~LOADWB, newsletter of the Bay Amiga Club` Dear Members, Thanks to the Peters' family for the WARM hospitality, the lovely supper, and the comfortable chairs at last meeting. I hope you are all still reading those AmigaDos handouts so that we can continue lessons on DOS. We decided to call this newsletter "LoadWB", so I hope that Jonathan Powell has been able to create a Logo for this publication. ~Amiga-Video:` Members reported problems in compatibility between video recorders and Amiga. Apparently, some National VCRs do not sync well. National NV180 and NV H70 are ok but NV100 can create problems. Would other members please let us know of this kind of problem or success in matching video to computer signal. ~Memory Expansion:` More Comspec 2 meg. units are expected to arrive at Datastream ($NZ1500 approx.). I, myself, have purchased a 1 meg. unit called the Insider (Michigan Software, 433345 Grand River, MI 48050, $US349, autoconfig., no wait states, rebootable with ASDG device, with Lithium 10-year clock, compat. with external Sidecar and Comspec.) The clock is handy as is the ability to use a boot-ram-disk. ~Disk Purchases:` Members can order bulk purchase disks (SKC) for $5.83 each from the club, by ordering through Ross Deeley. The club will buy them in bulk orders for 100+. Available to members now in singles if you wish. ~Magazine Subscriptions:` To cut costs in magazine subs, we advise members to purchase subs in groups of 2 or 3 for popular computing mags. Get in touch with other members for subs to AmigaWorld and Amigan. Or for that matter, other clubs. Three of us in our area have ordered AmigaWorld, which now accepts o'seas VISA. Phone me for the address of their subscription dept. ~AmigaWorld:` We received out July/Aug. issue last month! (The order took 10 days second class mail). Features in this issue include: Sonix, Deluxe Music, Pro-Midi Studio, and Texture (IBM-portover): all good music programmes for the Amiga. I have listed them in ascending power and price (according to the reviews). Read the latest "Amigan" for a full review of Deluxe Music. ~Amigan:` The June issue of the Amigan Journal arrived this week (15th June) with detailed reviews on Fonts and Desk-Top-Publishing with Fonts - problems with "body" fonts (topaz, garnet, etc.), theory of font creation, how to make good fonts for the Epson-type printers and Pagesetter, printouts of Fonts to compare, and a Public Domain disk with suitable fonts for the Amiga. The following are brief notes on the other articles: - Absoft Fortran and APL68000 reviews - MacDiscs can work on SCSI C Ltd controller card, AND interface for ST506 to Amiga is available to use cheaper IBM hard-disks - Dpaint II and Deluxe Music are NOT multitasking - old Epson printers can get full Imagewriter emulation and fancy printing capabilities through 3-chip installation - hard-disk backup software is now available, called "Hardhat" - allows archiving and compression of all files through a catalogue and then dumping to floppies - C Ltd's hard-disk is not DMA and is slow If you wish to subscribe to this excellent journal please write to: "The Amigans", PO Box 411, Hatteras, N.C. 27943, USA. $US34 subs for two-monthly issue. Must be in Bank Order (not Visa). ~Shift-Discard Bug:` Beware the elusive "shift-discard" bug. If you sometimes shift-select multiple items for discarding, you may finish losing the whole drawer, or disk. ~{I don't think there is a 'bug', I think what actually happens is` ~that you select and open a drawer or disk, the window opens showing your` ~files and the drawer or disk icon is obscured by the window. Hence when you` ~hold down the shift key to start 'extended selection' you don't realise` ~that your disk or drawer is still selected, and if you discard everything` ~selected you lose verything that YOU have selected ie the whole drawer.` ~(Yes Workbench will discard a non empty drawer if you tell it to)` ~If you watch carefully you'll see the hidden selected draws 'pop-up' every` ~time you do another selection. The cure is simple, don't hold down the` ~shift key until after selecting the first icon you wish to delete -AJW}` ~Commodore News:` It seems that Commodore USA have had another (?) stir of management. Interminable! Let's hope now that we will now see high-profile Amiga support round NZ. God knows - it's lonely out here in the Bay without any sign in the national media of Amiga. Many people who see my demos express suspicious surprise at the Amiga - suspicious because in not hearing about it at all, fear that what they see and hear is an illusion wreaked by an extra-clever computer freak and not by the nature of the machine. ~Programming:` With the routines of "Inside Amiga Graphics" (S. Leemon) and the info from "Inside the Amiga" (Berry), and the Load ACBM on the Extras disk (1.2), maybe AmigaBasic can be made to its job - what job? - why to load lots of lovely pics altogether, lots of sprites, pixel-located fonts, and "spaghetti" basic for adventures, educational progs, etc. Meanwhile, Mark Owen becoming a full apprentice in C. We look forward to a progress report from Mark soon. It is essential for amigas/amigos to learn the essential Amiga library routines - they are described more clearly in C. So, even a novice-working knowledge of C is necessary to get the best out of Basic. ~Mac/Amiga Tranfers:` Jonathan Powell has successfully ported over Mac picture files to the Amiga using a null-modem, he has coloured them in, and is ready to show them to Mac owners - whom we hope are suitably impressed. ~Software:` Very little new has arrived at our local retailer - "Datastream". We still await a top-line word-processor, although I hear that "Vizawrite" has arrived in Auckland (excellent for mixing graphics and text, as well as being a full-featured word-processor). It is important to purchase top-flight programmes such as "VIP" (Lotus 1-2-3 for Amiga)/OR Maxiplan v.2 and DBMan (DBase for the Amiga) as these are industry standards. If you are like me, you may get sick and tired of a series of "learning curves" for each "half-pie" programme that doesn't quite fulfil your expectations. Unfortunately, the best are far too expensive. ~Club-to Club:` The Hawkes Bay Commodore Computer Club have kindly offered (for a charge of $20 a year) to send our newsletter out with theirs, as a way of reaching out to other Amiga owners in NZ. Ross Deeley sends our newsletter on a disk to the Wellington NZ Amiga Users' Group, while our club sends this letter to the Auckland club and the Amigan in USA. P.S.: Anyone out there got a 5" IBM or other drive attached to an Amiga? If so, I would like to transfer my C64 files to the Amiga using "Disk2Disk". NEXT MEETING: Date - Wednesday, July 1, 7.30 p.m. * Venue- Mike Phillips, 401 Lascelles St, Hastings, Ph. 89652 Agenda - Business Session: 7.30 to 8.00: minutes, reports from Chair, Sec/Treas, Chief Archivist. AmigaDos Session: 8.00.to 8.30 Word Processing/Databases: Ross Deeley ("Scribble!"); and Colin Fifield ("Pagesetter") to 9.30 ( for reviewing, and comparisons) (*Note: Venue changed from Craig's to my place - Craig has another function on and gives his apologies.) ~Bay Amiga Club MEMBER'S LIST` ~Name Address Phone` ~------------------------------------------------------------` Clarke, Jonathan 3b Lighthouse Rd 58-715 Napier ~Deeley, Ross` 38 Napier Rd 775-959 ~(CHIEF ARCHIVIST)` Havelock North (printer, rambd, d/drive) Fifield, Colin 34 Lancaster St 445-952 Napier Jones, Rachel & Nigel 1a Fleming Rd (0728)87-006 Waipukurau (printer, rambd, d/drive) Morgan, Glenn 42 Downing Ave 436642 Napier Owen, Mark 2 Paradise Rd 56-467 Napier (rambd, musicgear) ~Phillips, Mike` 401 Lascelles St 89-652 ~(CHAIRMAN)` Hastings ~Powell, Jonathan` 1015 Southland Rd 65-876 ~(SEC/TREAS)` Hastings (printer) Smith, Craig 706 Rainbow Ave 82-011 Hastings (printer) Hodgson, Len 1108 Oliphant Rd 89-059 Hastings (printer) Peters, John 2 Vogel Place 432656 Napier Schott, Tuffy 21 Cobden St 52042 Napier Cook, Trevor 27 Higgins St 435074 Napier Prebensen, Dave 160 York Ave, Greenmeadows Ph 447468 Napier. ~Bay Amiga Club` LIST OF DISKS AS AT 28/06/87 AmigaLibDisk series (Fred Fish) 2, 21, 24, 28, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 38, 40, 41, 42, 44, 45, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69,70,71,72,73,74 NZAUG(Wgtn) Newsdisks 1,2,3,4,5 Amicus 6, 9 The Amigan disks 1, 2, 3, 4 Digiview demo Graphics Disk Future sound demo FAUG disk #11 Workbench (1.1) demos Contact: Ross Deeley (Chief Archivist), Ph (070) 775-959 38 Napier Rd. Havelock North Hours 6:30pm-9:00pm Mon-Fri, 1pm-6pm Saturday, 10am-5pm Sunday Disks for sale: SKC brand DSDD, $6 EACH, $59.50 box of ten