Info-IBMPC@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL ("Info-IBMPC Digest") (03/26/91)
Info-IBMPC Digest Mon, 4 Mar 91 Volume 91 : Issue 50
Today's Editor:
Gregory Hicks - Rota Spain <GHICKS@WSMR-Simtel20.Army.Mil>
Today's Topics:
alignment diskettes (2 msgs)
Does UUPC need National Language Support?
VGA
Today's Queries:
adding memory to a 286 machine
Capture Data from Centronics-port
Hard disk diagnostic question.
Hard Drive Choice?
Microsoft Aircraft & Scenery Designer?
MS WORD 5.5 on an Amstrad 2086
Program for validated data input
Tiff File Format
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Date: Thu, 28 Feb 91 11:56:32 GMT
From: Peter Keenan - MIS Dept UCD <PKEENAN%IRLEARN.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu>
Subject: alignment diskettes
Fellow PC users
In my university we have an undergraduate micro lab with about 60
rather ancient dual 5.25" low density floppy compatibles. These
machines are from 3-5 years old. These floppy drives (mostly TEAC)
give problems, data errors, disks formatted on one machine not working
on another etc. We use drive cleaning disks regularly but obviously
there are problems with heads drifting out of alignment which is
causing problems other than dirty heads. We don't want to throw all the
drives out, but if we could identify the worst ones we could change
those.
I have seen alignment diskettes advertised, e.g by Dysan. Has anyone
any experience of using these, are they likely to identify/ realign
those drives with alignment problems? Thanks in advance.
Peter Keenan
Dept of Management Information Systems
University College Dublin
Dublin 4
Ireland
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Date: Thu, 28 Feb 91 21:11:00 CST
From: 55SRWLGS <55srwlgs%SACEMNET.AF.MIL@uga.cc.uga.edu>
Subject: alignment diskettes
Mr. Keenan,
Outside of alignment diskettes, your machines may have another
problem - dirty boards. A lot of the PC's I work with are about as old
as yours. They're mostly Zenith Z-248's, a PC/AT clone type of micro.
We keep having all sorts of oddball problems with the floppy drives.
I haven't run into the ones you describe, yet, but I won't be surprised
when I do.
I and my co-workers have found that cleaning all of the boards which
stand up at the back of the machine does a lot of good. I'm talking
about all the boards which have disk drive wires attached, those which
have printer ports, etc.
Usually, just going over the bottom edge of the board with a pencil
eraser is sufficient. Of course, you will want to insure you leave no
eraser fragments on the board. You could use some isopropyl (rubbing)
alcohol, and some audio cleaning (more tightly rapped) cotton swabs, or
Q-tips.
One special caution: if you remove the board which has the battery
backup for your PC (our Z-248's have the battery on one of these
removeable boards), you will loose all of your set-up information. If
your PC doesn't have some sort of restore utility, you'll want to use
one which will store onto a safety floppy disk (hopefully you can get a
good write) setup information - things like partition table info, CMOS
(if applicable), directory information, etc.
Hope this is of some help.
Frank Starr
55srwlgs@sacemnet.af.mil
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 28 Feb 1991 19:44:22 EST
From: Drew Derbyshire - UUPC/Extended Help Desk <help@kendra.kew.com>
Subject: Does UUPC need this?
[Drew and group have been discussing National Language Sets and trying
to decide if UUPC (Available from Simtel20 and other sources) needs this
type of support.]
> Yes UUPC needs this, if used outside of the US of A.
Before you get too carried away, go read the UUPC/extended documents
and find the disclainer that I wrote UUPC/extended for me, and keep it
up mostly because Snuffle's mom is in California and has E-mail access
for free.
> In Europe the char set standard these days is ISO8859/1 which is 8 bits.
> Many characters are outside of the a-z range.
> We Europeans have just experienced a few years converting
> everything from the US 7 bit world to 8 bits. This now will be true
> also for Unix systems with the advent of SUNOs 4.1 and the most recent
> system 5 release.
I am aware there are non-US language requirements; in this forum I
rarely point out what I do for a living, but it happens to be writing
code under contract to a leading computer vendor ... a company with
offices in countries you never heard of. It has taught me a fair
amount about language independent programming.
Your solution only goes half-way, as it doesn't allow for translation
outside of English without changing program source. Changing source
for this is a messy job at best. Having written NLS applications, I'm
not in the mood to make UUPC/extended one because it doesn't always
work in English (yet).
> Sp please for your future developments make applications 8bit clean
> and provide automatic conversion of text data when moving from
> one 8 bit OS environment to another.
> So 8 bits is indeed standard and will be needed EVERYwhere you use
> textstrings.
You're wrong, actually. A good application has to support Double Byte
Character Sets (DBCS) for Japanese and other languages. Eight bytes is
only a subset of this.
And it should use code pages, because that's what they are there for.
(And I've not even seen the code yet ...)
-ahd-
--
Drew Derbyshire "Send me your bug reports, your hacks, your ..."
All UUPC mail: help@kendra.kew.com U.S. Snail: 108 Decatur St, Apt 9
Personal mail: ahd@kendra.kew.com Arlington, MA 02714
Disclaimer: If I could type, I'd be dangerous.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 28 Feb 91 18:51:04 MEZ
From: Thomas <UNP072%DBNRHRZ1.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu>
Subject: VGA
Hello,
as you might have noticed so far, i own an ET4000 VGA card. I have
bought it, after i had read several times, that it's the fastest 'dumb'
VGA chip set so far. My VGA is a no name Taiwan VGA (Puretec). I didn't
have any trouble with true blue compatibility. VGATEST told me, that
it's not register compatible in one of the CGA modes, but this was of
no interest to me so far. It was quite cheap - cheaper than any of
these brand X cards (Video 7, EIZO, ATI, Genoa...) with 512K, but was
equipped with 1Meg.
BUT: ask yourself, if your CPU is fast enough for 1024*768*256. For
blanking the screen you have to transfer 768K to the screen. This lasts
up to 2 sec. If time doesn't play a role, it's nice. (eg. regarding
GIF-pictures (there are some).) But for running WIN3, this resolution
seems to be too slow for me (on a 20MHz '386). A higher screen
frequency as offered by Genoa 6400A seems to be of more use than 1Meg
of video memory, then. You need a better monitor for this, though
(higher video band width), than for the usual VGA cards.
An important question for or against a special VGA is if the driver for
your special applications is supplied with the card (or the
application) *and* that it actually works! (An 8514 emulater that came
with my card didn't.) If you want to run an esotheric application, be
sure to get a common VGA and vice versa. This is just important, if you
want to use resolutions above 640*480. VGAs are compatible in true
blue modes. (Even some EGAs are ;-)
1024*768 non interlaced requires a better (and thus more expensive)
monitor than interlaced, but it makes a significant difference, except
when regarding GIF-pictures.
If you want to make use of any resolution above 640*480 (720*400
resp.), you should invest in a monitor with 0.28mm dot mask or a 16"
monitor. The first one is about US$ 1000 in Germany, the latter one
(eg. Eizo 9070) US$ 1500. If you are unsure, if or not to take one,
put a bright white grid on it and look, if lines are straight and if
they doesn't decomposite too much in the corners. If you found one
which seems to be ok, insist on getting that one: monitors differ from
one to the next specimen...
- Thomas
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 28 Feb 91 15:31:16 EST
From: Ted Chong <UOG01171@vm.uoguelph.ca>
Subject: adding memory to a 286 machine
I have a clone 286 machine with 1Mb memory, 40Mb harddrive and a VGA
monitor. When I am running window 3.0, they just keep asking me to
close some windows because of a lack of memory on my system. I want to
see if I can add more memeory on to the motherboard (I think the
motherboard can take more that 1 MB of memory). Besides, how to find
out what kind of memory I need, how to install the memory chips, or is
their any specific steps I need to know etc... Is there any program
that can check if my machine is o.k. or not.
Any help or advice is very welcome!
Ted Chong
E-mail address : UOG01171@VM.UOGUELPH.CA
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 28 Feb 91 18:02 N
From: <BRATRICH%DULRUU51.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Subject: Capture Data from Centronics-port
Does anyone know how to reprogram the printerport for input? We like
to capture data send by a (non IBM) netmonitor via Centroncs-port with
a laptop.
1) Is it possible to simulate a Centroncs-printer with the printerport?
This means: is it possible to capture 8-bit data and serve the
handshake lines? (Some other programs like Lap-Link, which use the
printerport for data transmission seem to use only 4 lines for data,
the rest for handshake.)
2) Is there any Software to simulate a Centronics-printer.
Michael Bratrich Universitaet Ulm
Abt. Exp. Physik
Bitnet: BRATRICH@DULRUU51 Albert-Einstein-Allee 11
Internet: BRATRICH@RZ.UNI-ULM.DBP.DE D 7900 Ulm
Phone: +49 (0)731 / 176-2501 West-Germany
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Date: Thu, 28 Feb 91 13:18:50 EST
From: IP85272%PORTLAND.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu
Subject: Hard disk diagnostic question.
I have a Miniscribe 20m drive that came with some generic setup
utilities. I have had the drive for over a year and have never had any
errors when running the diagnostic utility. I have recently reformatted
the drive and everything seems to be working OK, but the diagnostic
util now gives the message "ECC Test failed." The utility also performs
a read/write, seek, and scan test with no problems.
What exactly is an ECC test and what does failing to pass it
indicate? Again, everything seems to work fine. Do I have a problem
that is about to make itself known? Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.
Mark Stoffan
Graduate Student, New England Studies
Consultant, Academic Computing services
University of Southern maine
IP85272@PORTLAND.BITNET (Bitnet)
IP85272@portland.maine.edu (Internet)
------------------------------
Date: 28 Feb 1991 08:51:57 EST
From: WILSON@NAUVAX.UCC.NAU.EDU
Subject: Hard Drive Choice?
I am thinking of buying a Conner 104mb IDE drive from Hard Drives Intl.
Has anyone had experience with these? I need to install the drive in a
12mhz AT clone. I am running MSDOS 3.3 with Windows 3.0. I am also
using a Deluxe copy option board. Any good or bad experiences with
these drives or the vendor?
Bill Wilson
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Date: Thu, 28 Feb 91 12:07:11 EST
From: fkuhl@maestro.mitre.org (F. S. Kuhl)
Subject: Microsoft Aircraft & Scenery Designer?
Any other serious users out there of Microsoft's Aircraft and Scenery
Designer for Flight Simulator? In particular does anyone know how the
ground elevation is set in scenery disks, and whether it can be
adjusted? It appears that runways aren't allowed to be above the
surrounding elevation--is there any way around this?
Frederick Kuhl fkuhl@mitre.org
Center for Advanced Aviation Systems Development
The MITRE Corporation
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Date: Thu, 28 Feb 91 17:11:03 GMT
From: Andrew McLean <PHR050@ibm.southampton.ac.uk>
Subject: MS WORD 5.5 on an Amstrad 2086
I have recently installed Microsoft Word 5.5 on a friend's Amstrad 2086
and experienced some difficulty with the mouse driver. I don't really
understand the technical details but the 2086 comes with a built in
mouse which is activated by a program called mouse.com. This worked
fine with WORD 5.0 but when WORD 5.5 was installed it crashed when
switched to graphics mode - not immediately but after a bit of use and
some very interesting screen effects. The problem was largely
alleviated by installing the mouse with the command "MOUSE /1" with is
supposed to emulate a Microsoft serial mouse. This is not ideal for a
number of reasons - I still don't get a mouse pointer in anything
except 25x40 graphics mode eg. no pointer in 30x40 mode. By
installing the mouse to emulate a serial mouse I lose some of the
functionality in other programs.
Any suggestions would be gratefully received, the computer has the
Paradise VGA which comes with the computer and the Mouse Driver claims
to be Version 5.00a. Is there possibly a later version and if so where
do I get it? Thanks in advance.
Andrew McLean | Janet : PHR050@UK.AC.SOTON.IBM
Department of Physics | Earn/Bitnet : PHR050@IBM.SOTON.AC.UK
The University | or : PHR050%UK.AC.SOTON.IBM@UKACRL
Highfield | INTERNET : PHR050@IBM.SOTON.AC.UK
Southampton | uucp : PHR050%UK.AC.SOTON.IBM@ukc.uucp
tel. (0703) 593084
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 28 Feb 91 17:13:52 GMT
From: Andrew McLean <PHR050@ibm.southampton.ac.uk>
Subject: Program for validated data input
I have been looking, with little success so far, for a pd or shareware
program to allow an operator to enter some simple data with validation
of the input fields which is to be stored in an ASCII file.
The background to my problem is that I have a database application
which maintains a database which will need to be updated regularly
(daily) with survey information from a number of sources. What I want
to do is have a number of people at different sites enter this data
into an ASCII file and batch update the database from this information.
The only problem is that I would like some simple validation of the
data at the point of entry - so just typing it into your favorite Word
Processor just won't do. This will consist of checking that numeric
data falls within a given range and that alpha numeric codes are
contained in a list of valid values. I could write the program but
someone must have done it before and I want it to be very user
friendly.
If anyone could point me in the right direction I would be very
grateful particularly if they have had experience using the product. I
will summarise for the list.
Andrew McLean | Janet : PHR050@UK.AC.SOTON.IBM
Department of Physics | Earn/Bitnet : PHR050@IBM.SOTON.AC.UK
The University | or : PHR050%UK.AC.SOTON.IBM@UKACRL
Highfield | INTERNET : PHR050@IBM.SOTON.AC.UK
Southampton | uucp : PHR050%UK.AC.SOTON.IBM@ukc.uucp
tel. (0703) 593084
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 28 Feb 91 18:53 EDT
From: Danny Taub <DATAUB@vaxsar.vassar.edu>
Subject: Tiff File Format
A friend here at Vassar has asked me if I can find out the file
formats of TIFF files. If anyone has any information, please send
information either to the net or to me directly. Thanks in advance.
Danny Taub
Dataub@Vassar.Bitnet
Dataub@Vassar.Edu
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End of Info-IBMPC Digest V91 #50
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