Msg: 5891 *Conference*
07-17-95 22:51:00
From: THOMAS MCKEAN
To : RICK HANSON
Subj: BOOSTER PAK
Hi Rick... I am back from NC now and I have had a chance to play with my Booster Pak. :) (Note that while I did not really enjoy my trip, I *did* effect a change in national ASA by-laws that should go on to benefit people with autism around the world. At least I hope so!) Here are my comments: First, the SELECT: feature seems to be gone. Is there a way to do something similar on the BP? I know that prolly very few people used it, but I did. :) Also, what is the deal with a lack of security? :( I notice that I cannot INVS the files on the BP? Not through normal channels anyway. Is there some kind of devious programming trick whereby I can make BP files invisible? This is not mandatory, I just always kind of liked that feature. :) I thought it was kewl. I also wish we could file the ROM programs in a directory, but hey, you can't have everything. Again, I must say I have immensely enjoyed that F2 key. Forget all that memory, cuz adding the "Kill" button is truly the nicest thing about the BP! No more going into BASIC. I love it! I advertised (and passed around) the M-100 in one of my presentations in NC. If I had been thinking, I would have advertised Club 100, too. These devices are the perfect communicators for the kids. I will remember to take the Club 100 info with me next time I do that particular presentation. (I think I am scheduled to give it in September, that will be in Denver, CO, then once more in November, right here in my home town of Columbus, OH.) The one thing that would make the BP so PERFECT is if someone would write a direct disk access program. Some kind of driver whereby we could just pop a TDD disk into the drive of an IBM and read/write to it. No more of these silly cables. If I remember right, Tandy set this up to be proprietary. GOOD LUCK getting them to change THAT! Even all these years later, not a chance! Since the TEXT saves as unformatted ASCII files, we could read it into whatever word processor we wanted to. I bet one of your programming guru type users has written an underground program to do it, though. And just isn't sharing it. :) Now that I have explored the BP, I want to explore the XR4. This is like having four extra computers, yes? Bank switched 32k and all that? Can you port data between banks? Does it change the OS at all like BP does? An autistic curiosity is a dangerous thing... stc