=========================================================================
 
INFO-ATARI16 Digest         Wed,  7 Feb 90       Volume 90 : Issue  168
 
Today's Topics:
                     Bob Brode Comes To Arizona!!
                Geminimore thinsgs about Gemini
                     Genie <-> Usenet 2-way trial
                              Hard Drive
                     mail in your warantee cards
                 Need addresses for ZRAM and ramchips
                          PCB-layout (again)
                    Software Piracy In Atari Clubs
                TeX and DVISLM; PageStream 1.8; LHARC
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Date: 7 Feb 90 15:45:40 GMT
From: cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!hrc!force!covertr@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu  (Richard E.
 Covert)
Subject: Bob Brode Comes To Arizona!!
Message-ID: <4880d517.14a1f@force.UUCP>
 
I just spoke to Bob Brodie (the Atari User Group Coordinator) about
a visit to Phoenix. Bob has made a commitment to visit the Phoenix
Atari ST Club on May 12, 1990. I would like to thank Bob Brodie, and
Atari Corporation for alllowing Bob to visit Phoenix.
 
Also, Bob was very helpful and generally a pleasant fellow to talk to
over the phone. Bob is very knowledgable about Atari products and has
a great enthusiasm for Atari. Sounds good talking to him. When I mentioned
that I was trying to organize all the Arizona Atari clubs, and get them all to
attend his visit, Bob was able to give me a contact for the Tucson AZ Atari
Club. I knew that one existed down in Tucson but didn't have a name for
a person there.  Bob told me that Sam Furrow is the contact in Tucson. thanks
again Bob.
 
I would like to hear from other Clubs about how Bob Brodie's visit was handled.
Is ther anything special that we can do to help make his visit enjoyable?? Did
someone from your local club meet Bob at the airport?? I think that if Atari is
willing to pick up the costs of sending Bob to your club, then your club should
try to make his visit pleasant and enjoyable and that means meeting him at
the airport and showing him around town if necessary. So, what do you all think
 out
there??
 
Bob inidicated that he is spending pratically every weekend on the road this
spring visiting Atari clubs. I don't know if this is on his time (and he gets
weekdays off to compensate), but all that traveling shows Bob's dedication to
his job. I wish that Bob will get a good welcome from other clubs. I intend to
do my best to make his trip to Phoenix enjoyable.
 
so, any other ST clubs out there that have plans for Bob Brodie to visit??
 Please
send email.
 
Thanks again to Atari Corp and Bob Brodie.
 
 
 
 
--
 Richard E. Covert, Lead Engineer of Software Tools Group
 AG Communications Systems, Phoenix AZ   (602) - 581-4652
 TCP/IP: covertr@gtephx
 UUCP: ?ncar!noao!asuvax | uunet!zardoz!hrc | att?!gtephx!covertr
 
------------------------------
 
Date: Wed, 7 Feb 90 23:16:50 MEZ
From: ONM65%DMSWWU1A.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU (Operator Stefan)
Subject: Geminimore thinsgs about Gemini
Message-ID: <9002072216.AA00639@hugin.math.dmswwu>
 
I forgot to mention a very important thing about Gemini.
 
The version which someone posted to american mailbox systems
WON'T run on the TOS version 1.0 (old ROM-TOS from 1986), because
it relies on features only available in TOS version higher than
1.0 (Blitter TOS, Rainbow TOS, etc.). Don't be alarmed: you won't
need any patch programs on future ROM releases.
 
For old fashioned users there is no need to dispair: we have
standalone versions of Mupfel and Venus (Gemini is made out of
them) and they can run on the old TOS. We will post them
together with the english version of Gemini at the beginning
of march, I hope.
 
  _____________________________________________________
 | Stefan Eissing  <onm65@dmswwu1a.bitnet>    +----+  \|#
 | Dorfbauerschaft 7, D-4419 Laer-Holthausen  | OK |   |#
 | "Godfather of Gemini"                      +----+   |#
 |_____________________________________________________|#
  #######################################################
 
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 7 Feb 90 15:33:49 GMT
From: cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!hrc!force!covertr@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu  (Richard E.
 Covert)
Subject: Genie <-> Usenet 2-way trial
Message-ID: <4880ca81.14a1f@force.UUCP>
 
A Two way link with GEnie would be fine if it would save me some $$ on my
GEnie bill :-)
 
Also, is there anyway to get linked to GEnie's files?? I d/l quite a bit of
GEnie files and it gets expensive!!
 
But, try to link in with GBS on Genie at the very least. I am sure that ther
are plenty of USENETers who have Spectres but can't link to GEnie, and GBS has
a great RT on GEnie. It would be worth a two way link just to see the GBS GEnie
RT linked to USENET.
 
Just a few thoughts.
 
Good luck Dave
 
--
 Richard E. Covert, Lead Engineer of Software Tools Group
 AG Communications Systems, Phoenix AZ   (602) - 581-4652
 TCP/IP: covertr@gtephx
 UUCP: ?ncar!noao!asuvax | uunet!zardoz!hrc | att?!gtephx!covertr
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 7 Feb 90 06:55:00 GMT
From:
 zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu
 !ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!m.cs.uiuc.edu!totty@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
Subject: Hard Drive
Message-ID: <7500014@m.cs.uiuc.edu>
 
        What exactly does the host adapter need to do?  How similar
        are the protocols between the Atari DMA interface and a standard
        disk controller?  How about between DMA and SCSI controllers?
 
        In particular, with a priority on fun rather than saving money,
        what would be involved in actually building one of these interfaces?
        Would it be a simple FSM protocol converter with some buffering or
        are there more complicated things necessary?
 
        Also, where can I get technical information on controller details
        and the Atari DMA port?
 
        Finally, I got mail from one person who said he built a simple
        host adapter and offerred me schamatics.  I wasn't able to get my
        reply back to him.  If he reads this, I would be interested in
        any technical info/schematics!
 
                                                Thanks,
 
 
                                                --- Bri
 
   /                      Brian Totty              o o
  /__  __  o        406 E. Michigan / Apt. 6        o
 /  / /   /             Urbana, IL 61801           \_/  "We have corn in
/__/ /   /             totty@cs.uiuc.edu                Massachusetts too!"
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 6 Feb 90 21:45:07 GMT
From: att!dptg!lzsc!hcj@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU  (HC Johnson)
Subject: mail in your warantee cards
Message-ID: <1269@lzsc.ATT.COM>
 
Last night I was reading a note posted by someone "whining" that
the firm making PC-DITTO wouldn't let him buy the newest version
at half price because he missed the cut off by 7 months.
(The particular product is not the issue here).
His view was that he had only neglected to send in his registration.
 
Seems that only something good can come from registering what you buy.
In this case he lost $150 value by not doing so.
 
Howard C. Johnson
ATT Bell Labs
=====NEW address====
att!lzsc!hcj
hcj@lzsc.att.com
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 7 Feb 90 13:49:37 GMT
From: logicon.arpa!trantor.harris-atd.com!trantor!apolivka@nosc.mil  (polivka al
 60047)
Subject: Need addresses for ZRAM and ramchips
Message-ID: <APOLIVKA.90Feb7084937@x102a.harris-atd.com>
 
Since I happen to have a Z-RAM 2.5 Meg kit sitting here in front of
me, soon to be installed, I can easily give you the address:
 
   Zubair Interfaces, Inc.
   5243 B Paramount Blvd.
   Lakewood, CA 90712
   Tel: (213) 408-6715      Fax: (213) 408-6748
 
The kit is solderless, uses sixteen 1 Mbit RAM chips, and fits
entirely in the video-shifter box of your ST.
 
It consists of a "Main Board" and a "Pingrid" board.  The former fits
into the Videoshifter chip socket (and the video-shifter chip fits on
top of it).  The Pingrid board fits into the MMU socket and the MMU
plugs into it.
--
 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Al Polivka                            arpa: apolivka@x102a.harris-atd.com
Mail Stop 102-4858                  usenet: uunet!x102a!apolivka
Harris Corporation                   phone: 407-729-2983
Government Aerospace Systems Div.     Bldg: 102 Room: 3433
P.O. Box 94000
Melbourne, FL 32902
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 7 Feb 90 07:34:49 GMT
From: eru!luth!sunic!tut!uta!vehka.uta.fi!jackin@BLOOM-BEACON.MIT.EDU  (Markku
 M?enp??)
Subject: PCB-layout (again)
Message-ID: <905@kielo.uta.fi>
 
        I have asked this once before, but got only two
        replys (thanks guys).
 
        ==============================================
 
        Is there a GOOD PCB-layouting program for ST ?
 
        ==============================================
 
        Good one has AUTO-routing and libraries. Price
        is not an issue here ( my friend is ready to pay
        for quality). If he can't find any he is forced
        to buy either PC (yuck !) or MAC.
 
        If there is general interest I shall compile.
 
        Markku M?enp??,         jackin@vehka.uta.fi
 
------------------------------
 
Date: Wed, 7 Feb 90 10:29:12 EST
From: Stephen Harold Goldstein <steveg@SAIC.COM>
Subject: Software Piracy In Atari Clubs
Message-ID: <9002071529.AA10375@SAIC.COM>
 
        >From: brunix!rjd@uunet.uu.net  (Rob Demillo)
        >Subject: ST S/ware Rental Places
        >Message-ID: <28201@brunix.UUCP>
[writes about organized piracy by Atari 'User Groups']
 
If you're ever in the Washington D.C. area, stop in on a NOVATARI
meeting - 2nd Sunday of the month, in Springfield VA.  You should be
pleasantly surprised.  We exchange useful information, present demos,
and sell PD/shareware disks.  The only commercial s/w exchanged is
sales of used packages w/original disks.
 
We're a user's group, not a pirate's club.  If you know of so called
user's groups that are only fronts for pirates, I suggest you report
them to Atari or any interested software houses and have them shut down.
They give all user's groups a bad name.
 
---
Stephen Goldstein     steveg@saic.com
My first Atari system? A 24K Atari 800, Rev. A ROMS, C(not G)TIA graphics
Disclaimer:  That's not what I said.
 
 
------------------------------
 
Date: Wed, 7 Feb 90 10:52:37 EST
From: Stephen Harold Goldstein <steveg@SAIC.COM>
Subject: TeX and DVISLM; PageStream 1.8; LHARC
Message-ID: <9002071552.AA10408@SAIC.COM>
 
To the person asking about output quality from TeX on
the SLM804 Laser:
 
I've got the distribution of TeX from the Current Notes library, and
while I haven't used it all that much yet, I have printed out the
manual for Uniterm by Simon Poole (a great PD terminal emulator).  The
output quality is excellent.  Even small footnotes (6pt?) are quite
readable and do not suffer from the 'thinness' problem you described.
I suspect you do not have a complete set of fonts for the laser (I had
to generate a couple myself for the manual).
 
to R. Covert, re: PageStream 1.8:
 
Kudos for PageStream from our resident critic? :-)
I agree it's a powerful package, but it's still not bug free.  As I
mentioned a while back, it does a pretty poor job of cleaning up after
itself on the screen (even with an apparent 're-draw it all' attitude)
- I'm constantly getting object 'handles' left all over the place.
Also, UNDO does not work for all operations and you don't know what is
not UNDOable till it's too late.  It's getting better though.
 
Re: LHARC
 
Has anyone gotten the LHARC source code recently posted to compile
under Mark Williams C?  It seems to need some header files I don't
have - file.h, dir.h.  It compiles fine on our Sun workstations,
but I want a version to use at home.  Can anyone send me the
neccessary changes or point me to an ST executable version?
 
---
Stephen Goldstein     steveg@saic.com
My first Atari system? A 24K Atari 800, Rev. A ROMS, C(not G)TIA graphics
Disclaimer:  That's not what I said.
 
 
------------------------------
 
End of INFO-ATARI16 Digest V90 Issue #168
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