SLO BYTES NEWSLETTER -- June, 1987 CLUB INFORMATION The SLO BYTES Newsletter is a monthly publication of SLO BYTES of the Central Coast of California (San Luis Obispo) an IBM/compatible personal computer user's group. Information found in this Newsletter is derived from magazine articles, manuals, books, other PC user group newsletters, and our own members. The purpose of this publication is to inform our members of meetings, their program content, and other information related to the use of IBM-PC's and compatible computers. Dues to SLO BYTES are $18 per year. As a member you will receive a membership card, an updated membership list, SLO BYTES monthly newsletter, and free use of our Public Domain Library. Contributors are asked to submit articles for the next issue by the 10th of each month either in writing or on disk (ASCII format preferred). Address all correspondence to SLO BYTES PC USER'S GROUP, % Bob Ward, 2100 Andre' Ave., Los Osos, Ca. 93402. Phone 8am-5pm 546-2164, after 5pm - (805)528-0121. Other user's groups have permission to publish any material found in this newsletter. Have a computer related item to sell? Tell the editor and we will put it in our newsletter. For further information call Bob Ward @ (805)528-0121 eves. ****************************************************** Meetings are held the 4th Thursday of every month, unless noted otherwise in the newsletter calendar, at 7:15 pm. New users SIG 6:15 to 7 pm. Meeting place: Cal Poly University Biology Department, Science North, Room 213. Effective with the meeting September 3rd, 1987 the club will meet on the 1st Thursday of each month. All submissions must be to the editor by the 15th of each month. ****************************************************** DI$COUNT$-DI$COUNT$-DI$COUNT$-DI$COUNT$-DI$COUNT$ Discounts usually apply only to regularly priced merchandise. Ask a salesman to make sure. You must present your membership card to receive a discount. Paradise Computers 5% - all computers, peripherals, 441 Marsh St. and software. San Luis Obispo 10% - Ribbons, paper, disks & 544-7127 other expendable items. Star Computers 5% - any software in stock. 655 Morro Bay Blvd. Morro Bay 10% - paper, ribbons, cable & 772-7827 other supplies. Computer Logic 10% - off list - all computers, 973 Foothill Blvd. software, computer periphe- Store #4 rals and products. Contact San Luis Obispo Bruce, Paul, or Dave for 544-8347 your discount. WITCO Computers 10% - off already discounted 3563 Sueldo, application software. Building B Special prices on group San Luis Obispo purchases of peripherals. 549-0811 $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ CALENDAR June 25th PCFILE+ -- Jim Buttons latest database release has received rave reviews. See it demonstrated at our next meeting. July 23rd Computer applications in Medical Imaging by Barry Mayer. *** MEETING CHANGED TO 1ST THURSDAY OF EACH MONTH *** *** MEETING CHANGED TO 1ST THURSDAY OF EACH MONTH *** September 3rd WordStar Version 4.0 by Jules Lieber. October 1st Poly Windows & 1st Choice by Britt Morris. ====================================================== NEW MEMBERS New members for the month of April: Gus Thomasson 544-2319 Cleone Van Westen 528-5031 ***** More members in May ***** Steven Turkheimer 238-0551 Anthony Selyem 541-8503 Doris Ruste 466-2465 Doug Warshaver 544-2152 Cliff Reynolds 541-4390 Sandra Shadi 546-2236 Welcome to all the new members! If we have missed you with a new membership packet and membership card please let us know. ====================================================== BITS 'N BYTES *** Just before the end of last meeting we misplaced the disk notching tool everyone was using. If you accidentally picked it up and took it home, please give me a call. We would like it back. *** Two months ago we loaned out our Demo copy of Kings Quest. Would the individual who borrowed it please return ASAP. Thanks! *** Two new computer stores will soon be opening in San Luis Obispo. WITCO Computers, located at 3563B, Sueldo will be opening Thursday, June 11th. They sell FCC approved PC clones at very good prices. Will also offer software, peripherals, etc. See discounts to members in this newsletter and their ad. The other store, which has a home but not a name yet, will open within a month. This store will be specialize in inexpensive PC compatibles, including the 386, software, and peripherals. *** Many computers are created equal! Everex sells their AT compatible under 12 different satellite distributors including Club AT, SF Micro, QIC Research, and ELTECH..... Same machine different labels. CompuAdd sells their PC's under 4 different names. Ever heard of Bently Computer Products, Intelligent Micro Systems, WYSINYG, or PC Source? Exactly the same computer with a different name. *** Anyone who had purchased TakeTwo hard disk back up software has until August 31st to send in their sales receipt and registration card for a $20 rebate. ====================================================== HARD DISK OPTIMIZATION ANYONE? By Bob Ward If you own a hard disk, as so many now do, you will notice with time the disk seems to slow down. Loading of programs will take longer, initial boot-up seems to take forever, and that ole' hard disk just doesn't seem to have the pep it had when new. I won't go into detail why this is happening as you have probably read many articles on file fragmentation before. Simply put, with time, due to the many files written to a hard disk, some of these files become fragmented. Thus when the read-write head is instructed to load a file it may have to travel to several locations on that hard disk to load all the data. Each access takes time, even though measured in milliseconds, it all adds up. My problem involved optimizing a disk greater that 32 megabytes. If you purchase a hard disk greater that 32 megabytes, it must be partitioned into two separate drives even though both exist on the same physical disk. This is due to limitations in DOS which will not be discussed here. Therefore, with a 42 megabyte formatted hard disk, the most common option is to create a 32 megabyte DOS partition, drive C: (hard disk boots up from this part of the hard disk) and a 10 megabyte DOS compatible or non compatible partition, drive D:. There are several programs on the market which re- write all those fragmented files back to the hard disk in continuous form. Should you use one of these programs and you were originally working with a highly fragmented disk, you'll see a marked increase in access speed. Beware! One statement found in the documentation of all optimization programs states: "make sure to back- up your hard disk first, as this program may be incompatible with certain hard disks or machines". Did I find out how true this statement was just after running Disk Optimizer. I had recently purchased a 42 megabyte (formatted) hard disk from MiniScribe. Although my hard disk was far from fragmented, I wanted to try the program and see what it did to my hard disk. Here's where a problem arose. Most optimization programs can easily handle a hard disk with only one partition (i.e. C: drive) but may run into problems when there are two or more partitions on the same physical disk or a non-DOS compatible partition. Some optimization programs, especially those of the shareware nature, cannot be used on any hard disk greater that 32 megabytes or with more than one partition. If you create a non-DOS compatible partition and run an optimization program, the non-DOS partition may not be recognized by the program and be lost forever after optimization. This is exactly what happened to me. --cont---> (OPTIMIZE) After optimizing drive C: I looked for drive D: to find it was no longer there. A quick run of CHKDSK showed a 32 meg C: drive but D: drive was not recognized by the computer, Norton Utilities, or anything else I threw at it. If I had chosen my D: partition to be DOS compatible, I think the result would have been different. To date I haven't tested out this theory using DISK OPTIMIZER. But some stories have a happy ending even when working with hard disks. As Larrie, BACK IT UP, Ciano stressed over and over in her presentation at the last meeting everything you do on a computer should be backed up. Perhaps she's a bit pessimistic expecting the worse from a computer, but just lose your data once, and you'll become a believer. As I said, this story did have a happy ending. After using SPEEDSTOR to reformat my hard disk; recreate a C: DOS partition and D: DOS compatible partition; I pulled out my back- up disks created with TakeTwo, typed RECOVER, and reloaded my hard disk. Then because it was 1:30 am and the adrenaline was still pumping I decided to defragment my hard disk with Nortons new ADVANCED program, Speed Disk. Although I really didn't have anything to defragment on a "new" hard disk, the program did go through the motions. Yes both drive C: and drive D: remained intact this time. The moral of the story: do save yourself the the frustration of losing data.... BACK UP YOUR HARD DISK on a regular basis. ====================================================== USING YOUR PC AS A TYPEWRITER by George Campbell If you have a short typing job to do, and you don't want to load a word processing program, or even one of the typewriter simulation programs from the SLO BYTES library, there is a simple way to use the DOS COPY command to turn your computer and printer into a typing machine. You will want to use this procedure primarily for typing short notes or making an address label or two. Your editing possibilities are limited, and you can't access any of your printer's special features, such as boldfacing or italic printing. The technique, however, is more useful than you might think. It allows you to exit from a program for just a minute, type your note or label, then return to your program without changing disks or directories. Here's how it works. At your computer's system prompt, whether it's A> or another prompt, type the following line: COPY CON PRN The cursor will jump to the next line, and you can begin to type. As you do, the text will appear on the screen, but will not be sent to the printer. At the end of each line, press . While you are on a line, you can make corrections to your text by using the backspace key to erase characters. Once you have pressed , however, you can no longer correct previously-written lines. You can create spaces at the beginnings of lines with the spacebar. The tab key will move the cursor on the screen, but the spaces will not appear on the printed copy. Continue creating lines of text in this way until you have finished your document. Now, load paper in your printer, aligning the left edge of the paper to create a margin. Printing will begin at column one on your printer. When you are satisfied with your text, press the F6 key at the end of the last line of text. Press the key, and the material you typed will be sent to your printer. If your printer can accept formatting commands from its control panel, you can adjust the appearance of your text before the F6 and keystrokes. Experiment with this technique, and you will soon be creating short documents with ease. If you would rather save the documents as a text file on a disk, you can do that as well. Simply replace the initial COPY CON PRN command. For example, to create a file called LABEL.TXT on drive B:, enter the following command: Cont.... (TYPEWRITER) COPY CON B:LABEL.TXT Create your text as before, then press the F6 key and hit . The file will be written on drive B: (or any other drive or path you name). Later, if you want to print the file on your printer, just enter this command: COPY B:LABEL.TXT PRN The file will be sent to the printer and printing will begin immediately. ====================================================== COMINGS AND GOINGS Our many thanks to both Larrie Ciano and George Campbell for their presentations last month. A logical method of naming text files was discussed by Larrie. Her system involves a combination of initials of the person receiving the letter, the date the file is created, and an extension describing the wordprocessor used to create the document. The file name is placed on the document in the lower left corner so the hard copy can be cross referenced with the computer file name. Along with the emphasis of logical nomenclature for computer files, came her method of backing up files on a daily basis. Since part of her job at Cal Poly involves helping staff and faculty with computer problems, including lost or erased files, she couldn't emphasize enough.... BACK UP ALL WORK on a daily basis. Her story of an individual who trusted over 100 pages of a book to a single floppy disk, was but one example of the importance of backing up your work. Yes, the book was lost and could not be recovered. It is a smart idea to make a second copy of your irreplaceable work and keep that set of backup's at a different site far away from the computer. I can personally remember two cases involving computer thefts on campus, one with two years of research stolen from a teacher in soil science. Yes he dutifully made backup copies of all his work but stored them right along with the originals next to the computer. The thieves took it all and left him with nothing. The other case involved a deans office where both sets of backup's were taken even though they were in locked cabinets in separate rooms within the complex. Take that extra set to work or home. Computers can be replaced, original material on disk can not! George Campbell took the second hour and gave us a fine demonstration of the new Norton Utilities, Advanced Edition. Norton is now menu driven with the Norton Integrator. Programs may be selected through the menu with help screens appearing as you key down through the different selections. The old standby programs, which made the original Norton Utilities so popular, are still there with several new programs added for both hard and floppy disks. Speed Disk, Norton's hard disk file defragmentor, was one I have already used with excellent results. New programs include ASK, a program for interactive batch files; FILE INFO, for attaching comments to individual file names; NORTON CHANGE DIRECTORY, for changing subdirectories vial the tree structure; SPEED DISK, for defragmenting files on a hard disk; and FORMAT RECOVER, to save your neck should Jimmy accidentally reformat your hard disk. This coming month United Software Security had agreed to give us a demonstration on their hard disk management system, ON GUARD. After my 10th phone call without a reply, I get the impression they're not coming. Soooooo, I will demonstrate one of my favorite shareware programs, Jim Button's new PC-FILE+. Have continued..... you ever tried setting up a database blindfolded and with both hands tied behind your back? Well, neither have I. How ridiculous! But Jim Button has made this new program so powerful and user friendly that you won't want to miss this demonstration. Of course we will have the new user's SIG at 6:15 pm. Since Byron will be out in the field with the National Guard this coming month, either myself or another volunteer will answer your questions. This early meeting will be less formal than in the past, so more time will be allotted to entertain your specific questions. Please bring ALL your questions and computer problems so they can be discussed. ====================================================== NEWS FROM OUR LIBRARY The following new disks will be added to our library this coming month. Remember the new disks are available for 90 cents each, should you not want to take the time and copy them yourself. #200 PRINTER CONTROLS - resident printer control programs, enhance printer graphics, screen capture to file. #201 EZBACK, a hard disk back up program #202 KID GAMES (PC SIG #705) - educational games for ages 2 to 10 #203 IMAGEPRINT (PC SIG #517) a great NLQ print for your Epson printer. Triple pass. Comes with one font. Extras $5 each from author. UPDATES **** PC Magazine Disk -- REMINDER.ARC & SPECTRUM.ARC (Vol 6, No. 12) have been added this month. Spectrum redefines the color palette for EGA monitors. Reminder does just what it says. Need to remember an appointment, let the computer do it. **** DEMO'S -- Mace Utilities **** Disk # 116 -- Qmodem updated to version 2.2 Disk # 186 -- California Lotto database updated ====================================================== CREATING YOUR OWN HOT KEYS FROM DOS By Ernest C. Todd CPC Newsletter -- May, 1987 Have you ever wished you could change the FUNCTION KEYS on your computer to do time saving chores other than repeating the entry you made. Well, there are ways, and they are very simple. One way that this can be done is right from DOS using the PROMPT command. The second way is to use DEBUG.COM from your SUPPLEMENTAL DOS diskette. For both ways, the first thing you must do is to include ANSI.SYS in your CONFIG.SYS file, the following steps should be helpful. 1. At the A> (type) COPY CON CONFIG.SYS (enter) (type) DEVICE=ANSI.SYS (enter) (press) F6 (the function key) (enter) Ed note. This can also be done using EDLIN. Now your screen should read 1 file copied. And you will have a file called CONFIG.SYS. Take a directory to make sure 2. After you have confirmed that the file is there, reboot your system. One of the first things that DOS looks for is the CONFIG.SYS file. Remember that the files CONFIG.SYS and ANSI.SYS must be in the root directory of the diskette that is used to boot your system, either diskette or hard drive. 3. Now that we have loaded ANSI.SYS through the CONFIG.SYS, we can change any key on our keyboard. I'll stick with the FUNCTION KEYS for this demo. First let me tell you the ASCII codes for the function keys. FUNCTION KEY NORMAL SHIFT CONTROL ALT F1 59 84 94 104 F2 60 85 95 105 F3 61 86 96 106 F4 62 87 97 107 F5 63 88 98 108 F6 64 89 99 109 F7 65 90 100 110 F8 66 91 101 111 F9 67 92 102 112 F10 68 93 103 113 Now to change a key!! We will change a key that is not used by DOS, the F2 key. (type) PROMPT $e[0;60;"HELLO"p (enter) (type) PROMPT (enter) If you don't type the second PROMPT, you will not have a PROMPT A> or C>. (continued) (HOT KEYS) Now, every time you press the F2 key, you get a message saying "HELLO". Great, but how does all this help you save time. Well let's take it a little further. Let's say you do a lot of copying from drive A: to drive B:. All you would have to do is change the PROMPT statement to read: PROMPT $e[0:60;"COPY A:*.* B:";13p (make sure the p is PROMPT there) Now every time you press the F2 key, you will copy all the files on A: drive to B: drive with a single key stroke. The 13 at the end of PROMPT statement is the code for ENTER. Those of us with HARD DRIVES can make good use of these commands by putting them into a BATCH file. This way we can load any predefined program with a single key stroke as follows: copy con (filename).bat PROMPT $e[0;60;"CD\WP";13;"WP";13p PROMPT $e[0;62;"CD\LOTUS";13;"123";13p PROMPT $e[0;63;"CD\DBASE";13;"DB";13p PROMPT $e[0;65;"CD\DOS";13;"FORMAT B:";13p PROMPT F6 (Ctrl-Z) Remember that DOS uses the F1,F3, and the F6 KEYS. If you use these keys -- don't reassign them. Also, if you don't make PROMPT your last statement before pressing the F6 key, you will not have a PROMPT sign. To use DEBUG.COM from your DOS SUPPLEMENTAL DISKETTE to create a file, take the following steps: Load Debug You will get a prompt sign that looks like a minus (-) sign. (type) A 100 (you will get a double four digit number... xxxx:yyyy The x's stand for memory location and the y's for number of bytes in your program - 100). xxxx:yyyy MOV AH,9 xxxx:yyyy MOV DX,109 xxxx:yyyy INT 21 xxxx:yyyy INT 20 xxxx:yyyy DB 1B'[0;60;"CD\LOTUS";13;"123";13p (enter) xxxx:yyyy DB 1B'[0;62;"CD\WP";13;"WP";13p (enter) xxxx:yyyy DB 1B'[0;63;"CD\DOS";13;"FORMAT A:/S/V"; 13p (enter) xxxx:yyyy DB 1B'$' (write this number down) (enter) -N (filename.com) (you choose the name) (enter) -R BX BX 0000 :0 -R CX CX 0000 HOT KEYS next page.... (HOT KEYS) :yyyy (here's where you type in the last four digits of the number you wrote down.) -W (this causes DEBUG to write a the file you named above) -Q (quits DEBUG and return to DOS) Now take a directory of your disk and you will see the file that you created with the .COM extension. Now run the file. Any of the keys that you have reassigned should lead you to the application you desired with one key stroke. ======================================================