, either paper mail or¢"GENIE". He also printed hundreds of¢mailing labels for families as well.¢TOM ANDREWS at a minutes notice, has¢composed for him a new version of the¢program "COL40.CTB", called "REFORMAT"¢that allows him to take a letter¢composed with Atari Writer and¢reformat it to send over Electronic¢Mail with the least amount of wasted¢space. ¢¢ TOM ANDREWS our honorary member¢lives in upstate N. Y., in MANLIUS. He¢is a dedicated 8 BITTER, who helps his¢family run a large dairy farm. He has¢an Electrical Engineers degree, but¢from seeing his programs, I think he¢cut clases and went to computer¢school instead. Way to go, TOM!¢¢ JOAN RYAN, A.C.E., ST LOUIS wrote¢very favorable comments concerning the¢OL' HACKERS bimonthly newsletter. She¢especially liked printing it in two¢columns with "TWOCOL.BAS" from ANTIC.¢In addition JOAN thought including a¢game or two on the reverse side was¢super. SURPRISE!! With this disk, she,¢(and you) will now be able to print it¢in 3 columns, thanks to our¢programmers!¢¢ ALAN SHARKIS volunteered to compose¢and send a letter to START (ANTIC)¢Magazine for permission to include¢their typein programs on our¢newsletters. The entire 8-Bit world¢would benefit if we could include¢these programs on the newsletter. The¢OL' HACKERS are a not for profit club¢and these disks are exchanged with¢other clubs, not sold.¢¢ DOOR PRIZES:¢¢ To no ones surprise, HARRY TUTHILL'S¢number instantly popped up when "DOOR¢PRIZE was run. After so many years the¢members agree that the odds have to be¢astronomical that month after month¢HARRY walks up and claims his "DOOR¢PRIZE". As he picked up his prize he¢seemed to be mumbling something about¢"Positive Thinking". Almost unnoticed¢were the other winners, RON FETZER and¢JACK GEDALIUS.¢¢ DEMONSTRATIONS:¢¢ HAROLD PEGLER started the demos with¢"Menu Plus", version 2.5, put on disk¢as an Autorun program. All files¢entered on the disk is by a number.¢You have a choice, as in DOS, to run,¢load, enter, copy, make an autorun.¢Everything that you can do with DOS.¢The demo disk happened to be programs¢of tapes converted to disk (no new¢programs here). Mostly this disk¢consisted of educational programs, in¢basic only. Before we knew what had¢happened HAROLD had us playing "States¢and Capitals".¢¢ Then "TV TEST", color bars to allow¢you to make television alignments. You¢can get crosshatch (our monitor passed¢with flying colors), Horizontal,¢Vertical, Wide, Dots, Grey scale, test¢patterns. This program will really¢tell you what ails your monitor or TV¢set. ¢¢ "B Copy" Antic 1988 bonus disk. B¢Copy has an excellent use for¢converting double and enhanced density¢to a single density disk. The program¢will not copy DOS or DUP, so when you¢format a disk put DOS on it. Your¢drive or drives, including RAM Disk¢can be selected. Hitting the start key¢will produce a directory of programs¢in drive #1. Use the arrow keys to¢make file selections, then hit return¢to lock highlighted programs. After¢marking programs using this method,¢hit start and then the programs¢selected will be transferred to a new¢disk. ¢¢ "Info Bits" came next, another Antic¢program, a real simple little data¢base program. You have to generate a¢disk you want to use that will have¢"INFO BITS" on it. Then establish a¢file called "Info Bit File" and you¢are then limited to 119 characters,¢approximately three lines of print.¢HAROLD used Info Bits to catalog a lot¢of his tapes, normally using about¢three lines for name, number and title¢of his music cassettes. You have a¢choice of adding to the file or make a¢search. Then he exhibited the search¢excellant feature of the program.¢¢ CARLOS HURTADO started his demo with¢"TEXTPRO", version 3.2, (he has passed¢up version 4.5, with help key),¢feeling more comfortable with 3.2.¢CARLOS passed out handouts containing¢information about the program and¢stated he used "TEXTPRO" for letters¢and our newsletter. While performing¢the "TEXTPRO" demo he went through the¢following steps:¢ a. CTRL/M key to bring up the¢ directory¢ b. Used the arrow keys to make a¢ selection¢ c. CTRL/L key to load selection¢ d. When using a harddrive, make¢selection, then hit the insert key to¢open up a sub directory¢ e. To return to the main directory¢use clear key¢ f. Then q1 to justify the margins.¢Using q1 turns justification on and q0¢turns it off¢ g. Using CTRL/S, the text will be¢saved¢ h. Then using CTRL/H to bring cursor¢to top of file, CARLOS typed in "Print¢File>DI:" to print to disk¢ i. When reformatting text file he¢uses "FIXUP"¢ j. Then taking a text file submitted¢by ALAN he went through all the steps¢for making it compatible with the¢newsletter program. ALAN used "ATARI¢WRITER PLUS to submit his article,¢CARLOS using the Global Search feature¢was able to instantly correct the text¢for "TEXTPRO".¢¢ ALEX PIGNATO followed with his demos¢starting with "File Verifier" from TOM¢ANDREWS, The program will check if a¢file has been copied correctly. Any¢variation from the orginal file will¢be noted.¢¢ Next came "DOS 2.5 Modified" when¢used with a 800XL or 130XE, somehow,¢it seems to make two ram disks that¢you can configure the DOS to name,¢such as; D3 and D8, D4 and D8. DOS D3¢will have DOS and DUP and D8 will have¢DUP and MEMSAV. ALEX named this¢program "DBLRMDOS.BAS" and the¢documentation is in the program. The¢DOS sets up a 90K Ramdisk that can be¢assigned D2 to D7 when used with a¢256K upgrade providing RAMDISK. COM is¢on the disk. The second ramdisk needs¢to be formatted after being powered¢up. How good it is??? Members will¢have to play with it.¢¢ "Wall Calendar" was demoed next,¢this program displays one year by¢months. You have the option of¢highlighting any date or dates you¢select, then it prints out the end¢results. ¢¢ Then "IRA.BAS" will calculate¢interest with or without taxable¢income for "N" years. Good whether you¢are retiring or thinking of it!¢¢ Next a potpourri of old familiar¢programs, "LUNAR LANDER", "FILE¢RECOVERY", "DISKEDIT:DOC" and¢"FUJIBONk". A lot of the programs¢were typed in by JOE LEBER. Thanks¢Joe.¢¢ To finish the demos for this month,¢a super program was saved for last,¢"Print Star" by TOM ANDREWS. This¢program allows you to select your size¢of type for the text. The selection¢allows two columns of print having six¢or eight lines to an inch. Another¢choice is three columns of text with¢six or eight lines to an inch.¢¢ FUTURE MEETING DATES:¢¢ Future meeting dates for the OL'¢HACKERS ATARI USER GROUP are:¢¢ MARCH 9, 1991 MAY 11,1991¢ APRIL 13, 1991 JUNE 1,1991¢¢ All dates are SATURDAY and are¢scheduled for the PLAINVIEW/OLD¢BETHPAGE LIBRARY.¢ REMEMBER........the next OL' HACKERS¢ATARI USER GROUP meeting is scheduled¢for MARCH 9th, at 11:30am.¢¢ Respectfully,¢ AL ATKINS¢¢ So long for now!¢ *******************¢ ¢
