Page 1 FARGO IBM-PC USERS GROUP NEWSLETTER DECEMBER 1986 Meeting Notes--------------------------------------------------------1 User Survey: Where do I Go?------------------------------------------1 Shareware: FASTYP22.ARC----------------------------------------------3 EGA Notes: ----------------------------------------------------------4 BASIC: Reading the Clock---------------------------------------------4 Editor's Corner------------------------------------------------------5 Need Floppy Disks?---------------------------------------------------5 User Group Officers--------------------------------------------------5 Uploads 11/4-12/9/86-------------------------------------------------5 ** MEETINGS ** The Fargo IBM-PC User Group meets the third Monday of every month at 7:00 p.m. Our current meeting place is the classroom located in Bethany Homes, 201 University Drive South, Fargo. Meetings are free to the public and new computer owners are encouraged to attend. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MEETING NOTES ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Our November meeting was an informal dialogue regarding resources for hardware, software, and services. We discussed the place of the Users Group in the community and ways in which we can better serve PC users in our community. We also explored ways to improve our relationship with local hardware and software dealers. (See the article below.) A few individuals brought hardware and software bargains to the meeting as part of our swap sale. In December Karl Peterson will give us a shake down cruise through the Novell local area network operating system. If you want to learn how microcomputers can be trained to work together, you'll want to make this meeting. In January we plan a demonstration of the NorthStar Dimension computer, courtesy of Software Solutions, Ltd. This is a multi-user PC compatible that is finding a niche where many minis used to dominate. Our president expects you will be impressed with the performance of this machine. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- WHERE DO I GO? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- One feature of our November meeting was an informal survey of members present indicating reliable sources of hardware and software. The sampling was not statistically significant, but for what it was worth, here are the results of the users who provided information: 1) The average user group member has done business with 4.6 different local retailers and 1.5 mail order merchandisers. 2) Local computer retailers mentioned (in order of frequency) were : -Computerland of Fargo (12) -CBI Computer Services (10) -Daytons Computer Depot (8) -Radio Shack (8) -Computer Associates (7) -Digital Hospital (7) -Red River Computers (4) -Systematics (4) -Software House (4) -Fargo Paper (3) Page 2 -A-1 Olson (1) -Computer 1 (1) 3) Mail Order firms mentioned in order of frequency were: -PC Connection (3) -Logisoft (3) -PC's Limited (2) -Priority 1 (2) -CompuAdd (2) -Warehouse Data Products (2) -Computer Mail Order (1) -Conroy La Pointe (1) -Northeastern Software (1) -US Disk (1) -Bittner (1) -Leo Electronics (1) -XEBEC (1) -47th St. Computer (1) If this sample is even somewhat representative, it indicates that our Users Group members give local retailers a lion's share of their patronage. It also shows that most members buy from more than one local retailer. Radio Shack, for example, seems to be the place to buy odd parts. Users tend to turn to other major dealers for hardware and peripherals. Mail order firms seem to grab only a small segment of the user's dollar--items line RAM chips and occasional software purchases. Local retailers seem to be well-liked, as the following remarks indicate: Computerland-- "will make it right" "good technical backup if you have problems" "best service techs" "technical" Dayton's Computer Depot-- "helpful, & I have confidence in Gary Fleltis" "good salesmen" "good folks--credit card" CBI-- "OK too" "[good source of] computer paper and ribbons" "very professional" "good stock, good employees" Red River Computers-- "good service" "friendly staff" Computer Associates-- "[good source of] disk containers" "helpful and backup" "reasonable" Systematics-- "knowledge" Fargo Paper-- "best prices on paper" Software House "prices" These remarks bear out the traditional maxim that customers still respond to retailers who care about them and who offer help. None of Page 3 the comments evidenced loyalty to any brand of hardware. Confidence in the dealer seems to rank first. Another possible trend is that users confined price to discussions of purchases like paper, disks, and software. Price was not as significant a factor regarding hardware. Again, confidence and trust in the dealer seems to be the deciding factor. Very few remarks were made regarding mail-order suppliers. The clear winner was PC-Connection, which was praised for its fast service on software purchases by three of those surveyed. One question on the survey asked, "How can the users group make a positive impact on local computer retailers?" Responses included the following suggestions: --arrange mass purchases --invite them to meetings (3 responses) --include dealers in group activities --inform dealers of group "direction" When asked how retailers might contribute to the users group, suggestions included: --come to the meetings with demos of products (4 responses) --offer discounts or specials --make information available on new equipment and products (2 responses) What's your opinion? If you didn't get a chance to respond and would like to share your viewpoint, drop a note to me or leave a comment on the bulletin board. -- J. L. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SHAREWARE: FASTYP22.ARC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Touch typing is one of those skills high schools should have taught all college-bound students. I still remember the helplessness of graduate students who could peck along at no more than three words per minute. They breathlessly waited for a freshman girl to return their typewritten manuscript, only to discover she couldn't spell, punctuate, or read their handwriting. Though PC's simplify the process, they don't eliminate the need to be as efficient as possible with keyboard input. The flagship program for typing instruction must be Typing Tutor III. One recent upload, FASTYP22.ARC (114K), does an admirable job of presenting various levels of drills designed to measure and improve typing speed. The ARC file contains 55 independent files, most of them drills. The program requires 64K of RAM, a CGA (Color Graphics) adapter card, DOS 2.x or higher. It is assumes the user has the original IBM- PC style keyboard. For regular typing, any keyboard will do, but I found it responding properly to my non-IBM keyboard when I added options like the tilde key. The documentation is designed for someone who knows very little about DOS and is good for the novice user. You can toggle the sounds for invalid keystrokes on and off. FAS- TYPE also allows you to choose the disk for your files. I couldn't run it from my RAMdisk G, however--it only recognizes drives A through E. FAS-TYPE divides the screen into two windows. The top window displays the text you are to type. The bottom window shows your keyboard layout. Page 4 The program makes extensive use of the function keys. F10 begins a drill. You can choose the keys groups you wish to be drilled on by selecting between "Letters", "Numbers", "Symbols", and "Caps". In addition, you can customize the keys you with to drill on. The program will not let you gloss over an error since the cursor will not advance to the next character until you successfully type the designated character. You can add drills of your own design, so long as you place no more than 39 characters on a line and use the guidelines in the manual to name the file. No more than six lines per file are permitted. The one characteristic I didn't like about FAS-TYPE was the way it took over the system clock in order to calculate your typing speed. You have to reset the system clock when exiting this program. FAS-TYPE's 46 page document file covers anything you would want to know about this basic program. FAS-TYPE (2.1) is the product of Trendtech Corporation, P.O. Box 3687, Wayne, New Jersey 07470. Users are requested to provide shareware support of $20 for the product. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- EGA NOTES ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Richard Zaylskie provided me with some information on the enhanced graphic adapter (EGA) cards which are becoming increasingly popular with users. Though I didn't understand all the technical remarks of PC Tech Journal, I managed to glean some useful insights from the material. One point to consider when shopping for an EGA card is that there are basically two different types to consder. The first kind of card is the least expensive ($220-$595). It uses reverse engineering to emulate IBM's EGA card. BUT this card is only guaranteed to work in EGA mode. It will gag on some software that is looking for color graphics output. This board will support the EGA- specific features of programs like Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Word, Lotus 1-2-3, etc. If all your software works with the EGA, you need nothing else. Otherwise--especially with games--be cautious! Boards in this category include products from AST, Basic Time, Genoa, PCs Limited, STB and Techmar. The second class of EGA boards emulate CGA and Hercules display as well as the IBM EGA standard. If your software is not EGA-specific, you may wish to consider one of these higher-priced ($460-$899), more flexible boards. Manufacturers producing boards in this category include Everex, NSI, Orchid, Paradise, Sigma Designs, Tseng, Quadram/Video7, and Vutek. Recommendations vary according to the reviewer. PC Tech Journal favors Tseng's $525 EVA. PC-World notes that Quadram's $495 EGA+ is the largest selling EGA board. PC-Magazine likes Techmar's $395 EGA Master. One other factor to consider is the longevity of the "EGA Standard." Rumors abound that IBM is planning to move frome the 640 x 350 resolution of the EGA to a 640 x 480 resolution available through faster chips now produced by Intel and Texas Instruments. Will software developers migrate to increasing resolution, stick with CGA, or settle in at EGA? --J.L. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- BASIC: Reading the Time ---------------------------------------------------------------------- It's been a long time since we've included anything on basic. If you have some good short programs or subroutines, let us know! Here's a little program that illustrates how to read the system clock and Page 5 display the time. It would be useful as a utility or could be modified as a timer in a game program. 10 SCREEN 0:WIDTH 80:CLS 20 LOCATE 1,1:PRINT "TIME: " 30 LOCATE 1,46:PRINT "Press any key to end." 40 IF INKEY$<>"" THEN END 50 IF VAL(LEFT$(TIME$,2))<13 THEN TH$=TIME$:APM$=" a.m." ELSE 80 60 IF LEFT$(TH$,2)="00" THEN TH$="12"+MID$(TIME$,3,8) 70 GOTO 100 80 A=VAL(LEFT$(TIME$,2)):Z=A-12:Z$=STR$(Z) 90 TH$=Z$+MID$(TIME$,3,8):APM$=" p.m." 100 LOCATE 1,9:PRINT TH$+APM$:LOCATE 1,9 120 IF INT(TIMER)<>LAST THEN LAST=INT(TIMER):GOTO 40 ELSE 100 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- EDITOR'S CORNER ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In our discussion at the November meeting, we wrestled with that "hacker" stereotype that so often clings to users groups. In contrast to the media image, our users group is not a hang-out for teenage electronic vandals. I would guess the average age of those who attend our meeting would be about 33. Most of us are married. Some are retired. We hold positions that would be highly regarded in the community (law, insurance, accounting, retailing, advertising, education, farming, government service, administration, etc.). More than anything, we want good--not free--products. We will patronize dealers who will help us get things done with the hardware and software they service and sell. No fancy promises. No gimmicks. And we want to help other users who are floundering in the electronic jungle, duplicating our past mistakes and headaches. If we can convey this message to the computer merchandizers in our community, all of us will profit. --Jim Levitt ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NEED FLOPPY DISKS? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The User Group has a limited supply of DS/DD 360K floppy disks available. These come with tyvek sleeves and have a lifetime guarantee. Your cost is only 75 cents each. Contact Loren if interested. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- USER GROUP OFFICERS ---------------------------------------------------------------------- President & Sysop-----Loren Jones Vice-President------James Grettum Librarian----------Calvin Paulson Newsletter Ed.---------Jim Levitt Treasurer-------------Loren Jones Printing----------------TLC Press Address: Box 9121, Fargo ND 58109 Newsletter Address: c/o Jim Levitt, Box 97, Wolverton, MN 56594 User Group Phone: 1-701-280-2608 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- HACK.ARC 252K UNIX Hack game for PC. Super game!!! TIMSAV26.ARC 130K *IME Saver v2.6 Calendar/Appt. Mgr - VG!! 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WORDFIND.COM 20K Create Wordfind crossword puzzles XONE21.ARC 11K Buerg's make ARC off files frm anoth (ASM) UGALL.ARC 15K Nationwide Listing of PC User Groups PCPARK.ARC 3K Generic Head Park Pgm--Includes AT Disks VFAT.ARC 9K See the structure of your disk/files ARCTYP12.ARC 4K Type a text file directly from an ARC (8/86) GSTBSTRS.BAS 1K Ghostbusters Logo TF-BOOK.ARC 88K Electronic telephone book UPDATE50.ARC 88K Update Ver 5.0 Hard Disk Backup Utility FEDTAX86.ARC 34K 1986 federal tax worksheets for 1-2-3 Rel. 2 ANSP22.ARC 55K Ansipaint 2.2,make ANSI,ASCII,BLOAD screens FCON200C.ARC 45K Fansi-Console ANSI device driver ver. 2.00C AM-TAX86.ARC 122K *AM-Tax 1986 tax preparation software DIAGS.ARC 58K PC diagnostics by originators of Z80MU MOVBITS.ARC 11K Bit mover subroutine in 8088 Asm-Turbo Pascal DSEEKER.ARC 1K Floppy drive diagnostic-Turbo Pascal DTCQTEST.ARC 3K Daisy wheel printer QA/exerciser-Turbo Pascal GT700.ARC 145K Generic Terminal 7.00 communications program ABM.EXE 35K Defend the cities from nukes-good color STAR-NET.PUB 3K Info, new phones, PC-PURSUIT QUBECALC.ARC 160K Shareware multi-dimensional spreadsheet DD121.ARC 52K *Daily Diary, excelletn appoint scheduler KILL14D.ARC 82K 'Doors' program for RBBS Ver. 14.1C or D GUESS.EXE 30K Guess the Algorithym (or crack the code) PCW27-1.ARC 107K PC-Write 2.7 - 1 of 2 PCW27-2.ARC 138K PC-Write 2.7 - 2 of 2 PCPM.ARC 91K PC Project Management (Critical Path) PCDESK32.ARC 96K PC-Desk 3.2 - complete desk manager COMPCHEF.ARC 60K Computer Chef 2.17 - for high tech kitchens TXTMUSIC.ARC 22K Program to write, edit and play music ANIMATOR.ARC 9K Animation maker w/ sample graphic (BASICA) 3DGRAPH.ARC 39K 3D Function Plotter/Hires w/print, Turbo src PDFLOW.ARC 20K Flow chart utility for programmers TIMEPARK.COM K Auto park hard disk - memory resident AMMAZE.ARC 39K Multi-level Maze game - very good TEKTERM.ARC DELETED NOT PUBLIC DOMAIN! PD OR USER SUPPORTED ONLY! TIME2.ARC 29K Another clock, more fun than useful. Page 8 ENVED.ARC 16K Edit DOS environment strings. HHGT1-6.ARC 24K Guide to the net 1 - 6, humor! COPYWRIT.ARCDELETED NOT PUBLIC DOMAIN! PD OR USER SUPPORTED ONLY! SRS.ARC 76K Still River Shell (graphic tree display) LIN-PROG.ARC 176K Linear Program - Max.Profit or Min.Costs RAM.ARC 2K RAM disk that can be resized or deleted 3DTICTAC.EXE 37K Three dimensional Tic-Tac-Toe (4 levels) DISPLAYQ.ARC 26K ASCII/EBCIDIC display/patch utility EMSDISK.ARC 16K Uus EMS board as a RAM disk FORMGEN.ARC 58K Form letter generator (v 1.2) for PC-FILE III LBLBJOKE.DOC 2K Worlds Greatest Light Bulb Joke RLA10.ARC 11K *Appointment by Alarm 1.0 - MemRes alarm prgm BACKALLY.ARC 33K *Backalley pinball - nice! MSTKEY.ARC 77K *Master Key 1.5 - Like Norton's NU utility PCB9600.ARC 7K Use of 9600 baud on BBSs. PATDOS32.ARC 88K Patches to DOS 3.2 from IBM! 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