EI Z-NEWS 806 9 November 1987
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Of Significance. Echelon enters new phase. We seek to find our place in the
microcomputer market place supporting those who find Z-System computing a
desirable way to go. We lean down our paid staff, reduce our office overhead,
strengthen our development team ties, prepare for future growth. Z-Nodes and
Good-Neighbor Helpers take on a significant role. More next newsletter. Stay
with us, our computing future is bright.
The recent "crash" of Wall Street and other free-world stock markets
gives pause, a time to reflect on what we are doing, and what we are letting,
by our non-thought, others do to us. What is life? Is it a time to perpet-
ually rip-out our neighbor, do unto him before he does it to us? Life is so
much more than "making a living." Now, a time to learn, and learn much. Come
home to roots. Learn what computers do and how they do it.
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From The Mail Box. Many find Nick Turner's "Terra Nova Letter" just the
ticket-to-ride. Nick, erstwhile editor of DDJ, is our kind of folk. News-
letter covers a wide range of subjects from "high technology, communications,
spiritual pursuits, friendship, and just plain fun. We expect the TNL to pro-
vide a wide variety of articles and other material useful to people who are
interested in the growth and evolution of the planet's ecosystems, social
structures, and knowledge." Subscription price is what you make it--get out
of it what you put in. Nick's mailing address is Terra Nova Communications,
10 McGranahan Court, Boulder Creek, CA 95006-9208; or, try Andronx RAS at
408/338-9511.
Steve Cohen, Chicago, author of our beloved ZPATCH program, writes, "I
feel sorry for the DOS crowd. They're gonna have it done to them again. And
again. And again, until they learn to appreciate what they have and work hard
at improving it, until they get to the point where they don't need to be led
around by the nose by the very people out to take their money."--comment
prompted by BYTE article, Vol. 12, Num. 12, Extra Edition, page 44, quote,
"Skeptics of OS/2 were dismissed by Bill Gates of Microsoft in a speech to the
Silicon Valley User's Society recently as 'the same kind of people who were
reluctant to switch from CP/M to MS-DOS'." Gates comment was also carried in
BYTE's November 1987 issue, on page 11. Most of you know what EI thinks of
people who don't think for themselves, who take short views, who follow crowds
for whatever reason. "Life is so much more than 'making a living'." We say
no more.
Software Update Service. Here what SUS #12 looked like at shipping time:
CMD.LBR was placed on Z-Nodes, thinking many would appreciate the scripts con-
tained therein. Previous Z-News have covered contents of SUS #12. Thirteen
shapes up, has a ways to go:
DIRectory, Version 1.4 01/22/86
-SUS .013 0r| NHSH-Z33.LBR 14 | PACK10 .LBR 24 | SNIGLETS. 6
T3S10 .LBR 14
F0:BACKUP -- 5 files using 58k (328k remain of 386k total)
If you don't have economical access to Z-Node remote access system, subscribe
to SUS! That's the way to get important program updates and stay current with
what's going on. And at the same time you support Echelon! Subscribe today.
Call our voice number with your credit card number handy.
Z-Node News. Frank Cringle, Edinburgh, Scotland, has produced a long needed
utility for packing disks, especially hard disks, with the ability to specify
files and groups of files to stay in place (fixed) or to be moved to beginning
of disk. Called PACK, all files are fully defragmented in the process of
being moved to new locations, for faster access. Defragmentation, moving, and
packing files occur about 10 times faster than with Steve Dirickson's RESTORE.
We have thoroughly tested PACK and it seems bug free. As with RESTORE, your
disk drive system should be reliable, else you should get it fixed before
using PACK. (Thanks, Frank, for supplying the source code! We are sure many
in the community will appreciate seeing how you accomplished such a marvelous
piece of work.) It's all on Z-Nodes as file PACK10.LBR, and on upcoming SUS
#13 diskette.
For those using both WordStar v4.0 and NuKey, Joe Wright, author of
NuKey, passes along a message to make sure WS routines FUNDLY are set to 0 and
AHEAD to FF. Use program WSCHANGE to do this. FUNDLY is defaulted to 0 but
AHEAD is not to FF; it is usually 0. So change it to FF if you use NuKey.
Then everything will work correctly as it did when using Newword v2.17.
If into Modula-2 program development, two RASs you will find interesting:
212/682-4609 and 503/297-9145. Give each number a try for useful information
and to download public domain files. Both are PC Pursuit accessable.
Z-User's Corner. Often we use words "backup" and "archive" without concern
for their meaning. Backup is one or more copies of files that are still
online on our disk system; archive are files no longer online and are disk
copies put in a place for safe keeping. And...
We use the word script in defining what the computer is to do. Script
comes from the world of theater, of actors and stages, tells of who, what, and
when to do and say. Similarly, our computer reads a standardized series of
parameters and tests we create, then acts sequentially, branching as instruct-
ed, much as actors on stage do with their lines and movements.
In discussing features of and how-to-use Z-System and supporting
software, we try to keep our eye on the long view and the larger perspective.
We try to be eloquence without affectation, profound without being pompous,
and most of all, show wit without malice or frivolity. We always hope we
offer humane, creative, and graceful perceptions, something to nurish your
sensibilities. Whether we succeed in this mission is always under your
crucial judgement. Find us valuable and thus support us, else we cease to
exist. It's simple!
Hardware/Software Beat. Super performance-increaser add-on board, ETS-180-IO+
for SB180 and SB180FX, is shipping. Comes with equally impressive XBIOS. Get
details of both from North American One-Eighty Group, P.O. Box 2781,
Warminster, PA 18974, 215/443-9031. Bruce Morgen, NAOG founder, offers pair
for only $284.95 plus shipping and handling. NAOG takes credit cards. If you
own an SB180, here is way to get more speed, bigger TPA, and more channels to
the outside world. Contact NAOG today.
Big RAMdisk for Ampro Little Boards available from n/SYSTEMS of Los
Gatos, CA. Called MDISK, Terry Hazen's company puts LBs into modern world
with add-on 1-megabyte solid-state disk drive. Your Z80 takes on new person-
ality with such a drive. The Little Board is modified by removing the exist-
ing RAM chips and replacing them with supplied sockets and by adding one
jumper. MDISK board plugs into existing Z80 socket with Z80 plugged into
MDISK board. Boot-time utility installs RAMdisk between top-of-BIOS and Z-
System buffers. Other utilities supplied, mentioned in Z-News 805-1, DD,
ACOPY, RENAMZ, make RAMdisk even more useful by using attributes, beyond
archive, for loading and copying. MDISK is offered for $149.00 plus shipping
and handling. If interested, write to Terry Hazen, n/SYSTEMS, 21460 Bear
Creek Road, Los Gatos, CA 95030. Tell him EI sent you. (Art Carlson's
Computer Journal, in Issues #29 and #30, covers technical details of MDISK.)
Ken Taschner nears completion of the new Libraries, Z-News 708-5. We
should release the package in a few weeks. Tremendous effort on Ken's and his
people's part; complete re-write results in faster and more compact code.
Very impressive! Stay tuned...
In Other Words. Seems curiosity is extinguished very early in most people.
Is it because of the environment in which we find ourselves or just biological
for our time in history? Seems we are conditioned to be curious only about
safe areas of experience. Few sources of information truly stimulate. TV
programs, in general, particularly "soap operas," do little to help, and it
further seems books don't get much play these days, not as much as was so in
Victorian times.
Our grandparents used books as their main source of new knowledge.
Earlier, people like Henry David Thoreau of Walden fame used keen observation
not only to acquire knowledge but as a way to understanding. Before printing,
knowledge was transferred by word-of-mouth, by story tellers. Understanding
came when the knowledge was used in practical ways to solve everyday problems.
These days, we are so overcome by video imagery (MTV, tape, and movie)
and its ability to hypnotize, we forget we are not part of the action but
simply near-passive on-lookers. Can we sufficiently describe static, much
less dynamic, images our eyes look upon? What do the images mean...do they
provoke or put to sleep? In other words, What do we see? We spend so much
time looking yet see so little.
Imagination, power to visualize, thoughts pointing to images in the head,
magical gift so often going to waste (Z-News 801-4, 5).
Most of us cannot verbalize, either orally or by writing, our internal
vision, the sight that drives us and makes us what we are. I can't put it
into words!--an often heard exclamation. Even though we might not be able to
use words we can demonstrate curiosity through our actions. Feeling movement,
we create desire for even more mobility; is this not what freedom is about?
In patience we find our soul.
"Suffering [sorrow] is rooted in
desire"--Gautama Siddhartha, the Buddha, 563-483 B.C.
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Of Angels and Eagles. The thinker is a thought among thoughts! Objectivity
exists at a human's level? Of course not; look around--what do you find?
Total subjectivity everywhere. Few even think of themselves as players on
stage, much less as on-lookers. Our sight usually takes us only to tomorrow
and how much we desire with little going to what others may need from us--
service without thought of immediate personal gain is dearly needed. See you
down the lines...
Echelon, Inc. 885 North San Antonio Road Los Altos, CA 94022 USA
Telephone: 415/948-3820 Telex: 4931646 Z-Node Central (RAS): 415/948-6656
Trademarks: Little Board, Bookshelf, Ampro Computers; SB180, SB180FX, GT180,
Micromint; ON!, Oneac; DT42, The SemiDisk, Deep Thought 42, SemiDisk Systems;
XLR8, M.A.N. Systems; VAX, Digital Equipment; Macintosh, Apple; HD63484/64180,
Hitachi; Z-System, ZOS, ZCPR3, ZRDOS, Z-Tools, Zas, Zlink, Z-Msg, Term3,
Quick-Task, NuKey, Z80 Turbo Modula-2, Lasting-Value Software, Echelon; CP/M,
Digital Research; Unix, AT&T; TurboROM, Advent; Graphix Toolbox, Turbo Pascal,
Borland Int'l; Ada, U.S. Government; WordStar, Newword, MicroPro Int'l;
JetFind, Bridger Mitchell.
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"Images precede and are a priori to words and numbers, and offer
powerful and direct thinking power. Cognition is impossible with-
out imagery."--Nathan B. Winters, author and illustrator, 1937-.
"There is not perception without contrast."--Franklin Y. Gates,
Design Engineer.
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Z-News 806 is Copyright MCMLXXXVII Echelon, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Permis-
sion to reprint, wholly or partially, automatically granted if source credit
is given to Echelon.
