______________________________________ ZMAGAZINE 82 December 4, 1987 ______________________________________ **FINAL REGULAR EDITION OF 1987** ______________________________________ Publisher/Editor: Ron Kovacs Circulation Assistant: Ken Kircher and Susan Perry ______________________________________ Here are a few notes about Zmagazine and the upcoming issues. This is our last regular edition of Zmag till 1988. However there will still be issues released on schedule until our return December 30th. Issues #83 and 84 will contain every article we published under the Technical Help and ZMAG Technique column header. Many readers have asked me to publish an issue with the upgrades, technical help, etc columns. Unlike last year when we took off a few weeks without an issue, I will release these issues at the following schedule. Issue #83 December 11, 1987 (Technical Help Issue #1) Issue #84 December 18, 1987 (Technical Help Issue #2) Issue #85 December 23, 1987 (Technical Help Issue #3) Issue #86 December 30, 1987 BBS Systems Special Edition #2) The special end of year issue with be published 12/30/87. Since there are many systems carrying Zmag and since I have not received an adequate number of system information, the due date has been extended. Please send your information in by December 28, 1987. Oasis SysOps carrying the Best of 1987 poll, please send me your results. I need the results for a Survey. Info from local areas around the country will help produce a survey of balance. During the time off, I will be sending a few user group editors a letter and would appreciate your response. Keep your eyes glued to your boxes in the weeks ahead. AND FINALLY.... I am in the process of restructuring a few things with both our publications. I am also considering changing the name of this magazine. Since I am not the original or only user of the ZMAG name, I cannot use the name for any future endeavor. If you have a suggestion for a new name, let me know and perhaps we can set-up a contest for best new magazine name. I wish everyone a HAPPY HOLIDAY season and great NEW YEAR. I will have a few more updates in the future issues. ______________________________________ Xx ZMAG UPDATE ______________________________________ Since the publication of the the Talk Box story, a few readers have been looking for more information. Here is the address of the author of the article. Please send them a letter and mention your reading the article in ZMagazine. Gene Strojny Robert Emerick 1066 A Loring Columbus, Ohio 43224 ______________________________________ Xx CONSOLE KEY PROGRAMMING ...From ATARI8 SIG*... ______________________________________ by Keith Joins This short file will give you the basic information needed to use the OPTION, SELECT, START, and HELP keys in your programs. The HELP key is of course only available on the XL/XE series and not on the older 400/800 machines. The first three of these keys are controlled by memory location 53279 ($D01F). Peeking this location will return various values depending on the key or combination of keys pressed according to the following table: KEY(S) VALUE RETURNED ================================ All three 0 OPTION+SELECT 1 OPTION+START 2 OPTION 3 SELECT+START 4 SELECT 5 START 6 No key pressed 7 To test this out RUN the following short basic program. 10 PRINT PEEK(53279) 20 GOTO 10 While this program is running press various combinations and see what value is printed to the screen. Notice that the value for a given key is returned only while that key is depressed. When you release the key, the value returned goes back to seven. This is because the Operating System updates this location every stage two VBI. You don't have to know what the VBI procedure does, just realize that you do not have to clear this location in order to use it again. When you are finished with this little program, just press the BREAK key to stop it. Another thing to understand is that pressing the consol keys will never cause the Operating System to generate an interrupt as happens when you press a regular key. You would have to create and install your own interrupt to do this. A possible application for this would be to use these keys to toggle output between the screen and the printer. This could be done as part of the VBI routine or by using the software timers at memory locations 536 to 558. Again this information is not needed to use these keys in your programs. Now a short example of the use of these keys in a Basic program: 100 OPTION=3:SELECT=5:START=6 110 PRINT -PRESS START TO BEGIN- 120 PRINT -PRESS SELECT TO RERUN- 130 PRINT -PRESS OPTION TO GOTO DOS- 140 CHOICE=PEEK(53279) 150 IF CHOICE=START THEN GOTO 200 160 IF CHOICE=SELECT THEN RUN 170 IF CHOICE=OPTION THEN DOS 180 GOTO 140 200 Your program Line 180 is needed to in order to force the program to repeat the choice selection process until a consol key is pressed. Any other key press is ignored except that if you sould press another key it will be echoed to the screen when a consol key is finally pressed. To prevent this you could add the following: 175 POKE 764,255 This will clear the register that the keyboard handler gets it data from and prevent the errant key stroke from being echoed to the screen Memory location 732 ($2DC), a spare byte in the 400/800 series, is used in the XL/XE series to store the status of the HELP key. A PEEK(732) will return the following values: KEY COMBINATION VALUE =================================== HELP alone 17 HELP+SHIFT 81 HELP+CONTROL 145 The default value of this register is zero. Unlike the consol key register, this one will retain the value stored in it until the user clears it with a POKE 732,0. The operating system pretty much ignores this location except when directed to it under program control. Again no interrupt is generated by this key except a user written one. The above information should give you enough to use these keys in you own programs. Experiment with their use and soon they will be second nature to you. It is the best way to learn. If you have any further questions, feel free to ask. Keith Joins 72347,75 ______________________________________ Xx GARBAGE ON THE LINE ...From ST-Report #13... ______________________________________ by Calamity Jane -=-CJ-=- ...Life On The Frontier... or --Roughing-It-Easy-- I am Calamity Jane, OpSys of The Prairie Chip BBS in Wyoming. All of that is just a coincidence... really!! Do you think I planned that? That my life is THAT organized... hardly. Ever heard of Wyoming (Wi-O-ming)?? Where the sidewalks end and the West begins and the trail cuts across the lonely prairie. The fierce hositlities of the Araphoe, Sioux, Shoshone, Cheyenne, and some Ute, have kept our population down, but yes, real people do live here in our many thousands of acres of rolling plains. And we -DO- own computers... This article has been inspired by my BBS friends in New York City. I had a message very typical... -So YOU are the one who lives in Wyoming!- very funny... I seem to get a 'hard-time' for being from Wyoming where ever I go... and I have come up with several defense mechanisms... I proceeded to hint on how I run my BBS in such a remote frontier without the usual luxuries of electricity. -How do you read? or watch TV?- I was asked. I mentioned I don't watch much TV, and read by the glow of the monitor. They were intriged... Thus the reason for this article. There is such a combination of the old ways and the new in my life, and they are combined in such a way that makes my life quite tolerable, _pure and I don't have millions of people around me. Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam... Yes, the millions of buffalo are gone, but there are a few, and I can count on a small STampede on the average of every couple of weeks. They do, however, continually knock the pole over and pound the open wire into the ground in a cloud of duST. No optic fiber here. I live in a log cabin. The dictionary calls it a 'small house... rudely constructed. Nothin' rude here, we're friendly folk. It has all the comforts of home. I purify my own water, I use an outhouse, I cook on a woodstove. It supplies warmth and gives me something to constantly be doing. Cutting the trees, chopping the wood, hauling the wood, loading the stove, emptying the stove... you get my idea. I burned off my eyebrows and eyelashes once when I poured a dab of kerosene on what I THOUGHT was a dead fire. However, they grew back. I have a beautiful brand-new washing machine that never needs repair. It's a stick. The motion of the water in combination with soap carries the dirt away. I don't have to listen to the hounding of my clothes either. I have a rare refrigerator that runs on kerosene, few exist though. I have learned to live without the need for everything electric. -Less Power to You !- I not only know how many Desk Accessories you can have per disk, or to forget extended format, but that a kerosene lantern with a 1- wick will burn apx. 45 hours on 1 quart of kerosene at the rate of 5 hours each day <12 gal. a year>. I use tallow rather than wax candles as they burn longer, are brighter, and fairly smoke free. I get 48 hours out of a 1- by 9-. They are also free, if you make them. I do not use Coleman lanterns as they hiss, clank & blind me, just like civilization. As you can see, electricity is the least of my concerns. Till I bought the computers. Then it became a major concern. But the power lines just ain't reached way-out-here yet !! The wind does blow, mighty hard too; thus the source of power that keeps me in CHAT. I am ala natural, on the great treeless stretches, which roll away as far as the eye can see. The wind-generator, heck I still call it the windmill, is a noisy, clanky, cus and if the wind doesn't blow (hah!) the batteries won't charge. My first concern is the wind will blow too hard and blow it up. How do I surge protect THAT ?? Still it does keep me up and running and in enough power to keep The Chip waiting for you at 2400 bps. I have considered many ways to gain access to the power to run my computers. I am considering and finding out about high output silicon solar cells and other such solar devices, but right now I'll stick with the good ol wind, and the slow-revving, big fly wheel, last forever, donkey engine. The storage of this energy is a constant pain. It is known as Wind Generator System Storage Problems. The batteries are still a bit of a black art even in this high tech age. The batteries are the common lead acid type used in cars and will last several years. About the only thing I must do to them is check them daily and feed them rain water if needed. I got tired of traveling 13.2 miles to the nearest neighboor to 'chat', so I talked long and hard... Smooth taklin' Joe finally ambled into town to see if they had any more of -those damn ST machines-. Now we chat in comfort without the worry of seeing the elephant, Indian attacks, fierce storms or snakes. I never know when I will hear the war cry and a cloud of arrows. molossi tellim piduuwi. It can be on the average of once a week. The phone lines require regular maintainence between the Indians and the buffalo. The Indians love the colored glass from the insulators, so I build boxes to cover them, & paint owls on them . Quite often I must pour a bucket of water on the ground rod, this makes for a better connection... you know, less line noise. It's hell running a 24 hour BBS on an eight member party line. It ain't too easy on them either!! Eight of the beST callers any SysOp could want. I can still see the ruts on the land from the conestoga wagon's. There is something about the wide open spaces, spacious skies and more than 50 miles to anything !! Try that, in NYC, Detroit, or D.C. Winter is a challenge in itself, something coming on here quite rapidly to stay. The geese are flying south, the beaver lodges have more logs in them, the squirrels tails are bushier than usual, the bark on the trees is thicker, animals gathering their food supply early, and FoReM SysOps all over are getting their DOORS up and secured. Must gonna be a long hard winter. I can finally learn EMACS. I must get to the wood supply... It's quiet, keeps me realistic about being a wood hog, keeps my canoe arm in shape, but can be someone hard to start in the cold weather...hahaha. Because things tend to cool off in the cabin at night, I have specially built insulated covers for the equipment and the disks... Got tired of icicles forming on the SC1224. The Inside-Out Room for the BBS was built in a different way as to prevent such a drastic change in temperature. Completely climate-controled. Solar-heated, as wood ash is hell on computer equipment !! I'll bet The Chip is one of the most comfortable BBSs in the land. Well... the night is late, the fire is low, time to hit the hay . The cat wants out and the wolf wants in. Brave the hardships and dangers of the unknown wilderness. Call The Prairie Chip BBS. -Where Men are Men and Women are.....- 3/12/2400 bps, 30-45 mph wind, 307-635-0148. ST FoReM 2.0... Wrap your feet around your power supply, and stay warm beside your modem. You may not come back alive!! --Happy Trails-- Ifins you want... permission granted to reprint... -=-CJ-=- ______________________________________ Xx FCC LETTER ______________________________________ The following is a copy of a letter provided courtesy of Representative Jim Slattery (D-Kansas). His office has granted permission for this to be reproduced and circulated. U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Finance Washington, D.C. 20515 October 30, 1987 The Honorable Dennis R. Patrick, Chairman Federal Communications Commission 1919 M Street, N. W. Washington, D.C. 20554 Dear Chairman Patrick: We are writing with regard to the Federal Communications Commissions's (FCC) plan, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking No. 87-215, to expand the existing access charge to include enhanced service providers (ESPs). After reviewing the record of the recent Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Finance hearing and many of the comments filed with the Commission, we oppose the imposition of an access charge on ESPs for the following reasons. First, the dramatic increase in cost, up to 450%, would stifle development of this still emerging industry and adversely affect the U.S. economy. Residential and non-profit users would be especially hard hit by this proposal. University officials, health professionals, and librarians, among others, have all stated that the increase in costs would significantly impair their access to educational, health, and other on line data bases. This proposal would significantly postpone widespread use of this exciting technology. Second, the access charge will be difficult or impossible to implement at this time. Local exchange carriers indicate the mix of intra- and inter-state data traffic will impede the correct imposition and measurement of the access charge on ESPs. Third, ESPs are unique users of the network. The FCC recognized this in its Computer III ruling by holding that ESPs are not to be regulated as common carriers. Further, the NPRM fails to recognize that ESPs only make use of the less expensive line side of the network. Fourth, the expansion of access charges to include ESPs is contrary [to] U.S. trade interests. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), the Reagan administration's communications policy arm, recognizes this in its filing in opposition to the FCC proposal. NTIA contends that this FCC proposal would send out a signal contrary to its policy urging foreign governments to open their information services markets to foreign providers. Fifth, the Commission has yet to determine the additional contribution the access charge would make to the non-traffic sensitive pool. Regardless, the Commission has said that any funds collected would not be used to reduce local phone rates or subscriber line charges. Further, many contend it will result in ESP bypass. It is clear, at the time, that the FCC access charge proposal is inappropriate. It could destroy growth in a vital industry, force non-profit users out of the market, hurt U.S. trade relations, and would be virtually impossible to implement. We urge the Commission not to expand access charges to include ESPs. Sincerely, /s/ Edward J. Markey Al Swift Mike Synar Billy Tauzin Jim Slattery John Bryant Ralph M. Hill Dennis E. Eckart Bill Richardson Rick Boucher Jim Cooper Mickey Leland Cardiss Collins cc: Commissioner Mimi Weyforth Dawson Commissioner James H. Quello Commissioner Patricia Diaz Dennis ______________________________________ ZMAGAZINE 82 December 4, 1987 (c)1987 Syndicate Services/Rovac ______________________________________