October 1988 MCU Magazine

GENERAL INFORMATION

MCUC

This newsletter is published monthly for distribution to members of the Memphis Commodore Users Club. It is in no way connected with the Commodore Business Machine Ltd. or Commodore Inc. and Commodore products (CBM, PET, C64, C128, VIC20, Amiga) are registered trademarks of Commodore Inc. The MCUC is a nonprofit organization whose purpose is the free exchange of information & knowledge about the use of Commodore microcomputer systems. Memberships are open to anyone; ownership of a computer is not required. Monthly meetings are open to the public & visitors are welcome.

Dues are broken down into two categories. Membership dues may be paid quarterly (3 month) at $6.00 or annually at $20.00. All memberships are Family Memberships. Dues are nonrefundable.

Contribution to the MCUC magazine may be in any wordprocessor, preferably saved as a sequential file. You may submit articles on disk, or a hardcopy, or upload your article to the Memphis Commodore Users Club BBS (366-4676).

The editor reserves the right to reject material submitted relating to illegal services, products or unethical practices. All material submitted becomes the property of MCUC. The 15th of each month is the DEADLINE FOR ARTICLES.

ADVERTISING RATES

All ads must be in by the 15th
CIRCULATION: 300 copies

MEETINGS

General Membership Meeting - First Tuesday of each month, 7:00 PM in Fulton Auditorium, State Technical Institution.

Board of Director's Meeting - Second Thursday after General Meeting. 7:30 PM State Tech in the Cafeteria.

CP/M Sig Classes - 2rd Monday of each month, call Ron Montgomery for time and place 767-0737

MS/DOS Sig - Currently meeting with the CP/M sig

FOG meeting - 4th Tuesday of each month, call Bob Earnheart for time and place. 377-6416

Beginner's Class - First Wednesday at the Raleigh Library at 7:00 PM

128 Sig - Currently meeting with the CP/M Sig

OFFICERS

SECRETARY'S NOTES

The official board of MCUC met at State Tech cafeteria 9/8/88. The meeting was called to order at 7:45 PM by Jim Fox, president. Those present were: Jim Fox President, Ron Montgomery Vice-Pres., Cheryn Nunn Newsletter Editor, Bob Nunn Sysop, Richard Coffman Secretary.

The board discussed bad program disks that have been sold. Steps are being taken to remedy this problem.

Club picnic plans were finalized.

Equipment needs for the various offices was discussed. The needs for newseditor, secretary, librarian, sysop, etc. Not having one's own equipment to fulfill the needs of an office should not stand in the way of a person filling an officers position in the club.

The club officers are looking ahead at the needs of the club and the way home computers may be going. Your ideas are welcome. Talk to any officer.

Demos for October Big Ed--An easy, to use word processor. Pro 128 Term-- terminal program for the 128.

Meeting adjourned at 9:20 PM.

Respectively submitted,

Richard Coffman, Secretary

TREASURER'S REPORT

GARY THURMAN
TREASURER

[Photo: Gary Thurman and Dick Coffman in their usual place at a meeting.]

[Photo: Ron Montgomery MC's September meeting.]

EDITOR'S DESK

We've got a lot of great things coming up for MCUC. October 8 and 9, MCUC will host a table at the Annual Ham Feet at Cook Convention Center. Hours are 9 - 4 Saturday, 9 - 3 Sunday. We will be distributing information about the club, selling some disks and meeting a lot of nice people. If you are interested in helping us out for a couple of hours, let one of the officers know.

One of the October Demos at the Gen. Meeting will be Big Ed, given by yours truly. You'll be able to see the actual word processor used to produce our newsletter.

I would like to encourage you to be thinking now of serving in an office in the upcoming year. Elections will be in January again and a smooth change of leadership will happen if we have enough people willing to serve. MCUC had some rough times this year due to the difficulty in transition between officers. Let's avoid that happening again by showing our support. Besides, especially for those who are relatively "young" and still mobile in the job market, being a leader in a voluntary organization looks good on a RESUME! And it's fun! (Alright, it IS a little hard work, too!)

Hope you enjoy this issue. I've included some pictures taken at the September meeting. For those who can't make it to the meetings, you'll be able to see a little of what happens.

OCTOBER DEMO'S

The Demo's for the October Meeting will be word processing using Big Ed by Cheryn Nunn and GEOPUBLISH, a desktop publishing program in the GEOS environment by Frank Robinson.

LIBRARIAN'S SHELF

Well, if you're trying to avoid this crazy mixed-up weather, try checking out this month's disks... No details here, but exciting programs are guaranteed for all of you who make it to the meeting. On another note, if any of you are making submissions to the library via the bulletin board, PLEASE leave me an E-Mail letting me know what it is. My user number on the BBS is #4.

Now, I'd like to take a little time to tell you what new hardware has been acquired for the library. The Duplikator from Datel Technologies is a combination of a 256K RAM cartridge and an extra cable from the user port into the internals of the disk drive...With the special program resident in ROM, a 1541 can copy a disk in 8 seconds!!!! It's pretty amazing. So far the new hardware has performed flawlessly and seems to be increasing the integrity of our diskettes.

Well, that's about it from me for now, be on the lookout for some new twists from our P/D library.

...*Gary*... (Sparks)

[Photo: Gary Sparks shows how Archive works at the September meeting as Hugh Garner and Bob Nunn listen in.]

Commodore Colt: A Review

by Gary Sparks

For those of you who may be looking at an IBM compatible machine. I thought I'd write a little blurb about what Commodore's latest PC Compatible has in the way of features. With 640K RAM, 2 360K floppies, BUILT-IN clock & calendar, BUILT-IN Hercules, CGA, & MDA Graphics Compatible Card, BUILT-IN printer & mouse ports, and (as if you couldn't ask for more) a BUILT-IN hard disk interface! The processor is an 8088-1, running at 4.77 Mhz and 7.16 Mhz, which is on-board as well as software selectable.

In the way of compatibility. I have yet to find either a commercial or p/d program that wouldn't run on my Colt. The hard disk interface mentioned above is for a 3 1/2" drive.

Software included in the package is MS-DOS Version 3.2 and GW-BASIC. The manuals are well-written and help in the transition from Commodore DOS to MS- DOS. All in all. I love using my Colt and I feel that it is the best buy for a PC compatible. I have spoken to others, both owners of Colts and other clones, and they seem to agree that it's the most for your money.

If you are interested in learning more about the Colt, as well as other PC Compatible machines. then I suggest that you attend the MS-DOS Sig meeting. Check the newsletter for specifics as to time and place.

...*Gary*...

THE EDUCATIONAL CORNER

Just a short word on the educational area of the club. Remember that we have plenty of tapes, books, and whatever to further your computer interest. All you have to do is check it out and play with it. We also have some 300 baud modems, a 64 CPM cartridge and lots more. Come on by and take a look. Remember, we also have beginner classes before the main meeting and also the following night. Check club calendar for times and places. Well I guess that's about it. See you at the main meeting.

BOB

[Photo: Bob Earnheart speaks about the information available from MCUC and the upcoming SIG meetings.]

1581 REVIEW

Well yes there have been reviews before and likely will be after. I hope however that having one online for 24 hours a day running a BBS gives me a bit more insight than say the casual user.

I read a review recently in another magazine on the Super Snapshot V3 saying how disappointed the guy was in it and couldn't figure out why anyone would give it a good review. Well let me tell you. I read all that I could about the cartridge before I bought it, and you know what? The companies ad told exactly what it did and didn't say a whole lot about what it wouldn't do. When I got the cartridge sure enough it did what they said and a couple of more that they didn't say. IT OF COURSE DIDN'T TURN MY 64 INTO A CRAY SUPERCOMPUTER. The 1581 isn't a hard drive, but it is an affordable alternative that holds roughly 4 & 3/4's 1541 disks. The disks are low cost (around $1 each in lots of 10 at Service for SSDD) Yes, you can use single sided disks even though the drive uses both sides. Don't let anyone tell you that you can't, that's horsepuckey.

I do find that it has some problems on either side on some disks that are hard to turn. I throw them at the fireplace and if they don't break they will usually format OK if they are a bit stiff.

The real problem with the 81' though is that all the good copiers won't support it. I understand that the 128 Cannon and the later version of Fast Hackem will support it in 128 mode. Not much luck for us 64 owners. The copy programs that come with it all work if you are patient enough to sit there through 20 swaps for a whole disk copy (64) or take an hour with no menu or other functions with the file copier. That is why I bought the Super Snapshot V3. It has a whole disk copier for the 81 and the fastest file copier I have ever used. It works with the 41 and the 81. Converting my library over became a breeze, UNTIL I decided to run the BBS on the 81. You see the board uses relative files for user files. The Snapshot copier won't even show relative files in the menu. I then tried an old copier written for the SFD1001 and presto! no problem. Since I added Jiffy Dos, it's even faster using the old SFD program. I use it to make all my backups. Again it's not much better than the copier that came with the drive but it is some. I'm hopeful that the software developers will take care of this problem soon. After all the Snapshot is just a written routine in ROM and it works fine.

You might wonder about my opinions on partitioning. Well I figured out how, no thanks to the user's guide. What I want to know is, Why you would want to? I see no benefit other than being able to get all your print shop graphics or sid files on one disk. Disks are cheap, my time ain't and I don't need the frustration of spending time opening partitions just to see what is on the disk. I'll settle for some blocks free with a disk full error anytime and just put the balance on another disk.

You want to know more about the drive, well here are the specs:

It comes with a separate power supply and is small.

Other negatives - with the copier problem you cannot put protected software on the disk. Some early versions had ROM BUGS, but Jiffy Roms fix it.

Good things - You can put big ed and a full year's worth of newsletter files on one disk. Imagine the new jobs with all your fonts and work files on one disk. It is relatively inexpensive. (156.00 through CESS??) The disks fit in your pocket and make dandy coasters. It's FAST!!!! I can only imagine burst mode.

Would I buy another? In a heartbeat! I'm trying to get one on a deal now! Some people don't appreciate a good thing when it's there in front of them and as with most Commodore Products, you've got to work a bit to get them to work for you. Good used price? Anything around $125 but watch for the old roms unless you have Jiffy plans.

It may not be right for you. You need to consider how much copying you do and how much of your work is space intensive. You may have to invest a bit more in a copier. I highly suggest that you read up and never assume any product will do anything. Us marketing types always list all the benefits and NEVER list the negatives.

Bob Nunn
81 and Snapshot
Fan. Long live
Jiffy Dos!!!!!

TIPS

Ribbon Renew - Ribbon reinking can be a money saving proposition if you use the correct ink. Some stamp pad inks contain abrasive material that will prematurely wear our your print head. The old WD-40 on the ribbon trick is supposed to work by moving the ink around that wasn't used, but is also guaranteed to clog up your printer head. I buy ribbons for my printer mail order from MEI at 87 cents each in 6 lots and don't worry about either.

CLUB BBS NOTES

MCUC BBS REPORT

There are now 140 members in the BBS of which about 50 are guests of the club. The club bbs is a good way for us to reach new people with an interest in using their computer and we've added more than a few new members to the club from our BBS advertising. As a paying member of the BBS I hope that you are taking advantage of this opportunity to communicate, to educate, and to get new and useful software for your own personal use. I also hope that you feel that we should continue to invite guests on our BBS. I think that as a member you should invite people to log on and visit with us.

If you made the club picnic I know that you enjoyed yourself. I think that any opportunity to visit with nice folk that have many things in common with you, that an automatic good time is insured. We had around 30 people show up, but we planned for a few more. I regret that the weather wasn't nicer but we didn't get rained on and it was cooler than it might of been if we hadn't had the rain. I hope you can make the next one. I guess our Annual Christmas Party is our next big event, although MCUC is participating in the HAMFEST. It's at Cook Convention Center this year so the facilities will be much nicer. I hope you'll come out and visit or perhaps volunteer to spend a couple of hours recruiting new members and selling our PD software and Disks. Look for the flyer inside this issue for more details.

Bob Nunn

[Photo: Bob Nunn talks while demonstrating MultiTerm V6.0 at September's meeting. Hugh Garner and John Blackmer pay close attention.]

MULTITERM REVISITED

We had a terrific response to the article and the demo on this term. I left out a couple of things that other users have pointed out and wanted to share these with you. These are edited from both the Hard Parts and Soft Stuff subs from the MCUC BBS; hosted by Bob Earnheart and Warren Sauer respectively.

  From: SPARKY (#80)
  Date: TUES., 9/6 11:06 pm
  Subj: rotary dial

A question came up at the MCUC meeting
tonight concerning autodialing a
1670 modem using Multiterm V6.0 and
a rotary dial phone. Multiterm V6.0
and some other terminal prgs, were
not designed to dial rotary. However,
since the 1670 is pseudo Hayes
compatable you should be able to
put wdp before your BBS phone numbers
and be able to use rotary dial systems
wdp are the Hayes commands for w-wait
for second dial tone, d-dial, p-pulse.
So your numbers should look something
like this wdp1234567. This should
work with any Hayes compatible modem
and terminal program that doesn't
support rotary dialing.
                Sparky.........

  From: MARGARET FLAKE (#68)
  Date: MON., 8/29 10:14 am
  Subj: Multiterm v6.0

  I am having a problem with putting
anything in my buffer using
Multiterm v6.0 in graphics mode.
Have tried all commands I can think
of and still can't find the right
one. What's the secret?

  From: SPARKY (#80)
  Date: MON., 8/29 8:51 pm
  Subj: Multiterm 6.0

I use MT V6.0 also. The only way
I've found to use the buffer is to
change to ascii terminal mode, open
the buffer and download, then close
the buffer and change back to graphic
terminal mode. Hope this helps.	
                 Sparky........

  From: BOB NUNN
  Date: WED., 9/14 12:24 am
  Subj: Multi Term

I haven't seen any program that have
a graphics buffer. I would be inter-
ested in experimenting a bit with
it, if someone knows of one that won't
trash the file. Yes you do have to
reset back to graphics after a down-
load session and sometimes you have
to toggle graphics off at the start
or it puts in all caps and won't see
the filename. If you get the filename
wrong it will give you an incorrect
error message of insufficient credits.
Alas no free perfect programs. NO
perfect pay-for either. Maybe some
day. Hope this helps!

  From: MARGARET FLAKE (#68)
  Date: WED., 9/14 11:14 am
  Subj: Touch Term

Bob-
  Touch term has a graphics buffer.
 I'm trying to work with it now.
I do like the commands on Multiterm
better --they are not as complicated
to me but that may be because I got
used to Multi Term and there's always
a little adjustment period for me
when I start using a different term
program.

  From: BLUE MAX (#90)
  Date: SUN., 9/18 2:59 am
  Subj: In agreement

Yes it does seem to take a period
of time to get used to a new program.
I have been trying multiterm instead
of touchterm(which I am used to)mainly
because of the commands to do things.
The main reason I am trying out Multi-
term is the bigger buffer.

            Blue Max

Touchterm is a good program and does a lot of good things but it is difficult to use and has one serious bug in that it starts sending when in terminal mode for no reason. It also is very difficult to use. You really have to weigh the pro's and con's of any term. Probably the very best term for the Commodore is Bob's Term Pro. It lacks color & graphics and is fairly sophisticated. I would like for someone to do a good review on Bob's Term if we have any fans out there. See, anyone can learn something new from our BBS sub section. I hope many of you will log on and JOIN IN!

Bob Nunn - Sysop
(901)-366-4676

[Photo: This is the current home of the MCUC BBS. It resides in the home of Bob & Cheryn Nunn.]

STILL MORE TIPS

Damp Disk Recovery - Chuck Hawks, an old time MCUC Member, wrote up an article about 2 years ago on how to salvage a disk that's had milk, coffee, tea, twinkie center, or any similar garbage spilled on it. That article has been around the world a couples times now. I saw it reprinted in a Hawaiian User's Group Newsletter with credits to a user group in Idaho with Chuck's name still on it. Here's my version:

Take the soiled disk and carefully cut out one end of it. If you can get a pair of fingernail scissors or exacto knife in the corner and work across the fold you'll get it. Now take the soiled disk out handling it by the center hole, being careful not to add fingerprints to the rest of the mess. Rinse it in lukewarm water with a bit of dish soap if needed. Rinse in clear cool water. Let dry on a clean surface. Once dry slide the disk in a disk cleaner jacket or sacrifice another disk for its clean iacket. Now copy the disk. If you've been careful and you hold your mouth right you should be able to recover the files. Thanks Chuck for that classic.

Bob Nunn

TIPS

Drive Head Cleaning - I hardly ever clean the heads on my drives and I challenge anyone to find drives with heavier use than a BBS. If I do have loading problems I stick in the old commercial cleaning disk with a bit of good grade of isopropyl alcohol. I then run this routine:

10 OPEN 15,8,18
20 FOR I=1 to 500
30 :PRINT#15,"I0"
40 NEXT

If that doesn't work, I take it to the repair shop and get all the garbage cleaned out from having the fans blow in them.

Drive Reset - not ever having looked at the Drive Manual, when I needed to reset a drive I just turned it off then on. If you want to do it the other way, then just type in this simple routine direct:

OPEN 15,8,15
PRINT#15,"UJ"
CLOSE 15

If you have Jiffy Dos or a wedge installed then just type: @UJ:

NOT A THERMAL PRINTER! - some good reasons not to buy one of these even at that unbelievable low price. High long term cost buying that expensive thermal paper and deterioration of the print quality after a year or so.

Okimate Color Deal - I would like to talk to one person who is happy with their purchase. If I did he would be a programmer as there is little support for the color printer. I understand that GEOS has a printer file now but I've yet to see a good printout. Save your bucks on this one and buy a Star and some colored pencils.

Commodore 802 Printer - another chump bargain. They aren't supported by most programs such as Printehop or Doodle.

Video Title Screens for Free (or almost free) Use the public domain program Screen Gem to do your title, then plug your video output plug into your VCR video inputs and just record.

MORE TIPS

Even More Big Tips

Buckle up - You may want to consider installing a seat belt on your chair. This prevents you falling off it after typing in one of those programs out of a magazine that actually works.

Datasette Modification - if you are still using the Datasette to save and load programs you may want to consider this suggestion. After turning off the power, carefully unhook all cords. Then pick up the unit and take it into the kitchen. There usually you will find a suitable size garbage container in which you can place it. Now drive to the nearest discount store and buy a disk drive. FINALLY A SOLUTION TO ALL THOSE DATASETTE PROBLEMS.

Fuzzy TV Fixup - After installing all those Radio Shack cash eating gizmo's and you still have screen glitches, you may want to try this final fix. The trouble may be that you are receiving rf directly to your brain. Some individuals are more sensitive than others and it seems if you have more than one type of metal filling you may be more sensitive than most. Try lining your baseball hat with aluminum foil. If this clears up the screen for you then we know that you definitely will be one in the suspected group.

HOW TO TEACH A NEW DOG OLD TRICKS

A Quick Look at the FOR statement in Basic

Well, many of you may be aspiring BASIC programmers and want to know something about each command, and don't want to try to translate the manual that came with your computer into understandable English. So, here's a brief description of what this powerful statement does.

The FOR statement is used when you want to do a certain something, or a bunch of somethings, a definite number of times. Here's the format for use of the statement:

FOR <var>=<start> TO <end> STEP<inc>
  .
  . ( Program statements to be   .   repeated here )
  .
NEXT <var>

where

  <var> = loop control variable
<start> = start value for loop
          (either a number or a
           variable)
  <end> = end value for loop
          (also either a number or
           variable)
  <inc> = increment for loop, if
          STEP is omitted then a
          default of 1. <inc> can
          be a positive number for
          an incremental loop or
          negative for a decremental
          loop.

Now that we know the syntax, what exactly does it do?

Well, let's say that we want to print out the squares of the numbers I through 5. Here's a FOR-NEXT loop that would do the trick:

10 FOR I=1 TO 5
20 PRINT I,I↑2
30 NEXT I

Here's what the output would look like:

1        1
2        4
3        9
4        16
5        25

The loop body (namely the PRINT statement) would be executed five times. Now, if we wanted to print them from 5 to 1, here's how we would modify the program:

10 FOR I=5 TO 1 STEP -1
20 PRINT I,I↑2
30 NEXT I

This would print the output above in reverse order.

A common use of the FOR statement is to create a pause in a program. To pause, you simply do nothing. So, here's a corresponding FOR-NEXT loop that does nothing but pause:

10 FOR X=1 TO 1000:NEXT X

This tells the computer to count up to 1000, giving a little pause (a couple of seconds).

Well, that's about it for this month, I guess we'll teach you how to roll over and beg next month.

...*Gary*...

THUNDER STORMS AND LIGHTNING

Thunder can't hurt your computer system, but lightning can make a plastic puddle of your computer's chips.

Recommendation: unplug your system from the wall outlet when a thunder boomer is near, not just overhead!!

TIPS

by Bob Nunn

Traveling Disk Drive - when you move your disk drive any further than across the desk you need to always put in the cardboard protector to keep the head from slamming around. I've seen supposedly knowledgable people not even bother to put an old disk in (better that nothing) when moving their drives cross country. I think some repairmen encourage people not to use them. Good for alignment business, you know.

Big Sound/Little Computer - if you are a sid fan then you find a serious improvement by hooking up an inexpensive boom box. The little output plug, that comes off the serial monitor output, that is labeled audio, may be put directly in the boom box output. This is also a way to get sound on a monitor that doesn't have an audio output.

Typewriter 64 - This is a simple program to make your computer and printer act like a typewriter. To quit enter ←.

10 OPEN 4,4
20 GET A$:IF A$="" THEN 20
30 IF A$="←"THEN 70
40 PRINT#4,A$;
50 PRINT A$;
60 GOTO 20
70 CLOSE 4
80 END

Device List - This is a list of the device numbers used on your Commodore:

0 - keyboard
1 - cassette drive
2 - user port (modem or 232 port)
3 - screen
4 - printer
5 - printer alternate
6 - plotter
7 - photon torpedoes (secret)
8 - disk drive
9 to 18 - additional drives

Overheating Clues - Smoke curling up out of your computer or disk drive is a definite hint. Bizzare characters appearing on your screen after you've had the computer on for a while. If you stick the power supply in the freezer and it takes longer the next time, order a new one. If your computer locks up and works ok after you allow it to cool a few minutes, heat is the culprit. Drives get flakey when loading. They work ok for a while and when they get good and warm they start the 'file not found' routine which goes away after you shut down for a bit.

Cooling Tips - put your power supply on an overturned aluminum pan. If you are up 24 hours (BBS'S) then put a fan blowing across them also. Place a fan blowing across the computer and the drive. This also cools off the operator in the processor. Some people put fans blowing into their drives, which is fine in my book since I pay someone to clean them. If you do your own cleaning then stick to the fan blowing across the drives. Buy tall rubber feet for your computer, drives and modem. I used to use Radio Shack but Target and other discounters carry this in the hardware section near the casters for much less. Pencils or dowels fit in the screw holes of the drive and are great to elevate them to any height you choose. Just cut 4 equal lengths and poke them in.

Easier on Your Eyes - Try poking these two in when you first get started or add a couple of lines at the front of your program.

POKE 53280,0:POKE 53281,0

Then just hit the CTRL key and a color number. This will give you a black screen with a black border and the cursor of your choice. The black background limits the amount of light attacking your senses and takes the strain out of long term sessions.

Clean & Cool - try taking one of those clean air machines (Norelco) and setting it directly above the vents of your 1541. This may look silly but the filter will clean the air as it forces it through the drive. I use these on my power supplies and it also keeps the lint down on my socks.

Save@ Replacement - the infamous save and replace command (SAVE "@0:NAME",8) is useful when you are developing a program. Because of the bug that occasionally rears its ugly head to gobble up all that hard work you really don't want to use it. I use this simple little routine and I enter it first thing:

3000 OPEN 15,8,15,"SO:name":CLOSE 15:SAVE"0:name",8

I finish up my changes and then iust type run3000.

Relative File Tips - many of you may not know that most fast type file copiers will not copy a relative file sucessfully. I use DFC or any Butterfield type copier to copy those files successfully. ONE MAJOR BUG in relative files is that using a record length of 42 or 63 will cause a syntax error.

Joy Sub - If you're in a situation where you have no joysticks this is a keyboard substitute. It won't replace your trusty Wico but it'll work in a pinch.

BIG TIPS

Printer NOIZZZE Solutions - printer noise is akin to dental equipment as it makes most peoples teeth hurt when they hear it. I am no different and with a wife who does a club newsletter, I live with it quite a bit or should I say I used to. Oh we tried the styro chest trick and it just amplified it. I finally came up with an almost perfect solution. NOTICE I said almost perfect. I went to Radio Shack. I guess we had money to burn, and bought two din plugs and some cable. Two soldering burns later I had a 30 ft. printer extension that went through the wall to the garage. We had to sit the printer on top of the covered cat pan since we had no table. Well we have no noise now, and the only problem we have now is the cat seems constipated. Well I guess you can't have everything.

TIPS

EVEN MORE BIG TIPS

Multiple Scratches - when using the SCRATCH command you may easily take out up to 4 files at a time. You do it like this:

OPEN 15,8,15
PRINT#15,"SO:prg2,prg2,prg3,prg4"
CLOSE 15

Its a good idea to validate a disk after multiple scratches or any scratches for that matter. To validate a disk just type:

OPEN 15,8,15"V";CLOSE 15

A quick way to scratch a whole disk without a complete reformat is to do a quick format or quick new. Type this one liner:

OPEN 15,8,15"N:diskname":CLOSE 15

Memphis Commodore Users Club will be at the Greater Memphis Ham Fest and Computer Show. We will have a table set up with newsletters and business cards to hand out to those interested in our club. We will also have our club library and blank disks available for sale. A VCR tape showing many of the uses for a Commodore will be playing, hopefully capturing people's imagination and attention. This year the Ham Fest is being held at the Cook Convention Center which should ensure greater exposure for our club.