MAY MEET- ELECTIONS * come on in and vote * May 25 7pm Vestal Library Candidates are: Clyde Tackley for President, Dave Schoenwetter for Vice-President, George Penny for Treasuer, Paul Hill for Secretary and Don Lamen, William Tilley, Carl Morris and Scott Eddy for three Trustee positions. Our charter will be up for review and discussion.
** Computer Chronicles Saturday 8:30am, WSKG-TV Binghamton
OWEGO HAMFEST- Saturday May 7, 8am to 4pm. $4 General admission Flea market, computer seminar, door prizes, at the Treadway Inn, Owego NY.
Locally a confederation of computer user groups has been formed, and we are looking into joining. Nationally a North American TS user association has been proposed and info has been received; objective is to provide a forum for exchange of ideas, a source of info, such as active members, User Groups, Sinclair BBSs, a library of PD software, and a listing of available share/free ware. Later on they want to propose industry wide standards on hard/soft ware compatiability. SNUG( Sinclair Northamerican Users Group ) would be in effect an umbrella group to all user groups. Right now this is an idea, if you have anything to suggest, contact;
Mel Nathanson, [address omitted], Port Richey, FL [phone number omitted]
March meet: At the meeting, Dave Schoenwetter presiding, 9 attending, the SINCUS owned disc drive system was unveiled. At the Feb meet a proposal to provided the newsletter editor with a seperate group owned computer system was passed. The choice of systems and purchases was left to the editor. Details on the decision and equipment to follow in this letter. A former member and treasurer, Glenn Wilson sent a box of four computers, ZX81s and TS1000s, and an EPROM burner, the Sinclair ZX Printer and a 16K RAM pack. Several items will be sold or donated as per upcoming resolutions. The editor will attempt to create a “portable” 2068 system with two drives, monitor, tape, modem and printer, to enable the ease and safe transport of the system to and from meetings.
Bill Tilley is home from Wilson Hospital recouping from a mild heart problem, Get well soon Bill, be good to see you at the meets.
April Meet: Dave Schoenwetter presiding, 8 attending. After the secteraries’ reports, the nominations for club officers for 1988-1989 were opened. We will be voting on our choice for Trustee with four candidates for three offices. Updating of the charter is on the May agenda, with regard to financial procedures and handling of club property. The question of disposal or sale of the donated material from the March meet was settled, all donated material will be loaned out to those who wish to use them. Donation of a computer to a youth group in Poland was turned down due to several technical difficulties. Don Lamen will swap his TS2040 for the Sinclair Printer. John Colonna gave an interesting talk on Vu-Calc, and with several copies of printouts made a walk thru demo of some simple projects one can do with his program and computer. Group buy of 5.25″ DSDD discs at $.33 per has been made, limited amounts available to members, at cost. C20 computer tapes available at $.80 per, no case, no lable. Purchases by mail, pay by check, add $3 s&h per 10 units ordered, order care of this newsletter. Tape/disc swap #104 is just about finished, contact John Colonna, [address omitted], Binghamton, NY, with a SASE.
In the last issue I tried to make the best of a poor situation with the printing results on the Spectrum ROM-2068 Address Altas, by including a correction slip with each copy. However the correction slip had a new goof in it. It has under Label, “K-DUMP”, should be ‘DUMPPR’. Sorry about that.
RANDOM BITS
In the last newsletter I wrote of the January meet:”A video provided by Don Lamen of the Northwest Computer Fest of 1987 was viewed in part. More will be shown at upcoming meets, to borrow this VHS tape contact Don.” I was taken to task by the vendor of the tape RMG of Oregon City, OR because this is a copyrighted video, and that if anyone wants to see the tape, BUY one from RMG. My apologies, I did not know this was copyrighted material and I gave no thought to the possiblity of someone with two VCRs making a illegal copy. Do NOT contact Don about borrowing his tape.
We recently got a newsletter from the TS section of the Boston Computer Society, first in a few years. Noted that Bob Dyl is back in business at his old address but with a new business name. For the members who were stuck with unfilled orders from Bob, maybe now is the time to contact him. Any results will be published.
It has come to our attention, thru many sources, that E. Arthur Brown is no longer in the T/S business. Just not enough business to warrant advertising. It is too bad, they were an excellent vendor to do business with. And while we are at it, Weymil Corporation, Bellingham, WA is no longer selling TS supplies. A report in the April 1988 issue of the “Hacker” from the TSUG of Las Vegas, and echoed in the Ottawa Newsletter, “‘Knighted Computers’ has sent out another flyer stating that they are NOT going to be carrying any new T/S products, they will just be sticking with their old line at reduced prices.” I read this with some dismay, and then while ordering some software from Ray Payne, co-owner of Knighted Computers, asked him about this. (April 14, 1988) Ray had not heard of this flyer, and had not even thought of quitting the TS 2068 line, and it is their intention to stay in the TS2068 line.
Be informed that Knighted Computers, 10 Canalview Mall, Fulton, NY 13069 (315) 593-8219 is still in business and is NOT making any plans to abandon its customers.
In light of a number of reports of vendors leaving the TS scene, it is strongly suggested that prior to mailing off your hardearned bucks, call or write to verify the vendor’s status.
A new TS Vendor: T & C Services, 20 Liberty Terrace, Buffalo, NY 14215 (716) 834-1716 has a free catalog of 1000 and 2068 software.
Hello and Welcome to SINCUS NEWS to:Bill Jones, Panama City, FL; and a BIG thank you to the renewing members, Myles Cohen, New York, NY; Joan Kealy, El Paso, TX; Larry Anderson, Davenport, IA and Dan Pinko, Parksville, BC Canada.
SINCUS goes Oliger! At the meet in February, a resolution was passed for the purchase of a disc interface, power supply and material to start a society owned 2068 system for the production of newsletters, demos at meets and maintaince of records. Dave donated two drives, and Carl Morris donated a spare 2068, books and software. The decision of what to purchase was left to me, the editor. After checking with the only two disc system owners currently active in the group, Clyde Tackley and John Colonna, I decided to go with the Oliger interface over the other choice, Larken. Aerco was too expensive and not considered. John and Clyde both had Oliger systems and were very pleased with them. For the reason of local support of compatiable systems I decided to go with Oliger. I checked thru Computer Shopper and found a disc drive cabient and power supply for 2 full height 5.25″ drives from IB Computers, 1519 S.W. Marlow, Portland OR for $69.95. I got the “discworks” from Oliger, the expansion board, “A” and “B” boards and cable, assembled and tested. Everything arrived within a couple weeks, and only the power supply transformer had to be bolted down, all else fine. After getting some disks and with Clyde’s help got a drive up and working with no problems. The NMI “snapshot” button worked like gangbusters! All in all, everyone in the group should be pleased with the system! After using the disc system for a couple weeks I dread the thought of using the tape recorder! How spoiled am I.
NOTE to modem users: a number of BBSs are supporting a petition drive of modem users on the FCC’s proposed TAX on modem use on telephone lines. UPDATE: I have received a pile of paper from the local US Congress Rep. Matt McHugh, Ithaca, NY, it is a lot of reading, and difficult at best to comprend the whys and wherefores. But, proposal was dropped in Feb 88. Apparently due to some 10,000 letters from modem users! Info from the Wall Street Journal, Mar 17 88, via the RAMTOP newsletter is that the FCC has decided to scrap its proposal to increase the telephone rates for computer users. However the last paragraph says that the FCC would proceed with a new proposal to charge access fees of about $4.50 per hour per user to hookup private telephone networks to local telephone systems.[*Election year governmental functionaries strike again.]
* ed. comment
Feb-March issue of LISTing has many interesting bits of news and TS History abound. LIST, 5 Peri Lane, Valley Stream, NY 11581. An EAST coast TS FEST? Could be-still in the what if, might be, any suggestions? and any volunteers?-stage. Outside of the very first T/S computer fest, the Boston Computer Society’s TS Section birthday party back in 1983, must be us east coasters are all partied out. Well, we will see. As for the history, Billy Skyrme visited a LIST meet, and left a lot of tidbits of TS history behind. The TS 3068 with 1meg RAM, 256 colors, and HiRez Graphics, TS Expansion Bus, 3.5″ drives for less than $50, were in the future. The current situation is due to timing, lack of profit and computer wars.
RANDOM BITS—-The Greater Cleveland Sinclair Users Group, is sponsoring the 1988 Midwest Regional Timex-Sinclair-Amstead Conference on August 26 & 27 1988 near Cleveland Ohio, details available at next meet, or write Andy Kosiorek, Pres., [address omitted], Lakewood, Ohio (or on Compuserve at [e-mail address omitted] or Cleveland Freenet BBS, 216-368-3888 [e-mail address omitted] or Timelines BBS 216-671-6922 10p to 6a EST)
From member Harold Crandall, in response to Richard Hurd’s request of last Sep/Oct issue.
SPECTRUM TS2068 RECLAIM_2 19E8 1750 MAKE_ROOM 1655 1288 TEMPS 0D4D 0888 NEXT_2NUM 1C79 1BDC STK_TO_BC 2307 2660 CO_TEMP_3 21F2 239C EXPT_STRING 1C8C 18EF EXPT_2NUM 1C7A 1BDD
From the Northwest comes another August event, the 3rd Annual International Great NW TS Mini-Fair, 6 & 7 August 1989 in Portland OR. Contact Rod Gowen, 1419 1/2 7th Street, Oregon City, OR 97045 (503) 655-7484 Lots planned, speakers, exhibits and user group tables.
Perhaps one of the best functions of a nationwide user organization would be that of a vendor clearing house- if anyone was in doubt of a vendor’s current status, or heard one was closed, the story could be checked out BEFORE passing it on.
Thanks to Wes Brzozowski, Don Lamen, and John Colonna for their help with this issue, and thanks to Joan Kealy for the program, they will be part of the next swap tape/disc. Till next issue keep those cards and letters coming and stay healthy!