Msg: 2623 *Conference*

06-02-92 19:22:15

From: RICHARD MARKS

To : RICHARD HANSON

Subj: NEWSLETTER

Rick
 
     What's up and new.  I downloaded the new newsletter last night and a have
a few questions and comments.
 
     First off, RAMPAC.  I reread the info in the '92 catalog and I have a
question.  Knowing that this fits on to the bus connector on the back of my
T200, is there a problem with it physically wobbling and then causing the 200
to crash.  The reason I ask is that I have "fond" memories of the Sinclair ZX81
and it's 16K rampack.  It used to fit on to the back of the ZX also.  There was
no physical bracket or anything to hold the pack firmly.  If you sneezed on the
ZX, it crashed.  I ended up velcroing the pack to the ZX and rubber banding the
whole set up to a board.  Anyway, do I need to worry about this with the
RAMPACK?
 
     Next victim.  Thanks for putting out the TS-DOS tricks.  I tried,
unsuccessfully, to use the DOS on/off feature to write my own specialized "disk
based" dbase program to organize my comic book collection.  I found out about
Club 100 and the library, so one of these eons I'll download one of the dbase
programs and see if I can make them work.  I just so happen to have a T200 and
a TS-DOS ROM so I lucked out for a change with the recovery program.  I
cold-started just to see how the recovery program works.  Well, if you don't
COPY anything into the bank and then KILL that, you'll recover what was in RAM
before you cold-started.  Otherwise, you recover what ever was KILLED.  I guess
that's good to know to. 
     A comment on formalizing the meetings.  We both know that if the Navy can,
they would formalize blowing your nose or going to the bathroom.  I obviously
can't say that I've been to any meeting, but I'm sure they are fun and
informative.  My friendly advice would be not to over-formalize.
 
      About the Online Library.  It's funny that you now put out a disk with
the catagory listings.  I spent much time on Memorial Day weekend downloading
the catalogs.  Because of my limited memory, I would log-off shortly after
coming on in order to save what I got and KILLing them from RAM inorder to make
room for more.  I'm not pissed, I just find this ironic.  Also though, having
to come on and off so often is my fault in that I should have stopped at the
TELCOM catalog and downloaded XTLCM3 right off the bat.  This would have
allowed me to download more at a time.  This again leads me to another topic.
A week ago I had asked Robert Benson about downloading straight to cassette as
is suggested in the Library Use tips.  The reason being is that it doesn't
work.  He told me that you wrote up this concept about cassette downloading, so
you would know more about it.  What happens is when I press F2 DOWN, enter
CAS:filename and <CR>, I get a "download aborted".  I'm sure to leave enough
memory for downloading so I don't know what's happening.  Any ideas?
 
     I'm out of things to say for now.  I guess this all will give you things
to ponder.  Talk to you later.  Take care and best wishes.
 
Richard