SLO BYTES PC USER'S GROUP NEWSLETTER - MAY, 1988 CLUB INFORMATION The SLO BYTES Newsletter is a monthly publication of SLO BYTES of the Central Coast of California (San Luis Obispo) an IBM/compatible personal computer user's group. Information found in this Newsletter is derived from magazine articles, manuals, books, other PC user group newsletters, and our own members. The purpose of this publication is to inform our members of meetings, their program content, and other information related to the use of IBM-PC's and compatible computers. Dues to SLO BYTES are $18 per year. Newsletter only is $10 per year. As a member you will receive a membership card, a new member manual, SLO BYTES monthly newsletter, and free use of our Public Domain Library. Contributors are asked to submit articles for the next issue by the 15th of each month either in writing or on disk (ASCII format preferred). Address all correspondence to SLO BYTES PC USER'S GROUP, % Bob Ward, 2100 Andre' Ave., Los Osos, Ca. 93402. Phone 8am-5pm 756-2164, after 5pm - (805)528-0121. Other user's groups have permission to publish any material found in this newsletter. Treasurer: John Rohde 1214 Vista Del Lego San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 Have a computer related item to sell? Tell the editor and we will put it in our newsletter. For further information call Bob Ward at (805)528-0121 eves or leave a message on our BBS. SLO BYTES BULLETIN BOARD (805) 528-3753 2400/8/N/1 PC Files & Message section. SYSOP: George Campbell All Welcome - 24 hours ****************************************************** ****************************************************** Meetings are held the 1st Thursday of every month, unless noted otherwise in the newsletter calendar, at 7:15 pm. New users SIG 6:15 to 7:00 pm. Meeting place: Cal Poly University Biology Department, Science North 213 (new users SIG) & 215 General meeting. ****************************************************** DI$COUNT$-DI$COUNT$-DI$COUNT$-DI$COUNT$-DI$COUNT$ Discounts usually apply only to regularly priced merchandise. Ask a salesman to make sure. You must present your membership card to receive a discount. Paradise Computers 5% - all computers, peripherals, 441 Marsh St. and software. San Luis Obispo 10% - Ribbons, paper, disks & 544-7127 other expendable items. Star Computers 5% - any software in stock. 655 Morro Bay Blvd. Morro Bay 10% - paper, ribbons, cable & 772-7827 other supplies. Computer Logic 10% - off list - all computers, 973 Foothill Blvd. software, computer periphe- Store #4 rals and products. Contact San Luis Obispo Bruce, Paul, or Dave for 544-8347 your discount. WITCO Computers 10% off complete systems. 3563 Sueldo, 5% off computers alone Building B 10% off already discounted San Luis Obispo peripherals, & supplies but 549-0811 not including software. FISBOSA Systems 10% - off packaged systems, soft- 3121 S. Higuera, F ware &/or peripherals when San Luis Obispo purchased with system. Con- 549-9027 tact Lynne Boisen. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ ====================================================== || || || || || FLOPPY DISKS 4-SALE || || || || @ || || || || THE MEETING || || || || DSDD UNFORMATTED SYNCOM GENERIC 360K || || with labels, tabs, and tyvek sleeves || || || || 1-9 ....... $.75 || || 10+ ....... $.70 || || || || HIGH DENSITY DISKS 1.2 MEG ...... $1.10 ea || || || || NEW LIBRARY DISKS ......... $.90 ea || || || || Epson Ribbons (MX,FX) || || Narrow - $3.00 (2 left) || || || ====================================================== $$-4SALE-$$-SWAP-$$-TRADE-$$-4SALE-$$-SWAP-$$-TRADE$$ IBM PS/2 MODEL 30 Dual 3.5" floppy disk dirives, 640K RAM, monochrome monitor. Includes software & data migration cable. Still under warranty . Asking............. $1250.00 or best offer Call Mitchell Kasdin @ 528-7518 ----------------------------------- TSR-80 Line printer VII (serial, 80 columns)......$ 75 TSR-80 Color computer external disk drive.........$125 Call Bob Ward @ 528-0121 ----------------------------------- Will trade valuable art work for computer. Call Jay Schmidt for details @ 489-2218 $$-4SALE-$$-SWAP-$$-TRADE-$$-4SALE-$$-SWAP-$$-TRADE$$ dBASE IV ... A WIN - WIN SITUATION By French Morgan Are you looking for a database manager? Are you trying to figure which of the multitude of database managers you should consider? If you go with 'the flow', you'll select Ashton-Tate's dBASE III PLUS. BUT after reading the recent issues of INFO WORLD and PC MAGAZINE, you've got to ask; 'How in the world can anyone recommend selecting dBASE as a database manager , especially with all of the other database managers available today!'. It's easy! Not only is the 'language of dBASE' nearly a standard (and there are groups working on establishing it as a standard), but dBASE is still the undisputed 'king of the hill' of relational database managers. True, it is not the complete database manager, nor does it have as much power as a few of the competitors' DBMS, and it is definitely not the easiest program to learn, BUT ... there are few programs that are so entrenched in corporate and small business settings as dBASE III PLUS. There is support and there is support ... while Ashton-Tate doesn't go nearly as far as WordPerfect or WordStar in offering unlimited, toll free support (you're given 90 days after purchase and registration, and it's your 'dime'), Ashton-Tate can rely on a large family of users, user groups, electronic bulletin board conferences/help, books by MANY authors, and the most offered course of the common PC variety software in America. In other words, you can almost always find someone or a source of help without a lot of effort ... AND it's going to get easier! Because dBASE IV is here! The recently announced dBASE IV will fill in most of the weak points of dBASE III PLUS, but at a big price. And because of that, Ashton-Tate has also announced that dBASE III PLUS will be supported as long as there are customers. And that means that all of those vendors that market ADD-IN and ADD-ON products (such R & R RELATIONAL REPORT WRITER, Comtel's Instant Editor, and H.J.S. Research's DEBUG III for dBASE) WILL be here for awhile, making those great products even better AND making dBASE even more powerful. dBASE IV will have everything but the 'kitchen sink', but such a powerful software package will demand a lot of your computer (512 KB of free RAM, just to start). If you have the computer to run such a powerful package and need that much power, then dBASE IV will be for you. I emphasize WILL because it may be awhile before you see it (announced for July '88, but look for no earlier than September/October '88 as the trades have it). The best is yet to come ... dBASE IV ... AND ... dBASE III PLUS! What a way to merge to the future ... the best of both worlds! ====================================================== COOL OFF YOUR PC! By David Flushing, Saint Louis PCUG Reprinted from GS-BUG Newsletter, 10/87 Overheating is becoming a more common cause of microcomputer failures as older machines are expanded with accelerator boards, hard disk controllers, expanded memory and network cards. Overheating problems are some of the most difficult to diagnose and correct because they're frequently intermittent. As expansion boards are added to a PC, additional power is required from the power supply. Both the power supply itself and the expansion board generate additional heat. Although the 135-watt power supply in an AT can usually take the additional loads, the anemic 63.5-watt power supply in the IBM PC can rapidly become overloaded. A variety of power supplies are sold by third-party vendors to increase the power capacity of your PC, but most do not address the additional cooling requirements imposed by the cards that consume the additional power. Because of the microscopic tolerances involved in the manufacture of computer chips, small changes in temperature result in significant physical changes in dimension. This can be sufficient to cause a unpredictable temporary malfunction in the affected chip but not necessarily a complete failure. Each time the temperature changes, the internal components of your PC expand or contract; it's only a matter of time before stress and fatigue result in a malfunction. Reducing both the temperature and the range of the temperature change will significantly increase a microcomputer component's MTBF (mean time between failure). Accelerator boards are probably the largest consumers of power and generate the most heat. Sometimes the processor chip gets so hot you can not touch it. Not only are the type and number of boards a factor in heat generation, but their location relative to other heat-producing boards can make a difference as well. A good rule of thumb is to keep the biggest power consumers separated by less hungry boards and keep the largest consumers on the outside, where there is more room to radiate heat. Ribbon cables from ports and hard drives, which are snaked between and on top of boards, can restrict air flow and cause premature chip failures. Operating your PC in a warm room can also shorten its life. The key things to remember are to keep it cool, keep the range of temperature from maximum to minimum as small as possible, and keep the frequency of temperature changes to a minimum. ICING YOUR PC WITHOUT GETTING BURNED A variety of accessory products address the problem of how to keep a PC cool; they range from add-on fans that mount externally on the power supply exhaust vent to expensive specialty fans that mount in front of the card cage to blow additional air over the expansion boards. The ideal solution would be a product that increases the power capacity of your PC, maintains the OEM design power specifications and still increases cooling capacity. Turbo-Cool power supplies from PC Cooling Systems of Bonsall, California meet this requirement and then some. After I crammed my original IBM PC with two hard disks, EGA, 2MB of memory and a multifunction card, my replacement 135-watt power supply was nearing its maximum capacity and the whole PC ran very hot. The 150- and 200-watt Turbo-Cool power supplies not only provide additional cooling, but exceed IBM's specifications as well - something my made-someplace- in-the-Orient power supply didn't. The 150-watt model should be sufficient for most configurations. PC Cooling claims a temperature reduction of 25 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit by supplying over twice the airflow and a noise reduction of 50% compared to the IBM original. Installation was simple and straightforward. Despite having to remove two drives to create enough maneuvering room in my cramped PC chassis, the job was completed in less that ten minutes. Turbo-Cool comes complete with 4 power leads. The usual hard-to-find and overpriced Y required to power more than two devices is not needed. The twin 12-volt ball bearing fans mounted on a beveled-top chromed chassis look well-integrated and designed. Fit and finish are excellent. Since the noise from my fan never bothered me, I didn't measure any reduction in decibels. Temperature was my major concern: I had measured temperatures in excess of 133 degrees in the car cage after continuous operation for over 12 hours in an ambient temperature of 79 degrees. After installing Turbo-Cool, the maximum temperature recorded thus far is 98 degrees under the same conditions. If you're running "furnace emulation" boards in your PC, XT or AT, additional cooling capacity may be worth investigating. I highly recommend the Turbo-Cool line of power supplies; PC Cooling Systems has provided what IBM and clone makers should have supplied in the first place. The popular model TC-150 supplies 155 watts and 112% more air flow for only $149 each in quantities of less than six. If you need both additional power and cooling, this is a bargain. If you require additional cooling, the TC-150 is a quality product providing protection to extend the life of your investment. Contact: PC Cooling Systems 31510 Mountain Way Bonsall, CA. 92003 (619) 723-9513 ====================================================== TO PARK, or NOT TO PARK by Grey Staples, CDP Phoenix IBM-PC User Group Reprinted from the Phoenix IBM-PC User Group Newsletter. If you thought parking only had to do with cars, you're misinformed, because the hard disk with your PC also can have a parking problem. Let's lift up the hood and look inside those ten million, or so, bytes of rotating memory in the computer. The disk looks like a stack of records (platters) with a tone arm (read/write arm) for each record. The important consideration here is that the disk platters are constantly rotating, while the read/write heads are literally "flying" over the magnetic surface. But, what happens when the power is turned off? Those "flying" heads need to land somewhere. Where depends on what kind of hard disk unit you have. Some will sense the loss of power and mechanically lift the heads off the disk surface. Others can periodically retract the heads to a "save" area away from the data sectors. Still others will just leave the heads where they stopped (dropped). If your disk drive documentation doesn't explain this detail, ask your dealer, he or she might know. The "safe" area is variously called a "landing zone", "parking area", or "shipping site". It is usually located at a high cylinder number (concentric circles on the platter surface). So a ten megabyte disk with 306 cylinders would have its "landing zone" at maybe cylinder 320. DOS only knows about the first 306 cylinders anyway. That way, if the disk were to be bounced during shipping, the heads would not damage any data. Without the "parking" ability the read/write heads might act like a lathe during a power loss situation and score the disk surface (this is called a head crash). Additionally, the heads may be damaged as well. So how do we "park" the heads on the fixed disk? The XT and AT come with a Diagnostics disk which has a "shipping" option. Other manufacturers typically supply a utility program which will accomplish the same action. How do we know if the park was successful? You can't usually ask the disk to report its location. Just the process of running a program to ask would probably unpark the heads. I use a "seat of pants" approach. When you boot the computer, BIOS first locates the master boot sector at the low end of the disk. You would see the "disk in use" light glow for "longer than usual" indicating that the heads were being (slowly) moved from cylinder 306+ to cylinder 0. When to park the disk? It's like asking when to wear seat belts. At the very least use the "park" utility when you move the machine. After that it's a question of style. I prefer to park the disk just before the computer is turned off each day. Who knows what the cleaning people might be up to? I like a program that can be invoked from a BATCH file. For example, there is a program appropriately named PARK on the Bulletin Board. You could build a BATCH file which only contains a PARK and a PAUSE (to avoid returning to DOS). The trouble with using the IBM Diagnostics disk is that you have to boot the computer with their special operating system. The diagnostics program SHIPDISK will not run under normal DOS, since the XT and AT versions use unusual interrupt codes. I tried it on an XT (DOS 2.0). It parked the disk and then took a flying leap into an old program in memory and hung up the computer. Messy Parking! With this discussion of what, where, how and when to park the read/write heads on a hard disk, we address another area of how to preserve your computer data. So, when in doubt, play it safe and PARK your hard disk. ====================================================== ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ | | | COMPUTER SWAP MEET | | | | | | | | THE COMPUTER SWAP MEET AT MEADOW PARK ON | | | | JUNE 21st HAS BEEN | | | | CANCELLED -- CANCELLED -- CANCELLED | | | | | ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ CALENDAR June 2nd Computer Magazines - The Best and Worst. An overview by George Campbell (Rescheduled from March.) SCIENCE NORTH 215. -- 7:15 PM Swap meet during meeting. July 7th TIME & MONEY by Carl Schleicher (tentative) Please note the room change for the months of April, May and June. Disks will still be copied in Fisher Hall 292 during this time. ====================================================== $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ TREASURER'S REPORT John Rohde, treasurer, reported the following income & expenses for the month of May, 1988: Beginning Balance: $ 1206.47 Income: $ 449.30 General Expenses: $ - 91.71 ========= Ending Balance: $ 1564.06 Current Membership: 175 $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ NEW MEMBERS A warm welcome to the following new members. FIRSTNAME LASTNAME HOMEPHONE ============ ============= ========== Marlyn Bumpus 481-3020 Jud Frye 481-7561 Mark Harklerode 528-7863 Howard Hotchkiss 541-3883 David Knoch 481-4713 Jack Prince 481-1332 Mark & Mary Putnam 481-3631 Joseph Seebach 438-4105 Kenneth Stilts 528-0770 ====================================================== WHAT'S HAPPENING Last month I took the opportunity to demonstrate Qmodem-SST at the general meeting. Qmodem is one of the two most popular shareware telecommunications packages in the software industry... the other being ProComm ver 2.4.2. We started off the meeting with a lengthy discussion of Qmodem's installation program. By typing QINSTALL several installation menus appear. Although 95% of the defaults will be compatible with your system, it's still a good idea to cursor through all the different menus to see what is available. The file configuration menu is very important and must be modified for floppy or hard disk use. If the correct path or drive is not chosen, Qmodem may stop "dead in it's tracks" when downloading a file. Why? Because it doesn't know where to send the file. Help screens are present throughout the program; during installation and while running the package. The latest version, SST, is a bit cumbersome to run on a floppy system. Although all the essential files will fit on a single floppy disk you must choose which help file you wish to use: QINSTALL.HLP or QMODEM.HLP. Both files will not fit on a single floppy along with the other necessary files. Qmodem supports several protocols for uploading and downloading files, The most common is XMODEM and YMODEM. Both have error checking capabilities. We finished the meeting by logging on to the SLO BYTES BBS. I demonstrated how to send and receive messages, upload and download files, and set up a script file for auto log on. Unfortunately, probably due to the storm outside, we were unable to log on to GENIE, a commercial "electronic" service provided by General Electric Company. Other activities at the meeting included voting for a new vice president (Sam Powers elected) and a discussion on changing meetings to the first Sunday of each month starting in September. Next month our tireless president will conduct both the early and general meetings (doesn't he always)! For those of you having difficulty making certain programs work on your computer, come to the early meeting where George will demonstrate how to decipher all those weird files on an unfamiliar disk. Which files run, which require BASIC, what do I look for first! All these questions and more will be answered at the early meeting starting at 6:15pm. After a 15 minute break and a couple puff's on his trusty pipe, George will be back to present an overview of computer magazines and trade journals. Here you may learn which magazines are best for the new user, or the programmer. Perhaps your main interest is public domain software. See what's out there. Come to the next meeting. ====================================================== BITS & BYTES *** Our June and December meetings have been designated "Swap Meets". At our regular meeting you will have the opportunity to sell or trade your unwanted computer accessories or software. This will be in addition to our regular meeting agenda. *** The Lung Association is looking for a donation of an IBM PC or compatible computer. The donation is fully tax deductible. If can can help out, call John Rohde at 546-8381. *** Please, as a courtesy to others, copy no more than 10 disks from the library at one sitting. Remember these machines are for DISKCOPY or FORMAT only. DON'T copy individual files from multiple disks as this ties up a machine for too long. Also sign out for the disks you are copying. This will aid us in deciding which disks to purge from the library at a later date. *** We are still looking for a volunteer to be program chairman. This would involve writing hardware and software companies and setting up a program schedule for future meetings. *** At our June meeting we will vote on changing our meeting time and date to the 1st Sunday of each month at 1:30 pm (new user's) & 2:30 pm (general meeting). *** Last chance to sign up to win a copy of WordStar Professional ver 4. Drawing at the meeting. ====================================================== NEWS FROM OUR LIBRARY The following disks have been added to our library for the month of May. #260 HOMEWARE: An easy way to keep track of all your household items. Has areas for: 1. Household inventory, 2. auto maintenance, 3. meal scheduling, shopping list, 4. mixed drinks, 5. names & addresses, and 6. hobbies & record keeping. #261 GAMES: Includes Demolish, Craps, PC-Darts, EGA Bomb, Deceive, etc. Some require color/EGA monitors. #262 APPLICATION PROGRAMS: Jaxhost - use distant computer from your computer, 2 hard disk menuing programs, speech synthesizer, and Scuba diving calculator. #263 UTILITIES I: modify date & time of file, enhanced screen blanking, RAM resident manager, check memory, check floppies for fragmentation, GEM notepad accessory, check for duplicate files on hard disk, etc. #264 UTILITIES II: fast file listing, memory resident print spooler, change formats between wordprocessors, preselect COM1 or COM2, wait n seconds in batch file before continuing, test speed of your RAM, etc. #265 GRAPHICS: advanced ANSI drivers, create large letters on screen with BIGECHO, clip art for Ventura Publishing, multiple font banner maker. (some may require color graphics) ** Note: these disks will be available on our bulletin board approximately one week before the next meeting. UPDATES: #259 PC-RR will have documentation for all you rail- road buffs! DEMO DISKS: #68 FRAMEWORK II by Ashton-Tate ======================================================