This has been a difficult issue to get out as my body had chosen this week to succumb to the local “flu”. Many thanks to Paul Hill who drove out and helped with the typing. Additional thank yous go to:
CARL MORRIS – for his trip to Owego to report on the “paper purchase”. In addition to his detailed report, he donated printer paper and labels to SINCUS, or this SINCUS NEWS might have been done on napkins!!
THOSE HAVING FULL SIZED PRINTERS AND WANTING TO BUY A CASE OF PAPER AS CHEAPLY AS POSSIBLE – COME TO THE NEXT MEETING AND BRING SOME MONEY!! Case price will be a little under $30. You will be able to pick up the paper at the February 28 class!
DAVE SCHOENWETTER – for his untiring efforts in attempting to work out the “bugs” in the SMART II modem software. I promise you that if you will use your TS2068 for telecommunications with a full sized printer you will have the “best computing dollar value on the entire personal computer market”!!! Even paying top dollar for a TS2068 and modem-you’ve got less invested than the price of a modem and software for all other computers. The singular reason is that Dave has taken hours to unravel this mysterious modem software. Dave has developed the “mterm” patch on page 4 that allows you to use your AERCO I/F with the 2050 modem. The next step (in March SINCUS NEWS) will be a Buffer Utility program so you can fill the BUFFER and then save it to tape OR print it out! And the final step, which Dave has “somewhat” occomplished is the loading of the “saved buffer data” into TASWORD II. We are within a couple of months of you “authors” sending me your newsletter articles over the phone lines to my system even if I am not here!!!
WES BRZOZOWSKI – for his apparant solving of the inexpensive, build it yourself, Spectrum ROM Emulator. This device which will cost you $35 or so to build will allow you to switch your TS2068 back and forth to being also a “Spectrum”. The advantage – very straight forward – Spectrum is probably the #1 selling computer in England with a ton of outstanding software (4,000 titles?). If you want the most up to date software for one of the world’s most popular home computers-it is at your finger tips! Think about it.
“CLONE” – to be sold to SINCUS MEMBERS at February Meeting. If you attended the January meeting you saw “CLONE” in action. Wes Brzozowski has officially “donated” CLONE to the 2K EXPRESS for the purpose of registering the copyright. 2K EXPRESS then donates all rights to SINCUS. SINCUS will be selling an initial supply of “CLONE” at the February meeting. COST to members will be under $10 (price could not be established at press time). If you have not seen “CLONE” please come to the meeting – it copies any Sinclair program for the TS2068!
SPECIAL “CLONE” SALES PROJECT
SINCUS will be making “CLONE” available to be sold commercially. Quite simply stated – if you would like to sell “CLONE”, then send a proposal to SINCUS NEWS, PO Box 523, Owego, NY 13827 We invite all “entrepreneurs” to consider this chance and respond accordingly – if you’re going to sell microdrives or disk drives then your customer needs a way to copy the cassette software to the new storage media!!! CLONE permits it at the press of “C”
STATE OF SINCUS REPORT
I now see nearly everything “online” and working that I first envisioned when I became President of SINCUS. The membership rolls are kept on VU-FILE and mailing labels are printed on a full printer. Meeting notes are part of the newsletter and kept as a file for TASWORD. SINCUS NEWS is being printed within two blocks of my business and is acceptable in a 64 character column format. SINCUS NEWS has much improved artwork and the production time is roughly 20% of what it was a year ago, the quality is better and the cost really is no more-except for the POSTAGE. In the next few days we will finally begin the “permanent” filing of the back articles of SINCUS NEWS-including a master index kept on VU-FILE so that you can find all of those articles pertaining to the subject you want!! This will take a few weeks but it is close. SINCUS is running classes in programming, the “world of hardware”, and ZX-81 in addition to monthly meetings. Finally, I see the availablity of a “very expensive telecomminications network” for those that are interested – but it will actually be very cheap!
Gary