CCP/M-11.88
Connecticut CP/M Users' Group
October/November Meeting Notes
Al Hathway introduced the capabilities of the new
Z System at our October meeting. I think a good
idea would be to follow up with another meeting
which shows how the new Z System can be packaged
to provide the non-technical user with a menu
driven front end to typical applications. I've
been asked by the YOU group to talk about NZCOM at
their next regular meeting. I went to their last
meeting which was a very informal help session for
Royal owners and got a chance to show off a few
things I've been developing on my Royal under the
new Z System (NZ-COM). If you want to learn more
about what it can do for you, come to the November
meeting of YOUr Computer Users' Group. Third
Tuesday. Not sure where it'll be so won't mislead
you with any guess I might make.
Our first newsletter under the leadership of Jim
Taylor and Mort Fabricant is history. And despite
a few problems, the final product was a good one.
It was on time, interesting and full of
challenges, news and other interesting material.
I hear from Bruce Richardson and Mort that a laser
printer may be used to print future newsletters.
Bob Conlon, TCC president, has mentioned that his
company is interested in providing copy services
and in general in providing meeting space, etc.
etc. He mentioned at our meeting (which was more
like a YOU-TCC-CCP/M joint meeting the more I
think of it) that his group is planning a
mega-meeting for Nov. 2 (first Wednesday) at which
GEnie, CompuServe, Quantum Link and other
electronic services will be called. Again,
location was not definite (Red Cross was not
available). I expect by the time this goes to
print, these details will have been worked out.
Tom Veile, CCP/M Treasurer reports that CCP/M's
coffers hold $874.91. New President Brian
Nalewajek moderated the business end of the
meeting. The Bylaws were ammended slightly;
Article 5, Section A is no longer, which simply
means CCP/M is not obligated to jointly publish a
newsletter with YOU. Independent mailings and
newsletters are now a possibility.
Al Hathway talked briefly about upcoming meeting
topics. Spreadsheets, Turbo Pascal, Home
Controllers, Tutorial Sessions for the
non-technical, more on the new Z System were some
of the possibilities. Glen Gross, our new
Publicist, plans on contacting CCS and other media
to begin to let others know what we are planning.
Let Glen know how you think CCP/M can market
itself. Stuart Holden, our harcopy librarian, has
provided us with two 5 meg hard disks plus an
Ampro Little Board. I have given the hard disk
software to Al for reformatting and will be
working on bringing up a new BBS on this machine
in the coming weeks. I got a note from a friend
the other day which mentioned his failure to hook
into my BBS. I expect many people have been upset
that 665-1100 is down. I spent all day last
Saturday bringing up BYE5, PBBS4 and ZCPR33 on my
ON! It ALMOST works but seems to not know what I
mean when I use the system locally after it has
answered a remote call. For example, B: <cr> is
not understood as a valid command. Also,
somewhere along the way, the RCP command CLS gets
clobbered. So, there are still some bugs.
For those of you out there waiting for the go
ahead and official word on how you can order Z
System software at 25% off, Brian has sent the
application for CCP/M dealer status to Jay Sage,
who with Tony Parker has established a new company
called Z System Associates. If you have ordered
NZ-COM from Alpha Systems, Joe Wright WILL be
sending it to you. But Joe is apparently busy
writing and has been directing requests for Z-Plan
purchases to Jay and Tony. As soon as we get the
paper work from them, we'll let you know how to
place the order. Bug Joe if you haven't heard
about your order. I know it usually takes me a
few calls to get a job done. Speaking of Alpha
Systems, I got my first complimentary issue of The
Z-Letter, Alpha Systems Corp.'s newsletter. It is
excellent. Subscription rate is $25/year. It
will be a monthly newsletter. First issue was 31
pages long. Editor David A. J. McGlone has
produced a fine first issue. The Z-Letter talks
about Alpha Systems products, the fact that
Echelon is now gone, article submission, product
news and many other things. It comes packaged as
a pamplet and is obviously the work of a
professional. Editor McGlone contributed WRITING
ABOUT WRITING. Pages 25 thru 31. He promises an
article about the MagicSeries from Computer
EdiType Systems next issue.
Skip Ferry defined himself as an "Osborne/Actrix
owner and a seeker of knowledge and old donated
computers". Skip heads up an organization that
helps people in many ways. I don't know as much
as I want to about this organization. I do know
it provides meals for the needy and computers for
the curious. How 'bout an article Skip?
Ray Gentle, FOG librarian of YOU and CCP/M member,
spoke briefly about the FOG software libraries.
There are two libraries, one MSDOS, one CP/M. VDE
for example has been implemented on MSDOS based
systems by author Erik Meyer and the software is
on one of the FOG MSDOS disks. Check with Ray or
Mort Fabricant if you would like a copy. I gave
Ray one of the power cables Richard Steadman,
CCP/M software librarian, made to connect Royal F1
and F2 drives. He will be performing a little
surgery on it so it will work (Richard made a
male-male cable, which worked fine when you are
connecting an F1 and a converted F1 but doesn't
work when you're connecting an F1 and an F2).
Since giving him the cable, I have managed to
avoid the issue of proper Molex connectors by
cutting off the Molex plug at the drive end,
cutting the improperly Molexed cable and soldering
the wires together. I now have two working F2's.
And at least three people want F2's. I have an F1
which is probably convertable to an F2 (and which
therefore could probably use the cable I gave to
Ray, unaltered ...) Anyway, I'll pull out
Steadman's article on F1 to F2 conversion see if I
can create a 3rd F2. The Royal drive drought
continues. Royal Product Support in Manchester
never answered my calls. I suppose I should try
at least one more time.
Howard Goldstein, CCP/M member and close friend of
Jay Sage, tells me that PCPursuit now has a node
in Hartford. CTHAR. You use some Telenet 800
number. I don't know too much about PCPursuit.
All I know is that it costs $25/month, you can use
it from 6 PM to 7 AM weekdays and weekends. It
doesn't sound like something the average person
needs but it is a must for serious SYSOPs (like
Rick Swenton, who subscribes). Brian Nalewajek
has mentioned that there is a similar system
starting up here in Connecticut. Again, I don't
know the details but it works like PCPursuit,
except is cheaper and applies only to Connecticut.
Somebody out there, get us the details.
Rick Swenton is beta testing PBBS41B I believe.
Ian Cottrell, who documented PBBS40, has been
calling in periodically to see how it's going!
Lastly, I hope you all are ready for the cold
weather, are doing fine and continue to keep in
touch with the 8-bit world thru our club meetings,
our newsletter and personal visits and phone
calls. There's always SOMETHING new and
interesting to learn and to develop thru CCP/M.
See you on the second Tuesday at the Farmington
Public Library. November the 8th. Actually, this
next meeting I promise I WON'T make; I'm
attending a class called "How To Start Your Own
Business". It did not meet on our October meeting
date so I was able to make it after all. I think
Al is planning a meeting on Spreadsheets. Mort
Fabricant asked me if it would be possible to have
CCP/M meetings announced 3 months in advance.
Don't see why not. Here are the dates anyway.
CCP/M Meeting Dates and Topics (Very Tentative)
November 8th; Spreadsheets? Bookkeeping
Software? This topic has been requested and I
think is what is planned. Farmington Public
Library 6:30
December 13th; Possibly a joint meeting on Z80MU
(runs CP/M on an IBM computer). Time Place and
Topic still flexible.
January 10th; Non-Computerized Snowmen, Their
Construction And Use. In other words, I have no
idea what is going to happen or where. The only
thing I know with some degree of certainty is that
we're scheduled for this date to have a meeting.
Actually, I think it would be great to be buried
in a great big snowstorm and to all get outside
and build a huge Snowman. You know, there is life
without computers.
Lee Bradley, Secretary, CCP/M, 10/22/88 at 9:20 PM.
