GADGET.Electronic Edition SEPTEMBER 1987 ISSUE NUMBER 14 Copyright 1987 by Jay Gross. This file may be freely distributed to public computer bulletin boards provided this notice is included intact, but may not be used or published in any other form without prior consent of the author. XXXXXXX X XXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXXX X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X XX XXXXXXX X X X XX XXXXX X X X X X X X X X X X XXXXXXX X X XXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXXX X CAUSERS - - CAROLINA AMIGA USERS GROUP, Columbia, SC c/o 2224 Airport Blvd., West Columbia, SC 29169 CAUSERS CORNER BBS: (803) 796-3127 - 8pm-8am Eastern Time. 300/1200/2400 N-8-1 Voice telephone (803) 796-3127 Daytime GADGET Staff Jay Gross Editor Ray Radlein Staff Writer Doug Smoak Staff Writer Chris Bailey Staff Writer Margie Mijares Circulation Director Cesar Mijares Advertising Director GADGET is the internationally known and acclaimed, national newsletter for Amiga users, sponsored by CAUSERS, Carolina Amiga Users Group, of Columbia, South Carolina. It is published whenever a committee can be volunteered to do so, but preferably monthly. Subscription is free to members, $ 2.50 per issue (plus postage) to all others. Submissions for publication are welcome and may be made by uploading to CAUSERS BBS (803-796-3127 8pm-8am only, 300/1200/2400 8-N-1), or by contacting the editor. Article submissions are accepted only in electronic format, but may be in any word processor or text editor format and in CBM 1541/1571, MS-DOS or AmigaDOS disk format. Art may be submitted on disk in IFF file from any graphics editor which supports the IFF standard. Tangible materials submitted will not be returned unless accompanied by sufficient postage. Address all correspondence to Jay Gross, editor, GADGET, 2224 Airport Blvd., West Columbia, SC 29169. Voice phone: (803) 796-3127 10am-5pm Eastern Time. Distribution of this newsletter is accomplished by both print and electronic media. All material is Copyright 1987 by the respective authors, All Rights Reserved. CAUSERS Steering Committee Barry Burton President/Treasurer Ray Marsh Vice President Ray Radlein Secretary Doug Smoak Librarian/SYSOP Bob Scott Rational Thinking ----------------------------------------------- WELCOME by JAY GROSS Beginning with this, the fourteenth excitement-filled issue of this outstanding publication, GADGET is going national. Our electronic edition is already receiving widespread recognition and attention, and our articles are in demand for reprinting by club newsletter editors throughout the nation. Therefore, your megalomaniacal editor has decided, why not go national. Everyone else does. GADGET will henceforth be styled "The National Newsletter for Amiga Owners sponsored by CAUSERS." To get things off to a good start, our September issue is bigger than ever. Bigger type. Bigger articles. Bigger news. Even bigger lies in the ever-popular Lies&Rumors department. The big news this month is that CBM has changed its marketing strategy. Widely known for its Ready-Fire-Aim approach to marketing, CBM has a new gung-ho management crew which has adopted a more spectacular policy, Fire-Ready-Aim. Of course, the only firing that actually gets done is when they shoot themselves in the foot, but action is what Irving (Chief EO, Irving Gould) wanted, and action he gets. This will come as no surprise to Amigoids, but Amiga postponed the A2000 again. GADGET had previously predicted the A2000 would be shipping by now, but no go. Rumors abound, and this time it looks as though some dealers really are getting A2000 units for sure. We'll see. Your skeptical editor predicted back in March that it would be at least September before the 2000 showed its face in the cold light of day, and Doug Smoak, CAUSERS fearless sysop, predicted that the boards for the 2000 would be available before the 2000 itself. So far, we're one hundred percent on the mark. As these pages have stated before, don't chalk off your Amiga 1000 yet. Rumors have it that the trade-in offer for 1000 to 2000 is a go, but there's no official word yet. Meanwhile, ASDG's box full of slots, the 2000-and-one will give you room enough for all those expansion boards you crave, without spending the bucks for the 2000. Check the Lies&Rumors column for gorier details on this critter, as well as the real low-down on a bunch of other Amiga issues. GADGET's illustrious staff writer, Ray Radlein, was shocked and delighted to see a new face on an old friend, descending from the ozone layers in the last week before GADGET was rushed to Xerox (not to say, press). TextCraft-Plus: yes, folks, it's not an illusion. Been floating 'round in CBM's musty corners since March, by some accounts. Ray takes a look at the new product, as Ray is uniquely qualified to do, having stretched the regular old TextCraft far beyond its severe limitations. Ray also inflicts his favorite puns on us with his Club News column, heralded far and wide for its diversity of style, its preponderance of Latinate roots, and who knows what else. If you want to know what's going on at the meetings you miss, read Ray's column, and then show up at the next meeting. CAUSERS has a committee (Ray) in charge of \iproviding\i old business for each meeting. Also in this issue is a report from the annual computer graphics gathering, SIGGRAPH, at which Amiga annually makes a splash, but CBM is too stupid to advertise the fact. Some new airware in the works, too, so check that one out first-off. Look for the FACCII article, too, which tells you what you're missing if you don't have FACC, ASDG's Floppy ACCelerator software. Welcome back to GADGET's pages the writing talents of Ron McCraw, who gives us his "first impressions" of Deluxe Music Construction Set and Sonix. DMCS, a sloppy port from a lesser machine, has already been soundly bashed in these pages, so Ron lets it off light. Sonix, alas, has been a virgin to GADGET's vicious critics. The usual is here too, for those of you wishing for something familiar and homey-like. The NewStuff.column brings us up to date on the New Stuff, and there's always Lies&Rumors, blazing new trails in epic proportions. Maybe you should get a second subscription for your bathroom. \bJ_Gross: editor\n