CCP/M-11.88 Connecticut CP/M Users' Group October/November Meeting Notes Al Hathway introduced the capabilities of the new Z System at our October meeting. I think a good idea would be to follow up with another meeting which shows how the new Z System can be packaged to provide the non-technical user with a menu driven front end to typical applications. I've been asked by the YOU group to talk about NZCOM at their next regular meeting. I went to their last meeting which was a very informal help session for Royal owners and got a chance to show off a few things I've been developing on my Royal under the new Z System (NZ-COM). If you want to learn more about what it can do for you, come to the November meeting of YOUr Computer Users' Group. Third Tuesday. Not sure where it'll be so won't mislead you with any guess I might make. Our first newsletter under the leadership of Jim Taylor and Mort Fabricant is history. And despite a few problems, the final product was a good one. It was on time, interesting and full of challenges, news and other interesting material. I hear from Bruce Richardson and Mort that a laser printer may be used to print future newsletters. Bob Conlon, TCC president, has mentioned that his company is interested in providing copy services and in general in providing meeting space, etc. etc. He mentioned at our meeting (which was more like a YOU-TCC-CCP/M joint meeting the more I think of it) that his group is planning a mega-meeting for Nov. 2 (first Wednesday) at which GEnie, CompuServe, Quantum Link and other electronic services will be called. Again, location was not definite (Red Cross was not available). I expect by the time this goes to print, these details will have been worked out. Tom Veile, CCP/M Treasurer reports that CCP/M's coffers hold $874.91. New President Brian Nalewajek moderated the business end of the meeting. The Bylaws were ammended slightly; Article 5, Section A is no longer, which simply means CCP/M is not obligated to jointly publish a newsletter with YOU. Independent mailings and newsletters are now a possibility. Al Hathway talked briefly about upcoming meeting topics. Spreadsheets, Turbo Pascal, Home Controllers, Tutorial Sessions for the non-technical, more on the new Z System were some of the possibilities. Glen Gross, our new Publicist, plans on contacting CCS and other media to begin to let others know what we are planning. Let Glen know how you think CCP/M can market itself. Stuart Holden, our harcopy librarian, has provided us with two 5 meg hard disks plus an Ampro Little Board. I have given the hard disk software to Al for reformatting and will be working on bringing up a new BBS on this machine in the coming weeks. I got a note from a friend the other day which mentioned his failure to hook into my BBS. I expect many people have been upset that 665-1100 is down. I spent all day last Saturday bringing up BYE5, PBBS4 and ZCPR33 on my ON! It ALMOST works but seems to not know what I mean when I use the system locally after it has answered a remote call. For example, B: is not understood as a valid command. Also, somewhere along the way, the RCP command CLS gets clobbered. So, there are still some bugs. For those of you out there waiting for the go ahead and official word on how you can order Z System software at 25% off, Brian has sent the application for CCP/M dealer status to Jay Sage, who with Tony Parker has established a new company called Z System Associates. If you have ordered NZ-COM from Alpha Systems, Joe Wright WILL be sending it to you. But Joe is apparently busy writing and has been directing requests for Z-Plan purchases to Jay and Tony. As soon as we get the paper work from them, we'll let you know how to place the order. Bug Joe if you haven't heard about your order. I know it usually takes me a few calls to get a job done. Speaking of Alpha Systems, I got my first complimentary issue of The Z-Letter, Alpha Systems Corp.'s newsletter. It is excellent. Subscription rate is $25/year. It will be a monthly newsletter. First issue was 31 pages long. Editor David A. J. McGlone has produced a fine first issue. The Z-Letter talks about Alpha Systems products, the fact that Echelon is now gone, article submission, product news and many other things. It comes packaged as a pamplet and is obviously the work of a professional. Editor McGlone contributed WRITING ABOUT WRITING. Pages 25 thru 31. He promises an article about the MagicSeries from Computer EdiType Systems next issue. Skip Ferry defined himself as an "Osborne/Actrix owner and a seeker of knowledge and old donated computers". Skip heads up an organization that helps people in many ways. I don't know as much as I want to about this organization. I do know it provides meals for the needy and computers for the curious. How 'bout an article Skip? Ray Gentle, FOG librarian of YOU and CCP/M member, spoke briefly about the FOG software libraries. There are two libraries, one MSDOS, one CP/M. VDE for example has been implemented on MSDOS based systems by author Erik Meyer and the software is on one of the FOG MSDOS disks. Check with Ray or Mort Fabricant if you would like a copy. I gave Ray one of the power cables Richard Steadman, CCP/M software librarian, made to connect Royal F1 and F2 drives. He will be performing a little surgery on it so it will work (Richard made a male-male cable, which worked fine when you are connecting an F1 and a converted F1 but doesn't work when you're connecting an F1 and an F2). Since giving him the cable, I have managed to avoid the issue of proper Molex connectors by cutting off the Molex plug at the drive end, cutting the improperly Molexed cable and soldering the wires together. I now have two working F2's. And at least three people want F2's. I have an F1 which is probably convertable to an F2 (and which therefore could probably use the cable I gave to Ray, unaltered ...) Anyway, I'll pull out Steadman's article on F1 to F2 conversion see if I can create a 3rd F2. The Royal drive drought continues. Royal Product Support in Manchester never answered my calls. I suppose I should try at least one more time. Howard Goldstein, CCP/M member and close friend of Jay Sage, tells me that PCPursuit now has a node in Hartford. CTHAR. You use some Telenet 800 number. I don't know too much about PCPursuit. All I know is that it costs $25/month, you can use it from 6 PM to 7 AM weekdays and weekends. It doesn't sound like something the average person needs but it is a must for serious SYSOPs (like Rick Swenton, who subscribes). Brian Nalewajek has mentioned that there is a similar system starting up here in Connecticut. Again, I don't know the details but it works like PCPursuit, except is cheaper and applies only to Connecticut. Somebody out there, get us the details. Rick Swenton is beta testing PBBS41B I believe. Ian Cottrell, who documented PBBS40, has been calling in periodically to see how it's going! Lastly, I hope you all are ready for the cold weather, are doing fine and continue to keep in touch with the 8-bit world thru our club meetings, our newsletter and personal visits and phone calls. There's always SOMETHING new and interesting to learn and to develop thru CCP/M. See you on the second Tuesday at the Farmington Public Library. November the 8th. Actually, this next meeting I promise I WON'T make; I'm attending a class called "How To Start Your Own Business". It did not meet on our October meeting date so I was able to make it after all. I think Al is planning a meeting on Spreadsheets. Mort Fabricant asked me if it would be possible to have CCP/M meetings announced 3 months in advance. Don't see why not. Here are the dates anyway. CCP/M Meeting Dates and Topics (Very Tentative) November 8th; Spreadsheets? Bookkeeping Software? This topic has been requested and I think is what is planned. Farmington Public Library 6:30 December 13th; Possibly a joint meeting on Z80MU (runs CP/M on an IBM computer). Time Place and Topic still flexible. January 10th; Non-Computerized Snowmen, Their Construction And Use. In other words, I have no idea what is going to happen or where. The only thing I know with some degree of certainty is that we're scheduled for this date to have a meeting. Actually, I think it would be great to be buried in a great big snowstorm and to all get outside and build a huge Snowman. You know, there is life without computers. Lee Bradley, Secretary, CCP/M, 10/22/88 at 9:20 PM.