SINCUS NEWS will cease publishing after the July/August 1990 issue. SINCUS will send all articles to S.N.U.G.’s newsletter, “Roundup”. Due to a decline in subscriptions, and a reduction in input, I proposed a termination of the newsletter as it is, and replace it with a monthly meeting notice. Dues are going to be suspended, and all will be urged to subscribe to S.N.U.G. Corresponding members, please note the mailing label line above your name. “Last issue”, means this is the last issue due you. If the label has a spelled out number, “zero, one, two, etc”, that will be the number of issues remaining on your current subscription, after the July issue. You will get with your last issue in July a check for the amount of “that number times $1.33”. No money will be refunded for the extended issue offers. Swaps will cease with the July issue. All future business with SINCUS will be advertised and promoted thru the SNUG newsletter. Please subscribe to SNUG. Thanks to all members for your past support. Write to S.N.U.G. at Paul Holmgren, [address omitted], Indianapolis, IN Send a SASE for replies.
News from: The Boston TS User SIG of the Boston Computer Society, is closing up and reforming as the New England Sinclair QL User Group. Contact person is Richard Taylor, [address omitted], Tiverton, RI. Joyce Blaho, [address omitted], Medford, MA is still the N/L swap person. And from those folks we learn that “UPDATES” will be taken over by Frank Davis in October 1990. Rates reported to be $18/yr, 4 issues a year. SWYM, Seattle Area TSUG, Robert Cazares, [address omitted], Seattle, WA; passes on a review of the Panasonic KX-P1124 printer and Don Lambert’s review of MSCRIPT 5.5 from Jack Dohany; and a review of SNUG’s first newsletter. LAST Issue of FDD Express, 4307 Chambers Rd., Horseheads, NY 14845; Ron is getting totally involved with other computers and is selling his whole setup and odds and ends for $400. He passes on a note from Nazir Pashtoon about a 3.5″ drive he got from Digital One (Jan. issue ad on page 606 of Computer Shopper);price was $33. They were NEC 1035, 1036 and 1037 drives. The 1037 is 1/4 height, 720K drives which format to 620K in the FDD system. Reliable, cheap and 620K capacity! The Hacker, Las Vegas TSUG mentions the Z88 FAX News, Curtis Claar, 2342 Glendale Ave., Casper, WY 82601; a faxed newsletter for the Z88, costs $8 a year for 12 issues. Under their BBS column are several BBSs reviewed for your info, from NYC to California. And via Sinc-Link is a 2068 – Star ZX-1000/Aerco Centronics interface fix. From Richard Hurd, invert the strobe line from the Aerco Centronic IF to the Star printer. John Oliger gave Richard the tip. The Plotter, Clackamus County Area TSUG, 1419 1/2 7th Street, Oregon City, OR 97045 has a program for LKDOS so you don’t have to type the each file name into a LOAD menu program. An Article on a 2068 serial cable, and a review of Pix-Fx. TS Bulletin, Bill Harmer, [address omitted], Ottawa Ontario has much info as usual, Time Designs, Vol 5, No 2, is out,(29722 Hult Road, Colton, OR 97017;(No responce to a letter mailed in early March to this editor-PAH) Wm McKelvey, 744 Wall Rd., Spring Lake Heights,NJ 07762 is building heavy duty power supplies for the 2068. Bill goes into a squeeze, and discusses how the compressions of files comes about, and maybe someone would want to do that fer TS users!
Shooting some breezes: On the front of this newsletter, a small anouncement may go unnoticed, SINCUS is going with MSDOS. Over a period of time more of our declining enrollment has been switching over to MSDOS machines. The price is low for a 8088, .5 meg RAM, and a 20meg Harddisc. With disc drives, a printer and a monitor on hand, less than $600 is getting these folks in business. Reasons are many, and work related production is rarely on a QL or a 2068. The effect, as in most other TS groups, members are not renewing, costs are soaring, and dues are going up or newsletter’s size is being cut. A newsletter is the glue for it’s group, and a piece of the budget pie for all other publications. National pubs have to compete against each newsletter. With the declining subscriptions of newsletters and magazines, so declines writer’s input, the very reason for existance. Why buy a magazine or newsletter if it never has anything related to what you want to learn? And if the cost goes up, the content goes down, whose to subscribe? What if…all the newsletters send their articles to S.N.U.G. for publication. Currently, each group publishes monthly, or bi-monthly or quarterly or once in awhile. What if…all newsletters just sent out meeting and dues notices? What if … all groups charged its members just enough to cover minimal expenses? What if… S.N.U.G. charged $18 a year for its publications? What if … all TS users subscribed to SNUG? Could we keep the TS ball rolling for a few more years? Articles, reviews, how to’s, opinions, and news could be seperated into machine groups. Each article would get national exposure, groups or individuals could get some income from making tape or disc copies of software. Group swap expenses would be reduced to nil. Editors would still have to get the material and group related news ready for the national publication and send it in on time. Since writing this, S.N.U.G.’s Paul Holmgren came out with a similiar recommendation, that we all pull together and support a national newsletter. I feel it is a good time to get on the band wagon. We have missed meeting some groups, and I hope we meet more through SNUG, and more individual users. Paul Hill, Sincus News
I wish to thank all subscribers and readers for supporting this newsletter, and a very BIG THANKS to all the contributing writers.
Thanks to George Penney and Warren Fricke for their help with the input to this edition. And a very heart felt thanks to all who have helped out since 1982.
I do not wish to dictate the membership cost of SNUGs letter, on page seven, just shooting out a suggestion. The decision to stop SINCUS NEWS was not an easy one to make. Money, time and energy of several people goes into each issue, pride and ego is also a part of the letter. To stop, like to quit hitting one’s head on the wall feels good, but also the ego, pride suffers. But more than one’s silly ego, is the personal contact with so many of you TS users out there, that’s what I’ll miss the most. I’m thankful for the opportunity to have met some personally, and most by phone and letter. PAH