21 April 1986 Z-NEWS 408 Milestone! You are great, why procrastinate? Learn Z! Richard Jacobson and Bruce Morgen edited Kaypro Z-System Manual (Z-News 407) into a generic tutorial, one applicable to any computer running ZCPR3 and ZRDOS. You who have found our reading material difficult, this is your book. It is a fitting addition to lonely ZCPR3: The Manual by Richard Conn and adds another dimension (level) to Echelon documentation. Titled Z-System User's Guide, we offer it for $14.95, plus $4.00 shipping and handling, continental USA--Item 88 on Price List. Additionally, Californians must include 7.0% state sales tax. Though an efficient learning tool for beginners and intermediates, advanced users also are expected to learn much from the Guide. Creating aliases and menus, producing ZEX batch files, making VFILER CMD files--all explained using tutorial style. Many, many how-to-create, how-to-use examples: just what we have needed for so long. Unique New Computer. Always ready, no loss of data--ever! Office automation and development system computer ready. Oneac Corporation of Chicago (Libertyville) shipping Z80 RAM-disk based, power-conditioned, packaged machine, with industry-standard ASCII terminal. No loss of data, ever! That's main feature, plus speed--four to six times faster than best hard disk. Uses a floppy drive for backup storage to battery-protected dynamic RAM. Pull plug out of wall, data in RAM is safe. No loss of data, with blinding speed! That's what Oneac "ON!" computer is about--it's always on, always ready, never switched off, never quits. No booting, everything is always loaded! Indeed, there's nothing like it on the market...and you can't get it by adding hardware to existing computers. Security and speed is obtained by ingenious, integrated hardware/software design. And it's dead quiet, no fans, no acoustic noise. Efficient and attractive office-place styling! Nothing we have seen matches it. Machine comes in two versions: 2 or 4 megabytes of DRAM with 5.25" DSDD 96tpi floppy for backup. Programmers developing software and business professionals, writers, authors, lawyers, engineers, journalists, love ON! machine for its mind- altering speed and for data safety. Office managers and secretaries love ON! for ease of use and ten times faster operations compared to IBM and Apple. No one likes to wait, and wait, for computers to finish simple tasks. Human creativity at-its-peak produced ON! computer. "For the work you have to do. If you have tried using a computer to get your important work done you already know the problem. Getting started is, at best, painful and very time consuming. If you are among the minority that has taken the time to overcome the problems of getting started, you have found that, as an experienced user, your time is being eroded by inefficient system operations, slow execution times, occasional disasters, and ongoing software difficulties... ON! is the only computer specifically designed to get the work you have to do done without wasting your time." ON! computer, conceived and designed by Nick DeWolf, Aspen, CO, sells for $2,000.00 or so. That's less than you would think for such quality, reliability, and speed. Remember, it's shipping. Call or write Oneac's Mr. Byron Brooks, VP Marketing, 27944 N. Bradley Road, Libertyville, IL 60048, 312/680-5999, for literature with complete details. Oh! ON! runs Z-System with fully developed menus and suspended program operations. Has internal clock to activate preset commands, auto-date/time stamp files, turn peripherals on/off. Comes with Newword, V-Spell, and SuperCalc, and over 50 utilities--all come-alive with quick menu drive! Everything is ready to run-- preconfigured--no installation. Z TIPS. Though recently moved to Bellevue, WA, Dreas Nielsen finds time to develop code, to make significant ZCPR3 shell utility contributions. 1) GETVAR prints a user-defined prompt, accepts a response, and assigns it to a user-defined shell variable, and 2) RESOLVE resolves references to shell variables, System Files, register values, and other quantities from aliases, ZEX files, etc. Standard Z3 HLP file is supplied. Shell utilities are in SHUTILS.LBR on Z-Nodes. Thanks, Dreas, we needed these! Steve Kitahata, Z-Node #57 Sysop, Gardena, CA, locates and removes long- standing bug in LDR13.COM. Seems that especially for short segments, e.g., 128-byte TCAP, 1.3 can overlap into next buffer area if load error occurs because segment code is either too lengthy for space allocated or defective. One less bug to worry about...thanks, Steve, for your efforts--keep 'em up! Get file LDR14.LBR for update. Rea Williams, Z-Node #10 Sysop, is first to create Index to Z-News. Others, including EI staff, are working on similar things. So, soon we will have a good set of indices, long needed, to assist finding subjects in the newsletters. Our cup runs over. Rea's Index is file ZNEWS01.IDX on Z-Nodes. Anyone looking for the best in hard-disk add-ons (semiconductor RAM is not for everyone, yet) should write or call Advanced Concepts Engineering and Consulting, 8926 S.W. 17 Street, Boca Raton, FL 33433, 305/482-7302. ACEC's install program permits configuring hard drive to your computer, to your liking. We are told installations are Z-System compatible! They have versions for many popular CP/M machines, e.g, Kaypro, Osborne, Xerox, Eagle, Sanyo, Zorba, etc. Tell'em Echelon sent you. From Our Mail Box. "The knowledge I have gained personally from ZCPR3-ZRDOS use cannot be overstated. Thanks a million...I shall be waiting anxiously for your coming goodies. The best of success to the entire Echelon team in their future efforts." Art Welsh writes from Anchorage, Alaska. Thanks, Art, for the kind words; we move on the goodies as fast as our resources permit. Remember though, it is you driving us and controlling what we do--without you we are nothing. From Joseph Hance, Miamisburg, OH, "...purchased... ZCPR3 and SYSLIB3... what is your update procedure to receive latest versions of your products?" A question asked by many: we replied in Z-News 403 to get a modem and get online, it's 1986. Well, here's a more considered answer. Upgrades to any single or two-disk program is $20.00 plus $4.00 shipping and handling, continental USA. Each additional disk, if in same shipment and of same program, is $10.00. Take our situation, Joseph, into full account: we have a master set of over 50 disks containing our products. We handle 10 or so floppy formats. Tools and programs are constantly being improved, bugs fixed. Price of basic Z-System, $192.50, is low considering how many disks, thirteen (13) SSDD 5.25 inchers, and how much software customer receives. The Libraries package is shipped on 8 disks and sells for only $69.00. Clerical problem of maintaining records of exactly what version of each utility and program each customer received exceeds our corporate capability. Z-Nodes are main source for updates to software we release to SIG/M of ACGNJ (Amateur Computer Group of New Jersey), the software for private use and not to be sold without a license from Echelon. We deal with, handle more source code than any microcomputer software house we know of; perhaps AT&T and IBM are exceptions. Suggestions to improve our service are welcomed. Z-Node Activity. Calls to Z-Node system are estimated at near 40,000 per month--many magazines wish for such coverage! Twenty-six (26) callers per day per telephone line installed--26, magic number! Many days, up to 45 calls are received; but, on a monthly average, a Z-Node line can sustain 26 calls per day. That seems to be it! And all nodes are not operating at capacity. If they were, we would be getting close to 55,000 calls per month. Lots of open time, so give your local node a call. George Reeves becomes Z-Node #67, Decatur, GA 30030, complements Z-Node #46 Sysop Jim Altman in nearby Atlanta. George uses both CCS and TeleVideo microcomputers and will use one of them as his node covering ZRDOS and ZCPR3 software. His number will be passed on as soon as he is up and running. Z-Nodes 58, 63, and 65 become downloaders of EI proprietary software. Support your local downloader. He is your best source for Z-System information. Potpourri. Z-Team member, John Forker, has finished his upgrade of SB180. We documented changes, have given them to Micromint and NAOG (see Z-News 308), and have placed changes-only into the public domain. Upgrade consists of 1) removing wait-states from hardware speeding machine by 30%, 2) adding 256k- bytes of DRAM on-board using piggy-back chips, and 3) modifying BIOS and system support utilities to automatically use extra memory as 416k-byte RAM disk. New software works with or without memory-chip addition. John made many changes to his liking to ROM monitor, BIOS, and other utilities. We don't recommend trying to make John's suggested changes unless you are a qualified electronics technician. If you feel unqualified but still want the changes, obtain NAOG's advice (215/443-9031) on getting complete job performed--please, don't call Echelon. It's no wonder computer users, once seeing performance of certain 8-bit systems, are migrating from Apple and IBM PCs to S-100 and SBCs: Ampro, Micromint, Intelligent Computer Designs, Zicomp, Dean Micro Systems, Magnum Digital, etc. Old timers are returning home, too! Speed and quality are common denominators. Let's face it--those who write code for other than certain 8-bit machines, it seems, have little or no love for their work. Thus we see what we have been getting--software needing more and more hardware resources, software encouraging no-think, consumption-only mentality! Of Cabbage and Kings. We discussed money's nature in Z-News 305, pg 5. Many did not understand what we were getting at: what is money and what is stealing! Let's move to another level and approach subject from different angle. People morally (what's right, what's wrong) develop from birth--it's predictable--by degrees! We don't necessarily all start from same point either. 1) Right is blind obedience to rules and authority, based on fear of punishment. Stealing is wrong only if we might get caught. 2) Right is serving one's own or one's group needs and making fair deals. 3) Right is playing the good (don't rock-the-boat) role, being loyal, and being motivated to follow rules and expectations. 4) Right is doing one's duty to society (the majority understand ing) and to one's own group. 5) Right is upholding the values of society, even when they conflict with one's group rules. 6) Right is defined by one's own ethical principles, and 7) Right is beholding what's good for the Cosmos and acting accordingly. Thus, concern for self moves, as we grow, to concern for society, the greater good for the greater number, from individual instances to general rules. Only a minority of adults reach mentality and understanding of 5) and 6), and during any period (epoch), less than 100 people, world-wide, reach 7). Moral development determines how a person (re)acts in practical situations, every situation. We all steal one way or the other, but do we give back in kind or not? Do we promote Life or do we assist killing it? We know the answer if we but still ourselves...we don't always have to react, to be like fleas on a hot tin roof, reacting to stimulation--act, we can with will and understanding. What constitutes the Whole? Integrity, Z-News 307 and 308 replied, is the answer. Z-News 308 spoke of plagiarism as basic to culture and what it morally means. Philo- sophically, psychologically, Z-News 302 through 305, and 308, hit us squarely in- the-teeth. Our armor plate buckled, darts pierced bare flesh. Now what do we do, how do we (re)act? Days grow long, Spring is here; but, we don't get smarter--we are attached to our tread-mill life. We treasure not colors of Autumn; aromas of last Summer go unre- membered in our haste to "make a living." But we live not! We are not much more than automatons or cyborgs. But why not choose to live and do it deeply, with making-a-living the fall-out. Everything is available: facts, data, information, knowledge for the asking, and for the experience. Let us turn-on our brains, so long on auto-pilot (our subconscious mind, the autonomous nervous system), and choose consciously. Question everything! Stop, observe, listen. Wait, accept not first answers, argue with yourself--a sure way to receive answers that last, really last, ones we know are correct for us. Let us BEcome more than what we presently are! See you down the lines... Echelon, Inc. 885 N. San Antonio Road Los Altos, CA 94022 USA Telephone: 415/948-3820 Z-Node Central (RAS): 415/489-9005 Trademarks: SB180, COMM180, TKBBS, Micromint; PRO-180, MDC-1, Magnum Digital; XL-M180, ICD; HD64180, Hitachi; Z-System, ZCPR3, ZRDOS, Z-Tools, Zas, Zlink, Z-Msg, Term3, Lasting-Value Software, Echelon; CP/M, Digital Research; WY-50, Wyse Technology; Newword, Newstar; V-Spell, CompuView; SuperCalc, Sorcim-IUS; ON!, ONFILE, Oneac; SCSI/Plus, Little Board, Bookshelf, AMPRO Computers. eagle here + Z sets you FREE! + + Z-News 408 is Copyright 1986 Echelon, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Permission to reprint, wholly or partially, automatically granted if source credit is given to Echelon.