Info-IBMPC@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL ("Info-IBMPC Digest") (08/01/90)
Info-IBMPC Digest Tue, 31 Jul 90 Volume 90 : Issue 123
Today's Editor:
Gregory Hicks - Rota Spain <GHICKS@WSMR-Simtel20.Army.Mil>
Today's Topics:
BGI driver for laser printer wanted.
Hardware Signature
High-density floppy in PC/XT
Addendum to Mail to GEnie
Formatting Disk Problems and Fixes for PS/2s
Printer (Epson) Compatability
Mailing list program wanted
1.44M disk drive and phoenix bios
PC Magnet Utilities wanted
Replay
The Latest PibTerm
Today's Queries:
DOS bug using APPEND/X
General Modem type stupidity
problem with hard disk..
Turbo Pascal Bugs with DOS 3.3 and Different Density Disks
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 26 Jul 90 14:44 EDT
From: psrc@mtunq.att.com (Paul S R Chisholm)
Subject: BGI driver for laser printer wanted.
In article <900725142955.V90N118@WSMR-Simtel20.Army.Mil> Julian Daley
<jdaley%uxg.umds.lon.ac.uk@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU> writes:
> Turbo C has a nice way of handling graphics for different sorts of
> displays. What I want is a HPLASER.BGI file that I can load instead
> of EGAVGA.BGI and then get high resolution hard copy graphics on a
> HP LASERJET.
While it isn't quite what you asked for, Ithaca Street Software has a
product called Baby Driver. According to the blurb in the Programmer's
Connection catalog, it "provides full-function printer support for
graphics applications written to use Turbo C BGI, Microsoft Quick C and
5.0 [I've got an old catalog handy] graphics, or MetaWINDOW." The
basic product lists for $100, with a "developer's version" for $150; I
have *no* idea what the difference is. Programmer's Connection asked
$89 and $135, respectively.
I don't have contact information for Ithaca Street software handy
(except that I know it's not the same bunch as Ithaca Software, which
makes a graphics library known as HOOPS. Programmer's Connection is at
800-336-1166 (U.S.A.), 800-225-1166 (Canada), 216-494-3781 (elsewhere),
7249 Whipple Ave. NW, North Canton, OH, 44720.
>Julian Daley, JANET: jdaley @ uk.ac.lon.umds.uxg
>Guy's Hospital, EARN/BITNET: jdaley % uxg.umds.lon.ac.uk @ ukacrl
>London, England. INTERNET: jdaley % uxg.umds.lon.ac.uk @ cunyvm.cuny.ed
Paul S. R. Chisholm, AT&T Bell Laboratories
att!mtunq!psrc, psrc@mtunq.att.com, AT&T Mail !psrchisholm
Disclaimer: I'm not speaking for my employers, I'm just quoting out of
a catalog. Not only have I never used Baby Driver, or any other Ithaca
Street product, I've never gotten any feedback from the *many* people
who've asked this question in the past. C'mon, folks, have *any* of
you who've wondered about this in the past ever actually *done*
anything about it???
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 27 Jul 90 09:56:21 -0400
From: David Kirschbaum <kirsch@usasoc.soc.mil>
Subject: Hardware Signature
>>> From: Lee Teng Kiat <kiat@hpsgk1.hp.com>
>
>>> I am working on something that requires me to uniquely identify
>>> each PC in an office. Is there any kind of hardware signature much like
>>> our finger prints that distinguish machines of the same make and
>>> configuration? I would really appreciate any kind of help Thanks.
>
>Why not put a unique volume name oh each hard disk? Or do you need
>something secure?
Hmmm .. given the same make and configuration, the ROM might have an ID
or copyright, date, etc. that would lend a certain level of
"uniqueness" to like machines. However, that configuration .. would be
TOUGH to automate that, trying to discover ALL similarities, etc. Looks
like a human has to intervene here.
As you inferred, volume name isn't very secure (since ANYONE could
change it). Maybe a tricky tricky "bad sector" that's mapped to be
bad, but ACTUALLY has magic secret unique identification data? Doable,
fer shur, and the usual "innocent" user won't trip over what it's
REALLY for. Won't keep the real bad guys out, of course, and it would
be changed/lost if anyone reformatted the disk, "recovered" bad
sectors, etc.
Would be kinda like the copyright protection some of the software
publishers were using with their secret tracks, "invisible" files, etc.
Bogus for copyright protection, but might be useful for this fellow.
David Kirschbaum
Toad Hall
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 26 Jul 90 12:56:00 EST
From: Rick Beebe <BEEBE%YALEMED.BITNET@VM1.NoDak.EDU>
Subject: High-density floppy in PC/XT
>Lately I read somewhere that it should be possible to install a 1.44Mb
>3.5 inch floppy drive in a PC/XT. Is that correct? - Jim.
Yes, but there are a couple of things to be careful of, and you'll need
to buy some hardware.
The original IBM PC BIOS can't handle a 3 1/2" disk. You need one dated
10/27/82 or later. You can check by going into debug and typing
d f000:fffc
If it comes up with a date after 10/27/82 you're all set. XTs and most
clones are okay.
Next you need a high density floppy controller. There are several
companies that sell them including PC Connection and CompuAdd. I've had
good success with CompuAdd's . It's $49 and supports two floppies of
any configuration. PC Connection sells one (if memory serves...) that
will support 4 floppies.
On a real IBM PC/XT you'll need to buy a power Y splitter (about $6).
Most clones have enough power connectors. Check and see.
You'll also need DOS 3.30 or greater. DOS 3.2 can only support 720K
drives.
It's a pretty easy mod that only takes about an hour (I've done 15 or
so here). The only tricky part (on real PCs/XTs) is physically
mounting the drive. There are only mounting holes for the lower drive
on them (floppies were full-height when the XT came out!). On many of
the XTs that I've upgraded I've replaced a full-height floppy with a
half-height 5 1/4 and a half-height 3 1/2. CompuAdd's 360K 5 1/4 comes
with a mounting plate that solves this problem. Unfortunately, it
doesn't come with their high density 5 1/4 or the 3 1/2 and they won't
sell it separately. There are options though. Jameco sells the plates
for about $5 each. I've also seen them in some of the more eclectic
electronics stores and at computer flea markets.
Have fun...
Rick Beebe (203) 785-4566
Biomedical Computing Unit
Yale University School of Medicine
333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 06514
BEEBE@YALEMED.BITNET
beebe%biomed.decnet@venus.ycc.yale.edu
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 27 Jul 90 12:14:29 CDT
From: "Mark Moody" <CCMARKM@UMCVMB.MISSOURI.EDU>
Subject: Addendum to Mail to GEnie
Just a quick addendum regarding mail to GEine. I enquired a few months
ago about this and they told me they were considering a usenet link but
I never have heard anything more about it.
Mark
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 26 Jul 90 10:07:00 EDT
From: Don Kazem <DKAZEM%NAS@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU>
Subject: Formatting Disk Problems and Fixes for PS/2s
This is in response to Rust Waterfield's question about formatting
disks. According to IBM, there is a problem with the bios in certain
PS/2 models that causes problems with formatting disks.
They have released a device driver called DASDDRVR.SYS that takes care
of the problems.
While I am not sure this is the solution to your problem, it may be
worth your while to pursue it.
Don Kazem
National Academy of Sciences
Washington DC
DKAZEM@NAS.BITNET
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 26 Jul 90 22:23:09 PDT
From: Bob Hardy <hardy@lucid.com>
Subject: Printer (Epson) Compatability (2 msgs)
Jon Robertson, President of King_Trade <JMROBERTSON@UALR.BITNET>,
says:
Hello. I am writing a program which prints charts out to a printer.
The printer I am using is an Epson LX-810, which uses <ESC>t chr(1)
(without the space) to select the Epson Extended Graphics. I am
wondering if this command will select the extended graphics character
table on all printers. If not, what is the easiest way to get a list
of printers and the command they use to select different character
tables?
As I recall, there used to be a book (title and publisher forgotten)
that catalogued all the common printers of the day as far as control
codes. It would be very much out of date by now, and it used to cost
about $60. You can cover a lot of modern printers with only 3 or 4
sets of control codes. The Gemini 10X was a Star printer with Epson
semi-compatability, and used one of these few most common schemes.
ESC-T to a Star Gemini 10X cancels superscript, subscript and
unidirectional modes. For graphics, the usual "line header" is
ESC-K n1 n2
where n1 the lobyte and n2 is the hibyte of the number of bytes that
follow this "header". This is one of the several fairly common "engage
printer graphics mode" schemes. ESC-L n1 n2 engages the hi-res mode.
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 27 Jul 90 09:56:25 -0400
From: David Kirschbaum <kirsch@usasoc.soc.mil>
Subject: Mailing list program wanted
>From: (Marshall D. Abrams) <abrams@smiley.mitre.org>
>
>I am looking for recommendations concerning a program to maintain
>mailing lists. I have several lists that I would like to add to a
>common database. Each list should be identified with a key. I want to
>be able to specify which labels to print as logical functions of these
>keys. The most flexible system would allow any combination of AND, OR,
>and NOT.
This part is easy. I've done it several times using the shareware
WAMPUM DBMS, no problem at all. Also several freeware/public domain
mailing list mgrs out there would do it easily.
>I would also like to be able to sort the printed labels by last name,
>organization, and/or zip code. I want to be able to specify 1-up or
>multiple labels per line.
Again, easy with WAMPUM and its LABEL.EXE utility (I think from
Clipper). Also with the mailing list mgrs.
>When entering the individual lists into the system, the most flexible
>software would recognize near-matches as well as exact duplicates. It
>would ask me what to do about the near matches. (In many cases, I
>expect that the near matches would represent slightly different
>addresses, or small differences in name such as the treatment of the
>middle name.)
Oops .. NOT so easy! I have a SOUNDEX algorithm lying about here
somewhere that works fine with dBase or Clipper (when you're doing
programming), but there's no way to add the SOUNDEX function to the
hard-coded WAMPUM DBMS. And I do NOT recall any of the readily
available public domain mailing list managers doing anything like this!
I could POSSIBLY do a hack to one of them (given source) that would add
a SOUNDEX function, but maybe you just don't wanna do that!
Let me tell you a story. (Disinterested page down a couple.)
I had a MASSIVE problem integrating about 4 different database files
into one single file. Since different people had created/maintained
each, there were identical individuals with slightly different name and
address spellings, changed phone numbers, etc. NO WAY these differences
were gonna be picked out automatically! And there were THOUSANDS of
them! We're talking MEGABYTES of data here, folks.
Simple: I alphabetized the entire horrible mess by LAST_NAME and
browsed through the mess, looking for likely matches (and asking for
help or additional information when I couldn't be sure WHICH entry was
correct).
Then I re-alphabetized by FIRST_NAME and did a fast scan just in case
I'd missed some near-hit last names. BORING, but proved worthwhile
since I found numerous duplicates.
Then I re-alphabetized by ADDRESS and did another fast scan.
Surprisingly, found some MORE duplicate hits (where the names had
REALLY been butchered by keypunch artists).
Ended up cutting about 15000 entries down to 4500 or so. AMAZING! They
paid for my entire effort ($45 an hour), plus the WAMPUM registration,
with the savings from the first mailing or so!
But had NO magic way to "sounds like" .. and turns out I wouldn't have
wanted such an animal anyway.
Hope this helps.
David Kirschbaum
Toad Hall
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 27 Jul 90 10:42:08 pdt
From: Danny Low <dlow@hpspcoi.hp.com>
Subject: 1.44M disk drive and phoenix bios
>KNAPIK%NAUVAX.BITNET@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu
>A couple weeks ago I started getting a
>setup message whenever I turned on the computer stating that there is
>an error in the Setup. F1 to setup F2 to continue. At this point if I
>go into the setup utility, everything is correct. If I continue, the
>disk works fine. If I hit the reset button, the error does not come up
>(it also does not do a memory test).
The most likely cause in my experience is the CMOS battery is dying.
Any electronics store should carry replacement batteries. The location
of the battery varies but is somewhere inside the system and should not
be too difficult to locate. It is a 6V lithium battery.
The other possibility is a short that closes once the system warms up
after the power is turned on. That would be very difficult to track
down. A standard remedy among repairers is pull and reseat all boards
and cables. That often removes the short.
Danny Low.
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 27 Jul 90 09:56:14 -0400
From: David Kirschbaum <kirsch@usasoc.soc.mil>
Subject: PC Magnet Utilities wanted
>I need to download PC Magazine Utililties but I can not use PcMagNet at
>any reasonable cost.
>
>What I am looking for is Charles Petzold's PM and Windows Utilities.
>Could anyone give me a hint where I could download this from via
>BITFTP@PUCC.
Why don't you snarf the appropriate source volume from SIMTEL20?
PD2:<MSDOS2.PCMAG> has them all. All you need is the file name. (I
THINK you BITNET guys can ftp .. the header on this very newsletter
says so anyway!) [Can't FTP directly. Have to use Listserv commands
to receive files via mail... gph]
If you have NO idea as to the correct volume/file name, EMail me again
and I'll dig thru the volumes I have archived locally for my PC .. I
don't keep ALL the stuff in each volume, but might be able to locate
that package. (I think I might have an index of PC Mag articles/code
around here somewhere too.)
David Kirschbaum
Toad Hall
kirsch@usasoc.soc.mil
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 27 Jul 90 10:21:52 -0700
From: Alan Marks <marksal@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Replay
In comp.sys.ibm.pc.digest henk%spex.nl@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU writes:
>I recently got a program from SIMTEL called REPLAY.EXE. It came with 3
>digital audio files as samples. One was Robin Williams saying "good
>morning Vietnam" and another was HAL 9000 saying "I'm sorry Dave, I'm
>afraid I can't do that". Does anyone know where I can get more files to
>play with this program. I've FTP'd some but can't find any.
Try terminator.cc.umich.edu under atari/sound/sound. They have some 75
files that should work. By the way, does anyone know if R.E. Zobell,
the author of this fine program has an email address other that on
GEnie?
--Alan
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 26 Jul 1990 17:51:09 EDT
From: FAC_RGB@VAX1.ACS.JMU.EDU (Bob Brookshire)
Subject: The Latest PibTerm
I spoke to Phil Burns, PibTerm author, a couple of weeks ago. PibTerm
is now a commercial product--actually, three products. PibTerm EZ is a
basic communications package, PibTerm Professional is a communications
program with all the bells and whistles, including scripting, graphics
terminal emulation, host mode, etc., and PibTerm LAN is an asynchronous
modem sharing program for Novell and NetBIOS networks. You can get
more information from:
Broadview Communications Software, Inc.
Northwestern University Basic Industry Research Lab
1801 Maple Ave.
Evanston, IL 60201
phone: (708) 491-2880
fax: (708) 491-4486
I received this information from Broadview as I am compiling a
directory of low-cost software for small businesses. I have no
affiliation with Phil Burns or Broadview Communications.
Bob Brookshire
Information & Decision Sciences (703) 568-3429
James Madison University BITNET: FAC_RGB@JMUVAX1
Harrisonburg, VA 22807 Internet: fac_rgb@vax1.acs.jmu.edu
------------------------------
Subject: Today's Queries:
Date: Fri, 27 Jul 90 12:13 EST
From: <BOB%CRNLGSM.BITNET@CORNELLC.cit.cornell.edu>
Subject: DOS bug using APPEND/X
Due to the large number of batch files on our PC network, we use the
APPEND /X command in our autoexec's to allow DOS to search network
directories for executable commands. Unfortunately, this seems to
cause conflicts with other DOS commands, most notably the DIR command;
when APPEND /X is loaded on many (but not all) of our pc's, a request
for a directory of one drive will often result in a listing of a
different drive! So far, we haven't heard of any instances of data
loss from this, but it is very disconcerting to users, and very
annoying to us computer folks.
Does anyone out there (MICROSOFT???) have an explanation and a patch
for this long-standing bug in DOS?
Thanks,
Bob Schechtman
Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management
BITNET: BOB@CRNLGSM
------------------------------
Date: 27 Jul 1990 00:35-EDT
From: JKAISLER@A.ISI.EDU
Subject: General Modem type stupidity
I have a client that is using a product of my company and would like
to add communications links to the outside world. My product runs on
a Novell lan and uses several PC and unix machines to accomplish it's
task. Now the client wants to transfer some of the information to
host sites situated around the US. Access to the hosts sites is
through dialup capability only. The sites can be simple minis to ibm
iron. The client has dumped a few specs on me to force my
opinion/bias one way. The basic requirements are:
1. Support 3270, 3770, 3780, 2780, emulations to IBM mainframe
2. Support both Async and Sync operation
3. Support Kermit, and X/Y/Zmodem
4. Support SNA sessions
5. Provide 1200-9600 baud capability (V.32)
6. Client likes the following
a) Black Box V.32 modem
b) Black Box BCS (bisync comm software)
c) Black box 201 C and 208 A/B modems
What I would like are any body's experience with the above products or
similar products. Either horror stories about connectiviety or some
successful connections.
Joe Kaisler ARPA: jkaisler%A.ISI.EDU
System Architect BIX: jkaisler
Intelligent Vision Image Systems
Suite A
44407 Forbes Boulevard
Lanham, Md. 20706
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 27 Jul 1990 10:34:10 CDT
From: KUMAR@ENTO.TAMU.EDU (Dvq't B|g mh)
Subject: problem with hard disk..
Hi! Fellow Netters,
I have an AT clone which I bought two years ago. It had a 20M
Seagate hard disk. I never had any problems with the computer - not
until I decided to buy another hard disk.
I bought Seagate's ST250-1 42M hard disk, installed it, and
pre-formatted it with the SETUP utility I had received with my
computer. Then I tried partitioning it with FDISK. But no matter how I
try to partition it, the partition is always 20M and 11M. When I
partition it and display partition information without exiting FDISK,
the information shown is the way I want it. Once I exit FDISK, the
system reboots itself. Then I get a noise in the new hard disk, and
the partition again gets adjusted to 20M and 11M (God only knows what
happened to my other 11M). Later I found out that I had a boot-legged
BIOS, so I changed it to AWARD 286 Bios. But the problem still exists.
I also tried all sorts of combinations of preformatting and disk
partitioning using DISK MANAGER, a software utility provided with the
hard disk, but to no avail.
Is it the problem with the hard disk controller itself? My hard disk
controller (and floppy disk controller) are not on a separate card but
are attached to the motherboard itself. The company which sold me this
computer doesn't seem to exist anymore.
Does anybody have any suggestions (besides changing the mother
board)?
I have MS-DOS 3.1 on my computer and both the hard disks I have are
of MFM type.
- Kumar
INTERNET - kumar@ento.tamu.edu
BITNET - kumar@tamento
DECNET - ENTO::KUMAR
YELLNET - (409)846-2757
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 27 Jul 90 15:01:23 SST
From: Luther Chan <CCECHAN%NUSVM.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Subject: TURBO PASCAL 5.0, 5.5 BUGS with DOS 3.3 and Different Desnity Disks
I have discovered a bug in Turbo Pascal 5.0 and 5.5 when running on DOS
3.3. This bug has been confirmed by many people in the lab here,
because they use turbo pascal to teach PASCAL language.
The machine used was PHILIPS P3204(IBM PC-AT compatible) running MS-DOS
3.3 with two diskette drives, one disk drive High density 1.2M, one
360K, no harddisk. The same problem happened if the disk drives are
both 1.2 M or both 1.44M, or one 1.2M and one 1.44M.
The problem:
It can be simulated easily, the bootable diskette contain all the turbo
pascal files. Data disk on B drive low density 360K or 720K, if data
disk were 1.2M or 1.44M there will no error. If you have a harddisk
disable it.
1) type turbo on A.
2) In turbo integrated environment, goto OS shell.
3) dir b: (this b:drive can have program or data,it has to be 360K or 720K)
or just change drive to b:
4) exit (return to your turbo environment.)
5) now try to change drive with the menu or dir.
--->>> You should get: Critical error on Drive a: Retry or Abort? <<<<----
(note: the message may be not exactly as worded).
I have tried it on other machine that use 286 or AT compatible with the same
setup the problem will exist. It will not happen if you have a harddisk or
both diskettes with 1.2M or 1.44M or one 1.2M one 1.44M.
The problem seems to be on the turbo pascal shell. If you have a solution
please send to me: ccechan@nusvm.bitnet.
One solution we have was to open drive A and reinsert the diskette, but
was unacceptable to many students, lecturers and myself.
Mr Chan Yin Wah Systems Programmer
Computer Centre, National University of Singapore
------------------------------
End of Info-IBMPC Digest V90 #123
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