From the Cluttered Desk

Reader input plus other notes of interest

Hello and welcome to 1985 and another big year for T-S Horizons. We have many plans for the magazine this year and would greatly appreciate your ideas and suggestions. We do read your letters and as some of you can tell we also use your ideas.

Let me take care of some business before we jump into your letters.

First of all let me say that I have no connection with Ramex nor does their Mr. Scott Duncan have any connection with T-S Horizons. Some of you have been asking about this.

We recently ran out of back issue No. 3 and have since had reprints made. If you ordered and received one of these reprints (indicated as such on the cover) then you probably noticed a gramatical error in the heading. This was an oversight by our printer and you should rest assured that we do know the difference between edition and addition.

While digging through the cluttered desk this month I ran across several letters from people asking about the contents of back issues. A brief description of each can be found in the front of this issue.

I would like to take the time to say welcome to all who received T-S Horizons as a Christmas Gift Subscription. There were several. Also I’ve been meaning to send my thanks to Vern Tidwell whose letters are constantly appearing in my cluttered baskets. Thanks for writing, we enjoy your input. Thanks too, for all the letters from women. It seems there has been a notable increase in mail from your group. (Well Rick, I knew the picture on page 4 of issue 9 was a good idea).

Have you ever noticed the numbers above your name on the mailing labels? Well this represents the term of your subscription. The second number indicates the last issue you will receive. Again thanks to all who have sent in early renewals thus indicating continued confidence in our effort.

In the next issue I’ll be telling you who our 1500th subscriber is. Remember just two months ago when we told you about subscriber number 1000? Well our new goal is to award a prize to number 2068 by April first.

On Rick’s behalf we would like to thank Myles Lemon for clarifying the rock situation in T-SH #10, Horizons awards section. The original statement was obviously meant to indicate our ignorance of the blessings of civilization and technology (?) and is taken from the science-fiction classic “Hitchhikers Guide To The Universe”. That’s one for the “for what it’s worth” department. Here’s one from the free advertisement department in response to a letter from O.L. Orme.

%%% INCOME TAX PROGRAM %%%

Would like to know if there are any good Income Tax programs available, for the T/S 1000.

Hoping to hear from you soon.

Thank You, O.L. Orme, Richmond, CA

Check page 32 of this issue for ksoft co. It’s worth the effort.

!!! COMPLAINTS/COMPLIMENTS !!!

In the current issue of T-S Horizons, you asked for comments on your publication, particularly the 40-page format. I, for one, had to unstaple the entire booklet in order to read the articles in the first half, because the “binder” edge of each page was hidden by the fold area, sometimes 4 or 5 characters deep. I suggest that if you publish another 40-page issue, you allow a wider blank in the center of each sheet for the fold-and-staple operation.

Until last fall, there was a seemingly very active branch of the “Southwestern TSUG” (also mentioned in the issue) located in Albuquerque. It folded in August or September, but in November John Brown was attempting to reorganize it. His address is [address omitted].

Overall, I enjoy your magazine very much. Please keep up your support of the ZX-81, TS-1000, TS-1500 series. There are millions of owners of these machines (plus two or three Microace owners) who have not yielded to the 2068 temptation.

Rick Cavaness
Farmington, NM

Rick, thanks for letting me know. Watch your P.O. Box for a better copy.

↑↑↑ PRINTER HINT ↑↑↑

First of all let me congratulate you on your 1st anniversary. I have enjoyed each of your fine issues.

Secondly, we now have the manufacturing and distribution rights for programs written by Kendric C. Smith. Page 2 of the enclosed price list give the titles and descriptions of his programs. We have converted his ZX81 programs for use with the TS2068.

Here are a few tips that you may want to share with your readers, we have found them useful:

If you have a TS2068 connected to a full-sized printer you may not be able to COPY the screen, here is a little routine that can be used instead of the command COPY:

10 FOR x=0 TO 21
20 FOR i=0 TO 31
30,LPRINT SCREEN$ (x,i);
40 NEXT i
50 NEXT x

The above routine can be inserted wherever the command COPY appears.

Keep up the good work.

Sincerely,
William M. Johnson
WMJ Data Systems
4 Butterfly Drive
Hauppauge, New York 11788

+++ BANNER ADDITION +++

In your December issue you have a banner program for the 2068 that works very well but has one major shortcoming: it can’t print user defined graphics.

I have a short and simple remedy for this situation. Simply add the following to the end of line 13.

:IF L>16383 THEN LET
L=65367+8*(CODE C$ (Z)-144)

I’m sure this simple addition will interest those 2068 users who typed in and ran the program.

I really liked your 40 page issue. Keep up the good work.

Sincerely, David Howell Orland, CA

Thanks David, I’ll pass it along.

$$$ VOTE OF CONFIDENCE $$$

I have just read your December issue (No.10) and can say without qualification that your publication has steadily improved over time. As you will observe from your records, my first subscription was for 6 issues. That in part was an expression of skepticism that your newsletter would survive any appreciable time. The check I’m enclosing is for 12 additional issues – an expression of confidence in your continuing to provide a fine service to us TS users.

Sincerely,
Louis Holder

This concludes the second round of my journalistic effort. I appreciate all who have written this month and would have liked to print more if only we had room. None the less, we do read your mail and use your suggestions. Until next month keep writing and watch out for those banging rocks.