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