Re: [Ql-Users] QL Today
Norman Dunbar wrote, on 22/Mar/13 09:17 | Mar22: On 21/03/13 23:51, Tony Firshman wrote: ... but grammar is the foundation of language *and* understanding. Let grammar slip and meaning becomes less clear, or even entirely different! Punctuation and spaces too are important: The pen is mightier than the sword. The penis, mightier than the sword. I'll get my coat and leave now! Good one. Eats, Shoots and Leaves (Truss) - was that where that quote came from? That book is a classic example of the importance of grammar *and* punctuation. and a good read. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QL Today
George Gwilt wrote, on 21/Mar/13 11:05 | Mar21: On 20 Mar 2013, at 21:06, Tony Firshman wrote: Thankyou to everybody for correcting my grammer, I am now considered told off. so I had better not tell you of for your spelling of 'grammar' then (8-)# A long time ago I used to pause while reading articles when I found faulty grammar. But I eventually came to the conclusion that it was more rewarding to take in what was written rather than how it was written. Even later I realised that the grammar we were taught at school is not a set of rules to be obeyed but a set of discoveries about how real people speak and write. Okay, back to the Cue Ell. ... but grammar is the foundation of language *and* understanding. Let grammar slip and meaning becomes less clear, or even entirely different! Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QL Today
QL-MyLink (f/fh) wrote, on 21/Mar/13 21:19 | Mar21: George wrote - A long time ago I used to pause while reading articles when I found faulty grammar. 'The Times' is in current QL-List mode. But it's especially concerned with the disposition and future safety of CHAR(39)! (16-03-13 etc.) He he - and it's is also a classic conundrum. It is usually written, illogically, as its, and I accept that! There are really lovely ones, like the Tring Indian restaurant Olive Limes (great food BTW) which has a heading Starter's (8-)# Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QL Today
Timothy Swenson wrote, on 19/Mar/13 23:42 | Mar19: On 3/19/2013 4:13 PM, nor...@dunbar-it.co.uk wrote: It is produced using the Scribus publishing package which is available for free,form Linux, Windows and Mac (as far as I know). I've been a user of Scribus for about 6 years. I did an e-zine for about three years. I have some problems with the work flow of Scribus, mostly updating older documents, but something like QL Today would be fairly easy. I'm willing to volunteer to do the layout if others are interested in writing the articles. The end result will be a full color PDF file that can them be e-mail or hosted (like Dave Park who has volunteered his website). For those who have little or no Internet access, a volunteer in the UK or in Europe can print out copies and charge for it and the mailing costs. I'm guessing that the print copies will mostly be in the UK. I don't know if there will be many in Europe. Am I missing something here? Any software under any system, be it Windows, Linux or Mac, can print to pdf. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QL Today
Norman Dunbar wrote, on 20/Mar/13 10:45 | Mar20: Morning Tony, On 20/03/13 08:26, Tony Firshman wrote: Am I missing something here? Probably not. Any software under any system, be it Windows, Linux or Mac, can print to pdf. True these days. However, would you want to set up a magazine in Notepad for example? When I did my tests a while back, I used a number of different systems to generate a PDF - Libre Office (or Open Office as it was then) which is simple enough, but has Image problems. (Getting the damned things to sit correctly and sorting out the flow! Amongst others.) Scribus was the best utility I used. It has a decent enough interface and work flow for something as simple as QL Today format, it is best probably because it is a Desktop Publishing system. Templates are useful - and both Libre Office and Scribus can use these. I think Word can also? No no no - I mean no no no to using Word to design the document (8-)# I inherited the design of a magazine originally in Word. I struggled for a year or so. I then converted to M$ Publisher, and halved the compilation time. It was also a far better resulting publication. The problem with a lot of print to pdf utilities is size. QStripper, for example, outputs a Quill doc in pdf format. When I first introduced it, it printed bitmap pages - which are huge. I soon sorted that to print proper non-bitmap pages. The resulting files are far smaller. Scribus, by it's very nature does the latter. And the quality settings can be adjusted to give smaller but poorer quality files or larger high quality ones. Just my £0.02. He he not notepad. I am very familiar with Microsoft Publisher, and the PDFs I produce from that are pixel perfect. One can adjust the resultant pdf size easily. It was just that if anyone was to take on the task, then it would be far far better if they used a design package they were familiar with. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QL Today
Bob Spelten wrote, on 20/Mar/13 10:58 | Mar20: Op Wed, 20 Mar 2013 09:26:31 +0100 schreef Tony Firshman t...@firshman.co.uk: Timothy Swenson wrote, on 19/Mar/13 23:42 | Mar19: On 3/19/2013 4:13 PM, nor...@dunbar-it.co.uk wrote: It is produced using the Scribus publishing package which is available for free,form Linux, Windows and Mac (as far as I know). I've been a user of Scribus for about 6 years. I did an e-zine for about three years. I have some problems with the work flow of Scribus, mostly updating older documents, but something like QL Today would be fairly easy. I'm willing to volunteer to do the layout if others are interested in writing the articles. The end result will be a full color PDF file that can them be e-mail or hosted (like Dave Park who has volunteered his website). For those who have little or no Internet access, a volunteer in the UK or in Europe can print out copies and charge for it and the mailing costs. I'm guessing that the print copies will mostly be in the UK. I don't know if there will be many in Europe. Am I missing something here? Any software under any system, be it Windows, Linux or Mac, can print to pdf. Tony Yes. Most Office text software thinks the content is more important than the layout. They will mess up the layout to make the text fit. Publishing software like Scribus is more layout oriented, stick to it tell you when the text needs more room. A big difference from a designers point of view. Ditto M$ Publisher. I have been using that since the 90s and it does everything one needs in an easy accurate way. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QL Today
WILLIAM WAUGH wrote, on 20/Mar/13 11:34 | Mar20: snip Well if everyone bought as many newspapers as I do the problem would no longer exist but then who would tell taxi drivers what to think (apologies to any free thinking taxi drivers). How did PDF become so popular anyway, I find it a bit Parish Newsletterish (apologies to Parish mag editors) PDF has *nothing* to do with the design. We are talking of making PDF output form another package. The reason it is popular is that a PDF can be viewed without change by anyone. Even if one opens an original non-PDF document with the same program, display is often corrupted. The usual villain is font size. Word is particularly bad, especially as it has many flavours. The recent development of Cloud (Cloudii) interests me, good idea but pricey a pocketful of sticks would do similar, perhaps The Sun could become electronic and available from your preferred Cloud . There you have it, my idea of hell, The Sun behind a cloud and the country governed by Taxi drivers, come to think about it ... Haven't got my QL Today jet so can't make much in the way of constructive comment ___ BTW you need to set your mailer to use quote characters. Without them the email you were replying to (snipped) looks part of what you were saying. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QL Today
Norman Dunbar wrote, on 20/Mar/13 12:31 | Mar20: Hi Geoff, On 20/03/13 12:26, Geoff Wicks wrote: Why do we have to think in terms of a magazine? Good point. Maybe because we are discussing a replacement for a magazine perhaps? What's wrong with a (simple) rolling website? I cannot read a web site when I'm on a train or a plane. Nor can I read it when I'm in the bath - which is actually where I do most of my reading these days! :-) Also, Dilwyn has complained many times about the speed of his broadband link, so people who have less than speedy internet connections may have a problem. I agree that that applies to downloading PDFs as well, obviously. I love books and magazines, paper will never die I'm afraid, no matter how much we think we might want it to. The British Museum thought that digitising its collection would be the answer for historians. They now find they simply cannot keep the data up to date with changing technology. Paper although seemingly fragile, remains readable after centuries, and maybe millenia - floods, earthquakes and all. Not fire! Digital data is far too fragile and hardware specific. Microfilm and microfiche are better than digitising. The transcripts of Nelson Mandela's trial were only on a specialised recording roll. To play them, the recorder had to be re-manufactured. Paper is readable by anyone anytime anywhere. I am with Norman. I got a 'free' sub to the Sunday Times Ipad version when I subscribed for the paper copies. I have given up even downloading it. It is *much* easier and more relaxing to read paper. Digitized versions are best for reference only. My DocBook stuff, a seriously bad way to create a magazine I admit, but it can be used to create a web site and a PDF (and may other formats including ePub) from the same source file. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QL Today
WILLIAM WAUGH wrote, on 20/Mar/13 13:46 | Mar20: Bill/ BTW you need to set your mailer to use quote characters. Without them the email you were replying to (snipped) looks part of what you were saying. Apologies to all firstly for duplicate posting and also for this top posting reply ( I'm of the old school on this although pretty sure I could get used to it) Tony I take your point re quoting, baffled me for a while, think I may have got it though. I have of late been replying to mails direct from Yahoo site (due to too many genuine mails being put in spam) , a quick look didn't find a setting but it does seem set up for top replying and as I replied at the bottom it probably just lumped my text in with Normans, will investigate further and return to Thunderbird. All the best - Bill That looks perfect. . bar the top posting (8-)# One can always defeat the systems by editing, as I have done here. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QL Today
Dave Park wrote, on 20/Mar/13 17:02 | Mar20: On Wed, Mar 20, 2013 at 11:02 AM, Geoff Wicks gtwi...@btinternet.comwrote: So let's move on to another problem that everyone has dodged so far. Where are the writers going to come from? One of the reasons QL Today is closing down is that we did not have sufficient writers to ensure its long term future. We were fortunately to have some very loyal writers but they were too few in number. I only had to lose one writer for me to be in serious editorial difficulties. The Quanta Magazine is in a less favourable position with only two permanent writers, the editor and the news editor. If I assassinate Dilwyn tonight who will fill the next Quanta Magazine? If you offer a free one issue extension with every article of X length published, you'd get a lot of articles in short order, for a modest reduction in revenue. Also, the regular contributors would do quite well out of it - as they should ;) Fact is: the German postal rates make it impossible to continue. This time, all but the German issues were sent from Austria ... and the September issue will be sent from Austria too. Do any European countries have the equivalent of the US book rate for printed materials, which is typically less than half the cost? Yes - small packet. However the price difference in Europe is not high. I reckon though the main reason must be writers, and production time/cost. I suspect most readers would be prepared to pay extra postage. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QL Today
George Gwilt wrote, on 20/Mar/13 18:07 | Mar20: On 20 Mar 2013, at 18:00, Tony Firshman wrote: Ian Burkinshaw wrote, on 27/Mar/13 17:46 | Mar27: Sad though this is, I have to say it seems me inevitable this was going to happen sooner or later. The constant increase in postal rates is self defeating, the more they go up, the less poeple send. Really - so one leg is sending letters (8-)# You mean 'fewer' of course. the less people send means the same number of people send less in total. Not at all, but maybe it is different in Glasgow (8-)# 'Less' and 'Fewer' are referring to 'people' not the letters. Fewer - when the noun can be counted. People, marbles Less - when it cannot. Flour, petrol. The other meaning would presumably be written as the smaller the number of people who send Anyway postage is rather high now and certainly to be avoided if possible. The small newsletter produced by the Scottish group SQLUG is now emailed to members. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QL Today
John Taylor wrote, on 20/Mar/13 21:27 | Mar20: John/ On 20 Mar 2013, at 21:06, Tony Firshman t...@firshman.co.uk wrote: On Wednesday, March 27, 2013, Ian Burkinshaw wrote: Thankyou to everybody for correcting my grammer, I am now considered told off. so I had better not tell you of for your spelling of 'grammar' then (8-)# Now then Tony, you talk of people, or you tell them off. He he - it is hard typing on an Iphone at the best of times, but I was typing during a Brahm's Requiem rehearsal! You are lucky it did not come out in German (8-)# Mit freundlichen Grüßen, Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QL Today
Ian Burkinshaw wrote, on 27/Mar/13 17:46 | Mar27: I have just noticed you are in the future! You need to give your computer clock a kick. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QL Today
Tony Firshman wrote, on 21/Mar/13 00:11 | Mar21: Ian Burkinshaw wrote, on 27/Mar/13 17:46 | Mar27: I have just noticed you are in the future! You need to give your computer clock a kick. . or if you are really in next week, please tell me Saturday's lottery numbers (privately!). Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] [QL-Users] CPU/OS differences.
Tobias Fröschle wrote, on 16/Mar/13 19:15 | Mar16: Am 16.03.2013 um 17:16 schrieb Dave Park: Hi all, It's been mentioned that vanilla QDOS/Minerva doesn't run happily on 68EC020 due to CPU differences. The GC/SGC copies and patches the OS to work with the EC020 CPU, and to relocate certain resources. My questions are: what are the differences? How does the GC/SGC boot the unaltered OS to copy the OS to the GC to reboot with the patched version? I tried reading out and comparing the SGC patched version, but I don't have the knowledge to read what is an '020 change and what is a change for moved locations of resources. I would like to prepare a version of Minerva 1.97/1.98 to run specifically with the 68EC020 system I'm building, and it could solve a lot of other problems in the future for me. Any pointers would be gratefully received, as currently, my 68EC020 hobby project locks up a lot, and it's hard to fault trace a hardware issue if there may be a firmware issue;) -- Dave Park Sandy Electronics, LLC d...@sinclairql.com ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm Dave, in my opinion, Minerva should be able to get along with an 68k20 happily. I have seen comments in the sources that indicate that. Vanilla QDOS, however, will most probably not run properly. The main differences in a nutshell are: - Exception stack frame looks different, so code that looks into the stack will most probably miss the target - Access to the SR (status register) and some other control registers is privileged and can only be done from supervisor mode (I guess that is not relevant to the OS as such because that runs in SV mode most of the time anyways, but to applications) - The 020 has some more registers (like VBR) that need to be initialized on startup - the 020 has an instruction cache - but that should not lead to problems with code run from ROM, as that cannot be very self-modifying ;) The rest of changes is additions to the 68k - If not used, should not matter. Wasn't the ROM copied to RAM, patched, and run from there? Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] MPlanes....
Dave Park wrote, on 12/Mar/13 19:36 | Mar12: I have assembled the remaining stock of TF Services' MPlane. These are a great upgrade if you're using a less reliable backplane. Mplane is a low profile backplane to allow three QL expansions and the original motherboard or Aurora to be fitted in a case. It was originally designed for Qbranch's MinisQL, but can be used in any installation. An expansion card can still be attached to Qubide of course, but will probably add to signal noise. There is no point if all works using the Mplane connectors. However I found some SGCs would only work if connected to Qubide, oddly. It is arranged two high and two wide, allowing the motherboard and first expansion (Gold Card, Super Gold Card or the new Goldfire) to be fitted side by side and firmly fixed to the case. Only light expansions (ie qubide) need be mounted above - no more flying Super Gold Card! Also provided is a standard ROM slot as an alternative when using Aurora, which doesn't have the standard connector. When used with Aurora, this ROM slot is fitted facing towards the case back, allowing access through the back without opening the case. It can be fitted either way with either Aurora or QL motherboard. I hope, Dave, you have left it off for customer specification. It is often only possible to use facing in, depending on the case. In fact the ROM slot (and CTRL port I believe) have to be removed from the QL motherboard as an expansion card in the lower slot overlaps the QL board. One hole on SGC (and maybe GC) lines up *exactly* with a hole on the QL board for fixing. As Dave says, both the lower boards can be fixed direct to the case. A 4 layer circuit board with noise reducing internal power and ground planes is used. Extra smoothing capacitors are fitted, and all sensitive signal lines have pull up/down resistors as necessary. It powers off a standard IBM style 4-way connector. +12v/-12v (nominal) are generated on board for mouse/serial ports. It can be used off 5v only if floppy/hard disk drives are 5V only. In a tower case, connection of the standard 4 way power connector will supply both 5v and +12v. The case's reset switch can be connected to the backplane to reset the QL or Aurora if needed. Size is 35 x 197mm Price is £39 each, plus £9 shipping (£5 extra shipping for each additional MPlane). I accept PayPal to d...@sinclairql.com. I will also post them on SellMyRetro.com in due course. I will start shipping MPlanes on March 22nd. Please email me off-list if you would like one. I have a limited number. I have posted photos of them here: http://www.qlforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=6t=505 I used it for maybe 15 years continuously on my QL bulletin board (QBBS) with none of the hard disk corruptions (and crashes) I used to get with Qplane. snip Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] MPlanes....
Ralf Reköndt wrote, on 12/Mar/13 20:01 | Mar12: Well, I once built a QL board in a case with a simple expansion PCB for connecting an SQB, a QFlash EPROM board and a QEP III programmer outside to a separate connector. No separate power supply and no capacitors and all worked well the whole time. I am a bit unsure why it should take such things to make it work. Noise. Qplane was disastrous for my BBS (ask Phil Borman!), whereas Mplane was 100% reliable. A ground plane and shortest signal paths are essential for data integrity. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] MPlanes....
Dave Park wrote, on 12/Mar/13 20:11 | Mar12: Some people have really great, nicely tuned, quiet QLs that will be running 'til the power goes. Some people don't. :) I can attest from my own experimenting to find out why my QL+QPlane kept crashing, some of the lines were noisy and the power wasn't clean. My testing of these boards Tony sent me, they're a much better design. I'm sure he'll chip in :) (8-)# It took me 30 minutes as I was having supper (see separate email)! As well as pull-ups/downs and tantalum bead smoothing caps, it has both ground and power inner layers. Also signal line lengths are shorter than Qplane. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] [QL-Users] Something I have been playing with...
On Saturday, March 9, 2013, Francois Lanciault wrote: A stupid idea just came up to me. Knowing that it is difficult for various reasons to make a 680X0 board as fast or faster than the GoldCard, would it be possible to... make an accelerator board for the GoldCard itself ? (Or SGC for that matter). Some kind of daughter board that would fit in the 68000 socket. All the QL address decoding and shadowing of memory would still be taken care by the GC but maybe a daughter board could run at a faster speed, especially if it has its own fast memory. Imagine a SGC fitted with a 68030 or a 68040 daughter board :-) I have no knowledge of electronic board design so don't laugh to loud. Otherwise it is always nice to see someone working on original hardware ad-ons Not laughing but the processor, on SGC certainly is soldered in underneath another chip. I know that as Stuart H did a bodge job on some and I had to rescue them. They were Quanta boards I think. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, Tring, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] [QL-Users] Something I have been playing with...
On Sunday, March 10, 2013, Dave Park wrote: The Gold Card and Super Gold Card are quite different in this respect. The custom logic on the GC and SCG that I have are both Altera chips that max out at 50MHz, which gives a top CPU speed of 25 MHz. However, the SGC clocks the CPU at 24MHz, probably because that frequency allows faster memory transfers than at 25 MHz which could cause additional wait states. The 68EC020 was the fastest one made, 25 MHz, though a full 68020 was available as a 33 MHz version in a different package. However, the CPLD will not run at 66 MHz. The 68000 in that socket style did have an FN20 (20 MHz) version, and swapping the CPU and clock IC might have the desired result, or it might not. I don't know if the contents of the custom logic in the cards is the same or different, but both the ones I have here have EPROMS with the same contents, both labelled SGC 2.49. Again from memory but I am sure one logic chip (Altera EP1810?) now does not work. They changed the spec in some way which broke SGC. Roy Wood tracked down hundreds, and bought them. He managed to get his money back. I still have Stuart H's programming adapters he bought for my Omnipro2 and the code. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, Tring, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] [QL-Users] Something I have been playing with...
On Sunday, March 10, 2013, Dave Park wrote: On Sat, Mar 9, 2013 at 9:28 PM, Tony Firshman t...@firshman.co.ukjavascript:; wrote: On Sunday, March 10, 2013, Dave Park wrote: The Gold Card and Super Gold Card are quite different in this respect. The custom logic on the GC and SCG that I have are both Altera chips that max out at 50MHz, which gives a top CPU speed of 25 MHz. However, the SGC clocks the CPU at 24MHz, probably because that frequency allows faster memory transfers than at 25 MHz which could cause additional wait states. The 68EC020 was the fastest one made, 25 MHz, though a full 68020 was available as a 33 MHz version in a different package. However, the CPLD will not run at 66 MHz. The 68000 in that socket style did have an FN20 (20 MHz) version, and swapping the CPU and clock IC might have the desired result, or it might not. I don't know if the contents of the custom logic in the cards is the same or different, but both the ones I have here have EPROMS with the same contents, both labelled SGC 2.49. Again from memory but I am sure one logic chip (Altera EP1810?) now does not work. They changed the spec in some way which broke SGC. Roy Wood tracked down hundreds, and bought them. He managed to get his money back. I still have Stuart H's programming adapters he bought for my Omnipro2 and the code. Tony On the upside, the EP of EP1810 means Erasable Programmable, so it is possible to buy and reprogram used ones in the correct date range. Sometimes, failed ones just have a flipped bit in their EEPROM and a simple reprogramming fixes them. That conversation deserves a separate thread. Indeed but we could not find any. That scuppered SGC build. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, Tring, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] SMSQmulator v. 1.10
François Van Emelen wrote, on 26/Feb/13 17:19 | Feb26: Op 26/02/2013 17:45, François Van Emelen schreef: Op 23/02/2013 20:45, Wolfgang Lenerz schreef: Hi all, v. 1.10 is on the website. Please upgrade, v. 1.08 1.09 could under some circumstances screw up the free space list of a qxl.win container. Wolfgang ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm Bonjour Wolfgang, J'ai installé la version 1.10 et voici ce que j'ai constaté. 1) J'ai ouvert quelques fichiers 'bas', je les ai modifié ou pas, sauvé sous le même nom ou sous un autre et aucun n'a été tronqué ou abimé.Je suppose donc que les problèmes de corruptions de mémoires sont fixés. 2) Par contre pour PROWESS/PRoforma, on est revenir à la case de départ: la version 1.10 affiche le même message d'erreur que dans les premières versions 'at line xyz not found'. 3) Il reste également un problème d'affichage. Pour illustrer le probleme, je me suis permis de faire 4 captures d'écran que j'ai archivées dans le ficher smsqmulv11_zip.(il s'agit de 4 fichiers '_pic') qpclist_pic: capture de list_select() dans un programme compilé avec QLIB sous QPC2. smsqlist_pic: la même capture dans SMSQmulator .Le cadre et le titre sont affichés mais pas le contenu. qpcmenu_pic:menu créé avec EASYPTR/EASYMENU. smsqmenu_pic :le même menu sous smsqmulator. Comme on peut le voir, certains sprites sont remplacés par X( un sprite système). Ce problème apparaît aussi sous QPC2 mais uniquement si la résolution d'écran est supérieure ou égale à 1680x1050. de là, la question suivante: taille de la fenêtre précisée le dans Config est-ce la grandeur de la de fenêtre 'Windows' ou la taille que SMSQmulator réserve aux progammes QL (c-à-d la taille de la fenêtre Windows - (l'espace du titre+ ligne files config ?) ? En d'autres mots les valeurs introduites dans 'screen size' indiquent-elles la taille de la fenêtre Windows ou l'espace réservé au programmes QL? Je ne sais pas si cette question est pertinente ou complètement irrelevante. Bonne fin de journée, François Van Emelen ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm Hi all, This was meant to be sent privately. No worry - I couldn't understand most of it (8-)# Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Printing from XCHANGE
Bryan Horstmann wrote, on 4/Feb/13 10:29 | Feb4: Hello all, Printing from XCHANGE My printer has parallel interface. For QL, a ser/parallel convertor is fine. PC XCHANGE in DOSBOX on W2000 laptop with parallel O/P printed ok. Current VISTA laptop USB only. USB/parallel convertor works fine generally. PC XCHANGE in DOSBOX full screen. How can I get it to print out to USB? Also from SMSQmulator? Xchange and any other little programs I enter? I use DOS command: net use lpt1 \\machine name\printer share name for windows printers. Maybe that could be adapted for your printer. It though probably only works for DOS programs. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Easy68K
Norman Dunbar wrote, on 31/Jan/13 14:47 | Jan31: On 31/01/13 14:39, Dilwyn Jones wrote: Stumbled across something seemingly useful for 68K assembler developers, not sure if it’s been mentioned before but here goes. It’s something called Easy68K, an editor, assembler and simulator for the 68000 (integrated development environment), running on Windows. (OK Norman, I know...) The website description is: “EASy68K is a 68000 Structured Assembly Language IDE. EASy68K allows you to edit, assemble and run 68000 programs on a Windows PC or Wine. No additional hardware is required. EASy68K is an open source project distributed under the GNU general public use license.” Website is at http://www.easy68k.com/ I played with that years and years ago. I note that it was last updated in 2012, so that's good news. I also note that the source code is available - so it should/could/might be possible to compile it to run natively under Linux or Mac, if it will work under wxWidgets or Qt. (And no, I don't have time, thanks!) Windows isn't all bad you know Dilwyn, I quite like Windows 7 to be honest. Ditto - and I really really really hate saying that. I use Windows partly to run my Archive-born business programs and qemulator. I *must* though try SMSQEmulator under OS X. What I like about W7 (Windows 2008 Server run under VMware on my Mac): - Doesn't crash - Fast - Auto updates file windows - no need for F5 - Automagically finds printers (including network printers) and successfully installs them without driver CDs. They are copying what Mac OS X has *always* done (8-)# What I don't like: - No support for 16 bit programs. Dosbox works but only has a command sub-set. However, given the review I just read of Windows 8, I doubt that I'll be using that release any time soon! Indeed. No point at all. It sounds like a Vista to me. Point to note for anyone who might misunderstand, this system simulates a 680xx CPU but it doesn't mean that you can run SMSQ on it and expect to have a QL Simulator. He he - is that a dig at names? I must say SMSQEmulator is a difficult name to say. Can you imagine anyone not being QL born and bred who could manage to say it first time? Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] help shake cobwebby loose in Yee Old Brain
John wrote, on 29/Jan/13 10:05 | Jan29: On 28/01/13 21:33:39, paul wrote: But (Murphy's Law) after a bit of reflecting on what I saw inside this old QL has me questioning that memory. I Do recall reading that most PM version QL's had the 'dongle' to get the ROM code past the 32K memory range. A while ago Rich was selling one. http://www.sellmyretro.com/offer/details/Extremely-RARE-Early-Dongle- Sinclair-QL-Home-Computer---BOXED-1367 The PM dongle was listed in the What else is included section EXTREMELY RARE QL PM EPROM Chip (8000h) - this is out of a very early KLUDGE - unfortunately, the other two EPROMs and/or the code stored on them have not been found. This is the PM version of QDOS - the earliest release version of QDOS we know of which escaped the doors of Sinclair Research was the later FB EPROM, which contained at least one oddity - the AT command was AT column,line (instead of AT line,column) which forced Psion to write a boot file for their programs which would swap between the two variants depending on your ROM version! It shows how rare the FB ROM was that no-one else had to bother! Ah yes. I remember that boot program! My FB with dongle arrived in June 84. Ironically it was lost in the (insured) post when I sent it back to them for dongle removal. Rich - clearly now you could get the '' code. I wonder whether the PM dongle code exists now. There cannot have been many. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] SMSQmulator
Dilwyn Jones wrote, on 28/Jan/13 15:19 | Jan28: Dyliwin/ Woflgang Oops I've been typing Wolfgang in error for years it would appear... ;-) Dilwyn Jones You're 'speaking' as someone half the world thinks is Dylwin. He he, that's certainly the most common (of many) miss-spelinnggs of my name ;-) Another variant is credited to Darren Brannagh's son (himself called Dylan!) who invented this, I think just to annoy me: diliwyn How old is he? Last time I saw Darren he wasn't even hitched. Time marches on - faster when you get old I find. My last firm memory of Darren was (or is it 'is'?) in Montreal watching him trying to show a *very* gay barman how to pour a pint of Guinness - S L O W L Y. He hilariously failed to impress him. Dulooin Now that is getting silly (8-)# Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] SMSQmulator
Dilwyn Jones wrote, on 28/Jan/13 15:52 | Jan28: snip Dulooin Now that is getting silly (8-)# Of course, that was the point. I know, I know, hence my smiley. English almost makes it a valid spelling (remember the ghoti=fish from a well known author?). Apparently not. It is supposed to be George Bernard Shaw (Irish appropriately!), although it does not appear in his writings. gh as in tough o as in women ti as in nation I can't imagine 'u' - y, or 'oo' to 'wy' Now Dolwon does work (8-)# Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] SMSQmulator
Norman Dunbar wrote, on 28/Jan/13 16:18 | Jan28: On 28/01/13 15:52, Dilwyn Jones wrote: He firmly subscribes to the notion that Guinness doesn't travel well outside of Ireland. Like most Irishmen, he would say Guinness can only be at its best in Ireland and event hen only if properly poured and left to stand a little before drinking. I tried Guinness once. That was enough. My opinion is that Guinness shouldn't be allowed to travel outside Ireland - or the brewery for that matter. In addition, it is best enjoyed by simply pouring it down the toilet and cutting out the middle man! I suspect a quick bout of running away might be advisable at this point? Cheers, Norm. PS. I have the same opinion on all beers, so don't feel victimised if you are a Guinness fan! I had a single malt from Islay on New Year's Eve and it tasted like tarmac (8-)# Hrmm - how on earth can we haul this back to the QL (8-)# Tony (PS I do like whisky) -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] SMSQmulator
George Gwilt wrote, on 28/Jan/13 16:27 | Jan28: On 28 Jan 2013, at 16:21, Tony Firshman wrote: I had a single malt from Islay on New Year's Eve and it tasted like tarmac (8-)# I find it better from a glass than from the road. Was it Ardbeg? I can't remember - too much wine before (8-)# I just remember the 'Islay' on the label. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] SMSQmulator
Dilwyn Jones wrote, on 28/Jan/13 16:29 | Jan28: Of course, we Jocks are prone to adding them in as well, how about There's been a mude! ;-) Cheers, Norm. You've been watching too much Taggarrrt on TV! (8-)# That is *exactly* who/what I was thinking of well before I got to the 'murder' line. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] SMSQmulator
Dilwyn Jones wrote, on 28/Jan/13 16:32 | Jan28: I tried Guinness once. That was enough. My opinion is that Guinness shouldn't be allowed to travel outside Ireland - or the brewery for that matter. I suspect that might just provoke Darren to appear! In addition, it is best enjoyed by simply pouring it down the toilet and cutting out the middle man! Reminds me of a sign on a toilet door I saw in a pub in Ireland - Beer Recycling Dept ... or the sign All beer is passed by the Management. I had a single malt from Islay on New Year's Eve and it tasted like tarmac (8-)# Hrmm - how on earth can we haul this back to the QL (8-)# Tony Tasted like TreaQLe? GroaQLn Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Names
Dilwyn Jones wrote, on 28/Jan/13 16:27 | Jan28: snip Must be hard for a non-Welsh speaker (although IIRC you have a Welsh parent?) Mum. She learned English only at primary school. I know very very little as Welsh was not spoken to us at home at all. Language dies in one generation so easily. snip Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] SMSQmulator
Marcel Kilgus wrote, on 27/Jan/13 18:05 | Jan27: Wolfgang Lenerz wrote: Well, drawing to the screen is heavy on the resources, ESPECIALLY when one is in QL compatible mode. Basically, I redraw the ENTIRE screen once for every pixel changed (or every 2 or 4 fixels in QL mode). If anyone could point me to a way to change a wingle pixel in a window I'd be grateful... QPC of course has the same problem. I solve this by using a queue that buffers display accesses and only apply the changes to the screen image 62,5 times per seconds. Is there anything to be gained from the (very) old trick of storing the previous screen content and only writing changes? I know when Ben (my son) did this with a javascript application it resulted in a three times speed improvement. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] SMSQmulator
Dilwyn Jones wrote, on 23/Jan/13 16:01 | Jan23: Not on my system it doesn't in a dos box!!! That's exactly what I typed in. It gives the error I mentioned earlier. Must be some setup option or paths option which affects this. The view in Control Panel varies between Windows versions, obviously. That may be because your java is old (or non-existent!). I got the same issue under my Windows Server 2008 standard (based on Windows 7). I installed Java via http://java.com/en/download/manual.jsp and it then gave: c:\Users\Administratorjava -version java version 1.7.7_11 Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_11-b21) Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 23.6-b04, mixed mode) Tony Dilwyn -Original Message- From: Norman Dunbar Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2013 3:54 PM To: ql-users@lists.q-v-d.com Subject: Re: [Ql-Users] SMSQmulator Dilwyn, Brian, open a command session (aka dosbox) type the command java -version without any quotes and press return. You will get a response that says something like: Java version 1.x.y.z-bnn X = the Java version 6, 7, whatever. Y = minor release of X Z = update number. bnn = build number. Using Control panel, in XP, I didn't have Programs, but I did have Java. Double-clicking it opened a dialogue. On the Genearl tab is an about button. I clicked it. It said Java 6 Standard Edition in the heading, and beneath that it said version 6, update 29 (build 1.6.0_29-b11) That corresponds to my 1.x.y.z which is 1.6.0_29-b11. HTH Cheers, Norm. -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] SMSQmulator
Dilwyn Jones wrote, on 23/Jan/13 16:33 | Jan23: Dilwyn/ That may be because your java is old (or non-existent!). Java 7 Update 10. Maybe a reinstall is in order... Check where your java.exe is and that it is ith the system PATH. Mine is in C:\Windows\system32\ PATH PATH=C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem;C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;c:\batch\;c:\psion\ Note the psion entry - this is the ancestor of the QL Psion programs! You can add to PATH. Right click on (My) Computer - Properties - Advanced - Environmental Variables. ... but it certainly looks like you have a dodgy installation! Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] SMSQmulator
Dilwyn Jones wrote, on 23/Jan/13 17:42 | Jan23: That may be because your java is old (or non-existent!). Java 7 Update 10. Maybe a reinstall is in order... Check where your java.exe is and that it is ith the system PATH. Mine is in C:\Windows\system32\ PATH PATH=C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem;C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;c:\batch\;c:\psion\ Note the psion entry - this is the ancestor of the QL Psion programs! You can add to PATH. Right click on (My) Computer - Properties - Advanced - Environmental Variables. ... but it certainly looks like you have a dodgy installation! OK, I uninstalled it all and reinstalled from that link using default settings suggested for my computer. java.exe is in C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre7\bin (32 bit version as Windows 7 defaults to 32-bit Internet Explorer since many web pages don't render correctly on the 64 bit version also available in Windows 7 - it says you can have both 32 and 64 bit versions installed on your computer at the same time if you use 32 bit and 64 bit browsers) Here is the PATH from my PC (I split it into separate lines manually just to make it easier to read): PATH=C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Windows Live; C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Windows Live; C:\Windows\system32; C:\Windows; C:\Windows\System32\Wbem; C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\; C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Live\Shared; C:\Program Files (x86)\sK1 Project\UniConvertor-1.1.5\; C:\Program Files (x86)\sK1 Project\UniConvertor-1.1.5\DLLs; C:\Program Files (x86)\Calibre2\; C:\Program Files (x86); Seems the above ain't enough for it to find Java.Exe - if I navigate manually in the command box to find jave.exe and then enter the command it works obviously. (Sorry to bore everyone with non-QL stuff, obviously I need to resolve the above if using Java software like SMSQmulator, surprisingly that does work even with the various problems). I suspect appending ';C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre7\bin' to your PATH will solve the issue. I am not sure how it will cope with the spaces. Maybe you need %20 to represent a space. You can do this from the Environmental Variables window described above or: PATH %path%;C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre7\bin from DOS (I think!). Odd though the installation did not put it in a sensible place. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QLay Linux
Timothy Swenson wrote, on 22/Jan/13 03:08 | Jan22: snip Another option is for the user to try the DOS version using DOSBOX on Linux. DOSBOX is great for running old DOS software. I've run stuff that was created in 1986 and it ran fine. I too use it for my 16 bit Arcplus business software (Archive derived). I am still using programs I wrote in 1986 under QL Archive. and still finding bugs (8-)# Beware of the std version though if you want obscure DOS commands. You will need the 'megabuild' version (for commands like net for instance which I use for redirecting lpt1 to windows printers). Isn't it a pain that modern Windows have abandoned 16 bit software. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Bill Richardson
Thanks for all the kind words about Bill. I am going to pass them on to his son and daughter on Monday. Any more received by midday on Monday will be passed on to them in person. thanks, Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
[Ql-Users] Bill Richardson
I expect most of us will know or have had dealings with Bill Richardson and EEC. He has just died well into his 90s. His funeral is at 15:15 on January 21st at Amersham crematorium. All are welcome to come. Driving west out of Amersham on the A413 take the A404 to High Wycombe (straight on at the roundabout where the A413 turns right), and it is signposted very soon afterwards on the right. He and Felix Fonteyn (brother of Dame Margot) were responsible for many thousands of effectively new QLs, made from ex-Sinclair stock. He negotiated a batch of new QL membranes from the original manufacturer, and I split the cost with him. I think it was 5,000 in total. I also did a lot of Z88 work for him. He would have been the first to admit he was not too technical, but was a miracle worker in locating product and getting people with the know-how to work for him. I saw him many times in recent years. He was still active and walking (very slowly) and with a stick, when he could be persuaded to carry one. He was though quite frail. His mind was still OK, but again not high speed! I had a memorable trip to Southend with him, Vic Gerhardi (Z88 trader), Vic's father and Denise, a friend of Vic. I was the only fully physically-able person (maybe not even me (8-)# ), and we had a hilarious time forming a very slow stick-laden convoy behind Bill into and out of establishments. We squeezed into the smallest Rossi in Southend with wheelchairs, sticks and all, and ate ice-creams messily. No-one else could get in!The pier was closed as a barge had just bashed into it. Sadly the next trip was to negotiate the pier with Bill. Photos: http://tfs.firshman.co.uk/temp/bill/ Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Bill Richardson
Urs Koenig (QL) wrote, on 15/Jan/13 19:06 | Jan15: Tony Firshman wrote: I expect most of us will know or have had dealings with Bill Richardson and EEC. He has just died well into his 90s. Very bad news, how sad! My deepest condolences. I've met Bill a couple of times at QL-Shows and will keep him in good memories. Here's a picture of him attending the QUANTA workshop in London in November 2002: https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=C250D8748980CE5A!1024 ... with Keith Mitchell in fornt of him. There's a video of him on the QL2002 DVD where he's telling his Sinclair story. The video is also on YouTube and can be watched here: http://youtu.be/P3CwIineYZ4 I hadn't seen that before - very interesting. He was 84 in mid 2002, so he was about 94/95 when he died. I too was videoed on that occasion. The 5000 membranes he mentioned were the ones he and I shared. They were though still only made of the original plastic, which became brittle. The ones Rich had made I believe are made of superior clear plastic. This type was fitted to early QLs, but was soon superseded, I suspect to save a few pennies. Interested that fire in the Z88 factory. I am *sure* the stock was worth only the few thousand Bill mentioned, so it has one wondering! Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Building a netbook from a RasPi
Tobias Fröschle wrote, on 8/Jan/13 19:34 | Jan8: Tobias/ Amazon EU is currently selling the Mororola Atrix docking station (originally intended to extend one of their smartphones onto a netbook and priced at rather steep 299€) at ~70€. This is a perfect extension for the Raspberry pi as it also can be used to extend the PI with HDMI TFT screen, keyboard, battery and touchpad into a nearly perfect portable device (if you don't mind the Pi is hanging rather loosely at the back.) Received mine today and the only thing I needed was a small µHDMI to full-HDMI adapter plus a USB cable and it works like a charm. Just realized Amazon UK sells the same thing at ~80 UKP. Still a bargain. Just in case you are still looking for a good keyboard and screen for your PI. There is a nice video about this combination here (not mine). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZkz_a52I6sfeature=player_embedded I have everything now except the final hdmi adapter (from China!). It beats me how they can do it for £2 or so including postage. Have you figured out how to use the two std USB sockets? The Motorola is a mightily fine piece of kit. It has some mightily odd 'characters' - presumably for the phone. What keyboard mapping - US presumably? I might even look out for the phone! Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Building a netbook from Raspberry Pi
Dave Walker wrote, on 9/Jan/13 12:05 | Jan9: Dave/ Regarding the USB, then yes the newer Pi's can back-power through their standard USB ports. If you have an older Pi with polyfuses on the USB ports, then the easiest thing to do is the 'PiPass' mod which connects the +ve and Ground wires of the micro USB and normal USB together on the Pi itself. Yes I noticed they had decided the std USB ports could provide more power. I presume one shorts the three polyfuses as well. Do you have a link to the mod? Googling fails, although there are *plenty* of references to it. It will save me back-engineering the connector pins. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Building a netbook from Raspberry Pi
Norman Dunbar wrote, on 11/Jan/13 16:51 | Jan11: Hi Tony, On 11/01/13 16:49, Tony Firshman wrote: Do you have a link to the mod? Googling fails, although there are *plenty* of references to it. It will save me back-engineering the connector pins. I'm not sure about the PiPass mod of which you speak, but I soldered a couple of short bits of wire over the two USB polyfuses on my Pi - with no ill effects. If your eyes are like mine, a decent magnifier will come in handy. He he - I am used to soldering .5mm pitch pins on Romdisq. No - the fuses are trivial. I meant the GND and +5V pins on the USB connectors. It would not be too hard to work it out, but it would save time to see a picture. Oddly Googling finds plenty of references to the mod, but no-one gives a link! Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Building a netbook from a RasPi
Tobias Fröschle wrote, on 8/Jan/13 19:34 | Jan8: Tobias/ Amazon EU is currently selling the Mororola Atrix docking station (originally intended to extend one of their smartphones onto a netbook and priced at rather steep 299€) at ~70€. This is a perfect extension for the Raspberry pi as it also can be used to extend the PI with HDMI TFT screen, keyboard, battery and touchpad into a nearly perfect portable device (if you don't mind the Pi is hanging rather loosely at the back.) Received mine today and the only thing I needed was a small µHDMI to full-HDMI adapter plus a USB cable and it works like a charm. Just realized Amazon UK sells the same thing at ~80 UKP. Still a bargain. Just in case you are still looking for a good keyboard and screen for your PI. There is a nice video about this combination here (not mine). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZkz_a52I6sfeature=player_embedded Have you a link to the Amazon product. Their search does not come up with the right product. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Building a netbook from a RasPi
Tobias Fröschle wrote, on 8/Jan/13 19:34 | Jan8: all, Amazon EU is currently selling the Mororola Atrix docking station (originally intended to extend one of their smartphones onto a netbook and priced at rather steep 299€) at ~70€. This is a perfect extension for the Raspberry pi as it also can be used to extend the PI with HDMI TFT screen, keyboard, battery and touchpad into a nearly perfect portable device (if you don't mind the Pi is hanging rather loosely at the back.) Received mine today and the only thing I needed was a small µHDMI to full-HDMI adapter plus a USB cable and it works like a charm. Just realized Amazon UK sells the same thing at ~80 UKP. Still a bargain. Just in case you are still looking for a good keyboard and screen for your PI. There is a nice video about this combination here (not mine). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZkz_a52I6sfeature=player_embedded What a terrible video, especially with the ghastly musak! I find it very very hard to concentrate with that row going on. It is for the young! She rushes through the cabling and obscures the connections on the Pi with her hand! I presume hdmi is one cable direct from docking station to Pi. The other I suspect is usb socket split to std usb plug for data and micro usb for power. Is that right? Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Ql emulation on Raspberrypi
Computer Research Centrum, Ltd wrote, on 10/Dec/12 08:05 | Dec10: I was looking at the Python 3.3.0 sourceswith a view to porting to the QL with C68. Will be porting of Perl instead Python easier and more appropriate for a QL limited in its resources (speed, memory, ...)? Perl was running quite well od old 68k Macintoshes. J.D. Excellent. Is that you Jonathan (Dent)? For those who don't know Perl, as long as one steers clear of objects, it is all very straightforward. There are, of course, syntax differences, but the procedure/function environment will be very familiar to SB users. One gets used to '$' at beginning of variables surprisingly easily. In my mind, other than objects, the regexps are the winning factor. They make for very sophisticated character (and variable) matching. Quite impossible to easy document, so even the programmer struggles to interpret complicate ones after the event! Oh and it is very very fast. The code is 'compiled' at run time and will pick up structure issues etc. Unlike SB it one can force declaration of variables. That was a problem for me in SB. Variable typos often lurk unnoticed. It would be good to implement apt as well. This gives easy access to extension modules. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Ql emulation on Raspberrypi
Norman Dunbar wrote, on 9/Dec/12 16:11 | Dec9:
On 09/12/12 15:43, Tony Firshman wrote:
Bryan Horstmann wrote, on 9/Dec/12 11:41 | Dec9:
Is Python procedure/function based like SBASIC?
if anyone is interested, and/or if it's deemed applicable fro QL Today,
I'd be willing to do a small Python tutorial.
...
Python differs from most similar languages (including Perl and C) in not
using {} structures. It relies on indenting.
This is brilliant as it *forces* a readable layout.
Yes indeed. And as long as you remember tha damned colons, which I
always forget ;-)
Yes indeed - that catches me out too! I can never work out *why* it is
needed, but I am sure there must be a good reason.
Tony
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Re: [Ql-Users] SMSQE Licence Change
Wolfgang Lenerz wrote, on 24/Nov/12 07:38 | Nov24: Hi all, this is just to let you know that the SMSQE licence will be changed. From the SMSQE licence, we will move towards a (new) BSD style licence, which essentially means that anyone can do with the source code anything he likes, and also distribute the compiled code. Have fun! Brilliant. A decade too late though for Peter Graf I am afraid. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Sinclair QL running a qualification test for a space component
On 23 Nov 2012, at 06:13, Francois Lanciault francoislancia...@hotmail.com wrote: Hi group, here is a short story for you this morning: My trusty QL is controlling a test setup built to qualify a new component for space use as we speak. To make the story short, I work for a company that build satellite and other space hardware. Two weeks ago, one of our design failed during an official life test in the lab. We made some changes to the design and we are about to restart the test soon. But I found out that changing the material of the failed part for a different type might be an even better solution. After talking to my boss, he said that we have no time to qualify that new material before the official test. His other objection was that a new test setup was needed to mechanically bend the part made of the new material for many thousand cycles before he would even consider it. There was no time, and no money. You need to understand that a setup like that usually cost a few $1 and take about a month to built, program the test computer etc. The day after I told my boss: I WILL test this solution. Give me 24 hours to built the test setup, and it will cost you nothing. I agreed with a smile. 24 hours later, the test was running. I use scrap flight parts, a couple of brackets and a lot of Meccano parts. For the actuator, I use a small $20 servo-motor that I had for a robotic project of mine. I also had the controller for the servo. This controller can be attached to a simple serial port. That is where the QL comes into play. I needed a computer to control the amount of bending, the timing, the large quantity of cycles and able to log everything. I also needed a computer that was easy to program, as I started to work on the program at 23h00. Because the QL is the computer I know best, the program was finished 2 hours later. The next day, when I installed everything in the thermal chamber, I must admit that it looks a bit foolish. But it did work. I closed the door and set the temperature to -50degC. Everybody knew it would not last through the night. But this morning I opened the chamber and it was still running great, 25000 cycles later. When I left work it was at 4 cycles. Anyway, It is fun to see my QL in a lab running this test, and I thought you might like it. The other thing that I like is that I can work on my 3D game at lunch time :-) Absolutely brilliant. Are you allowed to take photos? A video (youtube) would be good. That is a story that could go global if your company would allow it. Great publicity for the company and the QL. I am very glad the QL didn't crash (8-)# Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, Tring, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Sinclair QL running a qualification test for a space component
Wolfgang Lenerz wrote, on 23/Nov/12 09:17 | Nov23: On 23/11/2012 07:13, Francois Lanciault wrote: . But it did work. I closed the door and set the temperature to -50degC. Hi, was the QL in the chamber, too, or outside and just connected through a serial lead? Yes that was a mite ambiguous. It *must* have been outside I think. Incidentally what QL was it? I do hope it was a black box. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QL keyboard on Raspberry-pi
Bryan Horstmann wrote, on 19/Oct/12 09:32 | Oct19: Bryan/ Is there an easy/in-expensive way to use the QL keyboard, which I find quite OK, on a R-pi? Interesting to know though if anyone can come up with a method. The starting point I guess is an I/O device to convert the QL row/column into a serial stream. I daresay it is not impossible but ... There's a Ciseco board on ebay for £7.68 K002 - Slice of Pi/o - add on Raspberry Pi - buffered I/O I2C upto 128 ports!!! http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/K002-Slice-of-Pi-o-add-on-Raspberry-Pi-buffered-I-O-I2C-upto-128-ports-/221134890594?pt=UK_Computing_Other_Computing_Networkinghash=item337caaa662. Is that the sort of thing which might do it? This gives 16 inputs and matches the QL keyboard row/columns exactly. The issue then is software only maybe. One has to persuading the system to stuff data into the keyboard queue. Not a clue how though, or even if it is possible at all. The IBM keyboard input is serial and a complex structure. Over to Linux experts Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Quanta Web site down?
George Gwilt wrote, on 19/Oct/12 17:10 | Oct19: Geirge (sic)/ On 19 Oct 2012, at 12:48, Geoff Wicks wrote: The Quanta site has been down for at least 2 days. Has Quanta closed down? Regards Duncan ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm I think the website has been deliberately taken down. It was no longer available from the day of the committee meeting held to discuss it. I hope it is only temporary. There was nothing wrong with the site as such other than that it was not kept up to date. If all the committee, including the officers, pulled their weight it would not be a difficult job. To my mind there are four areas to keep up to date: 1: News. This is already happening so no problem there. 2: Shows information. When the site was taken down it was still advertising the Austrian show held 3 months previously. It should not be difficult to keep show information up to date as there are only two or three shows per year. 3: Quanta Magazine. This is the most difficult part, but would only need updating 6 times a year. 4: Quanta News. This would be a new area in which the officers should keep the members up to date on Quanta developments. Up to now Quanta has regarded the magazine as being the first source of information for the members. This should now become the web. There is also the question of the members' area. You have made constructive suggestions that Quanta should consider, Ah QUANTA is back!! Geirge ^- Seems you aren't though (8-)# Tiny (sic) -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Quanta Web site down?
Tony Firshman wrote, on 19/Oct/12 17:22 | Oct19: George Gwilt wrote, on 19/Oct/12 17:10 | Oct19: Geirge (sic)/ On 19 Oct 2012, at 12:48, Geoff Wicks wrote: The Quanta site has been down for at least 2 days. Has Quanta closed down? Regards Duncan ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm I think the website has been deliberately taken down. It was no longer available from the day of the committee meeting held to discuss it. I hope it is only temporary. There was nothing wrong with the site as such other than that it was not kept up to date. If all the committee, including the officers, pulled their weight it would not be a difficult job. To my mind there are four areas to keep up to date: 1: News. This is already happening so no problem there. 2: Shows information. When the site was taken down it was still advertising the Austrian show held 3 months previously. It should not be difficult to keep show information up to date as there are only two or three shows per year. 3: Quanta Magazine. This is the most difficult part, but would only need updating 6 times a year. 4: Quanta News. This would be a new area in which the officers should keep the members up to date on Quanta developments. Up to now Quanta has regarded the magazine as being the first source of information for the members. This should now become the web. There is also the question of the members' area. You have made constructive suggestions that Quanta should consider, Ah QUANTA is back!! Geirge ^- Seems you aren't though (8-)# Tiny (sic) ... and that reminds me of a really *brilliant* similar misprint in a post recently: Geraldine Muchova, a Scot who loved through the communist Czech darkness and emerged with her integrity intact, has died at the great age of 95. It would be nice to imagine it wasn't a misprint. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Quanta Web site down?
Norman Dunbar wrote, on 19/Oct/12 17:29 | Oct19: Geraldine Muchova, a Scot who loved through the communist Czech darkness and emerged with her integrity intact, has died at the great age of 95. It would be nice to imagine it wasn't a misprint. I gather, perhaps, that the communists didn't think Muchova then? ;-) Groan - or should that be 'grian'. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Quanta Web site down?
matras...@aol.com wrote, on 18/Oct/12 20:10 | Oct18: The Quanta site has been down for at least 2 days. Has Quanta closed down? Regards Duncan The domain is still valid: Domain name: quanta.org.uk Registrant: Mr John Gilpin for QUANTA Registrant type: Unknown Registrant's address: 181, Urmston Lane, Stretford, Manchester Greater Manchester M32 9EH United Kingdom Registrar: Webfusion Ltd t/a 123-reg [Tag = 123-REG] URL: http://www.123-reg.co.uk Relevant dates: Registered on: 17-Jul-2001 Expiry date: 17-Jul-2013 Last updated: 07-Sep-2011 Registration status: Registered until expiry date. Name servers: ns1.xempower.com ns2.xempower.com WHOIS lookup made at 23:36:36 18-Oct-2012 - They clearly need a more reliable host! That is tempting fate, isn't it Dilwyn (8-)# Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] My slice of Pi
Norman Dunbar wrote, on 17/Oct/12 09:47 | Oct17: Norman/ You need a good ringlight magnifier and 1mm soldering iron. That set-up, even with my old eyes, allowed soldering of the .5mm pitch pins on Romdisq. Well, I have a helping hands with a decent magnifying glass that I used and a geologists 30* illuminated Loupe. I was soldering my Gerboard last night and it has 20 surface mount components to do, got they are tiny p- about 3 mm by 1 mm for a pile (10) capacitors. Took me ages, and I dropped two of them as well. Took ages to find them. I don't have a ringlight, but mu head torch (LED) works fine when positioned on the circuit board close to where I'll be sticking a hot iron! I managed 15 SMDs last night, 5 to go! Took over an hour. This is my first foray into SMDs - I can't say I'm keen, they are too damned small and even getting them out of the packaging is tense. These is a good trick. I use solder braid (Chemwik Lite - or something like that). This makes the initial soldering easy, as any pin shorts are sucked away. ... so when soldering .5mm pitch pins, one does not worry unduly about initial shorts. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] ADSL speed up
Norman Dunbar wrote, on 8/Oct/12 14:40 | Oct8: On 29/09/12 18:42, QL-MyLink (f/fh) wrote: (Not to mention the Distant Dunbar Duchy.) Duchy? Kingdom, surely? ;-) Just checked by up to 60 Virgin speed - I'm getting 57-58 at the moment. Which is fine for allowing me to work from my own office, plus running all the Oracle downloads I need to do each time there's a new patch out. You used to get a patch kit with changes to be applied, now you get a full installation kit which is a DVD sized download, or bigger, depending on stuff. There was an item on the Radio 4 news the other day about broadband speeds and it seems that it is now a limiting factor on selling or buying a house. Indeed it is. A Worldnews colleague just pulled out of a house purchase as it *only* had slow boradband. It used to be schools, buses, railways etc, now it's broadband, schools, buses, railways etc. TOny -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] ADSL speed up
Dave Walker wrote, on 27/Sep/12 07:50 | Sep27: -Original Message- From: ql-users-boun...@lists.q-v-d.com [mailto:ql-users- boun...@lists.q-v-d.com] On Behalf Of QL-MyLink (f/fh) Sent: 26 September 2012 16:59 To: ql-us...@q-v-d.com Subject: [Ql-Users] ADSL speed up Greetings! I live in the UK and have a BT ADSL connection (400 metres by wire to the exchange). Generally, bandwidth was in the order of 6 to 8Mbps - usually the latter provided I did not switch of my router too frequently. Move over copper, glass has arrived. Stable reported speed (W/Xp system tray) for the past 3 days? 21.3Mbps. I like glass... and I had to tell someone. ;-) [Also might be of teccy interest - eh?] Best wishes to all, Through the glass, John in Wales ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm Interesting you should say that - I am on cable (Virginmedia) and as it happens my speed was doubled overnight from 10Mbps to 20Mbps (at no extra cost to me).I can now get up to 120Mbps if I was prepared to pay the premium for the extra speed. Talking to a friend, it appears that Virginmedia's current round of internal network upgrades are preparing them to deliver speeds of up to 400Mbps to consumers when the time is right. I believe that is based on fibre technology up to the street level, and then copper for the last leg into customers houses. I would not be surprised to see any new installations starting to use fibre for that last hop as well assuming that is not already happening. With most suppliers the normal contacts are for variable IP. If you need fixed IP (as I do) you have to use a business (expensive) tariff. BE though is an exception and offers fixed IP for about £18 pm. I too had a doubling of speed (to about 12mbps) at no extra charge, but copper from a distant exchange. My web server has a 1Tbps link (at a data centre in Maidenhead) (8-)# Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] ADSL speed up
Bryan Horstmann wrote, on 27/Sep/12 08:46 | Sep27: Hello John, We have Virgin (ex Nynex) in the street and my neighbour is on it. The essential difference is that the copper to the house is broadband co-axial, not ordinary twisted pair, as it was set up for cable TV. The Government trumpeted at the time that it was harnessing the private sector to kit out the UK with a high speed comms network for the future. I'm told that the R-pi is over the counter now at Microdirect in Manchester, whilst I'm still waiting for mine (due in a few of weeks time). Bryan in Cheshire CPC are offering it with free shipping from stock for £24.96 plus VAT - SC1259004. Looking at the image this is production level 2011.12 - ie 140ma fuses F1/F2 (and presumably F3) are missing. They have decided they were not needed. This will allow people to kill their Pis by attaching USB hard disks (8-)# P2 plug (for jtag programming) is not fitted (pcb still has the holes. Pity the USB connector is still sticking out so far. Amazon also have Upton's user guide. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Fwd: Ql-Users Digest, Vol 103, Issue 10
Quanta Webmaster wrote, on 27/Sep/12 22:30 | Sep27: Hi All (my apologies if this mail has been sent twice but I seem to have difficulties sending from my main account) This year I took over as the web master, but I had been working alongside the previous web master as the web admin for some time before that, so I have a bit of the history. The issue started when one person was tasked with maintaining the website and updates were being passed to the website but the website was not being updated due to work commitments etc. The committee tasked the web master and myself with finding a solution. We came up with two main CMS systems, Joomla and Typo 3 both of which use PHP and MySQL and the committee was shown these systems and ultimately decided to go with Typo 3 as it provided a nice structured format for maintaining the system and allowed users to be given different privileges from front end user where a user can log and see sections hidden from general users through to being able to edit and create pages. Typo 3 was implemented with the then provider (Continum) under a free agreement, but they had no experience with Unix, PHP or MySQL (as they were a Windows, IIS and .net based company). So we then looked at moving the service to a paid for provider who would not only support the underlying platform but also Typo 3, and hence the current provider was chosen. When the provider was chosen various other options were also considered. We could have used my personal space (I use a VPS which I pay less than $100 and can install any services I require on) or we could have used the then web masters space (which was a reseller space) however both of these were considered to be conflict of interest as we were both on the committee. I have no experience with Tony's website as a provider, and had not been advised it was even an option (though I don't know what facilities he offers). As for updating the content, we would love to have more people writing content for the website and the magazine, I personally work full time and find it difficult to commit time to writing them (plus I am not the best when it comes to writing articles, I cannot remember if an article I wrote was ever published in QL World!!). The CMS makes it easier to do this by allowing me to create accounts to edit different parts of the web site and not relying on one person to update the whole site, but if there is no one to contribute (without re-posting full articles from other publications) then the site will become stale. The news articles are where we will post news and links to other peoples websites/articles. On a personal level I think there are too many fragmented QL websites, and I feel that all these sites should be brought together into one site, but I don't think all the different QL groups/publications would group together to make a unified resource like that as each would want to have complete control. One thing I have been working on is posting all the latest magazines on the site. These are there but the emails have not yet been sent out with login information. BTW if someone feels that they can run the website better and more cost effective I will gladly ask the committee if we can co-opt them onto the committee and they could become the web master next year! The committee is meeting a week on Sunday (sorry if the committee have not been notified yet) and I will raise these points with them. The options I think we should consider are: 1. Move to a static based website to maintain a web presence (if there is no new content to put on a website then there is little point trying to maintain it the way we are currently trying to) 2. Find some thing to add value to members on the website - recruit new authors for new articles. 3. Shut the site down and no longer maintain a presence. I run my system under debian Linux, and php and mysql are installed. Typo3 is available via apt, but there are 404 issues (probably temporary) trying to install it. I reckon there is a major issue with the databases apt uses, as even apt-get update fails with loads of 404 errors. IP 83.142.228.128 (one of many 404s) is moved or down. If Quanta decide to go for a fixed site, and there seems to be no reason why not if only one person is updating it, then my server can support the Quanta site right now. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] New game for the QL under development
Francois Lanciault wrote, on 25/Sep/12 04:03 | Sep25: Hi Thorsten, I had the idea for this project after designing a gimbal for an antenna on a satellite at work. I had to work with 3D transformation matrices for the beam pointing, especially rotation matrices. Having this renewed knowledge of all the mathematics involved in 3D transformation I felt ready for a 3D program, something I always wanted to do since I first put my hands on a zx81 a long time ago. I started with implementing a few basic 3D routines in Superbasic. When everything was working, I switch to C programming for more speed. I wrote the complete 3D engine without even compiling my code once. Then I wrote the point and line algorithm also in C. After correcting all the bugs that pop out during compiling, I tried the speed of my new line drawing capabilities by drawing a few hundred lines on screen. I told myself Basic is slow, my C version will be much faster! To my surprise, my version was 2X slower than basic. This was a bad news. Line drawing must be much faster than basic for this to work. My next version was in assembler. I was hopping to get a 10X speedup compare to the C version, I got 12X. Good. I also wrote the line removal routines in assembler. This was last Friday. I was ready to test the engine. Took me half a day to remove the bugs. It worked but the speed was terrible, but I was expecting this. The reason this time was the speed of the double precision floating point calculations in C. Again, Superbasic is faster than C (But C has more precision). In a 3D engine, there is a lot of trigonometric functions involved and these are quite slow. So again, I recoded everything using integer arithmetics with new machine code trigonometric function. That is when I got 30 frame per second... BTW when I am done with this, I will put the 3D engine in the public domaine, if anyone wants to play with it. Sorry for the long mail. Absolutely not long enough! This sounds a mightily interesting project. I *hate* these sort of shoot up games though (8-)# ... but is magnificent work. I bet it will be even slicker under QPC. You talking of frame rates reminds me of this lecture in Berlin a couple of years ago: http://blip.tv/jsconfeu/ben-firshman-lessons-learnt-pushing-browsers-to-the-limit-4300940 The games are http://fir.sh/projects/jsnes/ . Simon Goodwin gave him some good info about sound. Ben wrote it first when he was 13, but only completed and released it, with sound, at Uni. One of the most interesting aspects was his direct dialogue with both Firefox and Safari developers. Microsoft also modified MSIE but not one contact with him direct. Firefox actually majored on speed-up code for one release. It is a classic example of the importance of optimisation in screen drawing, which I am sure guys like that unpronounceable Jan Mrsik Flogel (or something like that) used. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Websites
Geoff Wicks wrote, on 23/Sep/12 20:10 | Sep23: The bill for the current 12 months of my website came to £47.84. I use a commercial host that many small businesses and organisations use and I get a good service. That website that, by universal acclaim, is the best QL website ever is run more cheaply than I run mine. The host is Tony Firshman and I understand the owner of the site gets a good service from him. You missed out a line I think. You are talking I am sure about Dilwyn's site. I currently charge £18 per year plus VAT. Last year Quanta spent £346 on its website, which is more than seven times what I am paying. Could someone please explain to me what Quanta is getting for this money that I am not getting. And why, after spending so much members' money, the Quanta website, apart from the news section, appears to have been at a complete still stand for about 18 months, Interesting question. I understand they use a content management system, but if the site doesn't change, that seems superfluous! Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QL Today Volume 17 starts
Bob Spelten wrote, on 19/Sep/12 11:25 | Sep19: Bob/ Op Fri, 14 Sep 2012 13:56:29 +0200 schreef Jochen Merz jm...@j-m-s.com: Dear Readers, just wanted to let you know that issue 1 of volume 17 of QL Today has been picked up from the printer. 52 pages this time!! :-) It also reached Amsterdam yesterday. Never seen a postal delivery so late in the day: 6 p.m. I must apologise to anyone who may have tried to reach me on the email address on my site. It was wrong and has been corrected. While on holiday I saw the site on an iPad and noticed Safari messed it up a bit. I have hopefully also corrected that but no iPad to check this. The blocks in the two columns should now line up. They don't (8-(# The first two are OK, but it gets progressively worse from 'QCP'. He he - I typed 'QPC' first time round (8-)# This is both for Safari and Perfect Browser on the Ipad. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Fwd: Re: QL Today Volume 17 starts
Bob Spelten wrote, on 19/Sep/12 13:35 | Sep19: --- Doorgestuurd bericht --- Van: Bob Spelten b...@upcmail.nl Aan: Tony Firshman t...@firshman.co.uk Cc: Onderwerp: Re: [Ql-Users] QL Today Volume 17 starts Datum: Wed, 19 Sep 2012 14:25:55 +0200 Op Wed, 19 Sep 2012 12:31:44 +0200 schreef Tony Firshman t...@firshman.co.uk: Bob Spelten wrote, on 19/Sep/12 11:25 | Sep19: Bob/ Op Fri, 14 Sep 2012 13:56:29 +0200 schreef Jochen Merz jm...@j-m-s.com: Dear Readers, just wanted to let you know that issue 1 of volume 17 of QL Today has been picked up from the printer. 52 pages this time!! :-) It also reached Amsterdam yesterday. Never seen a postal delivery so late in the day: 6 p.m. I must apologise to anyone who may have tried to reach me on the email address on my site. It was wrong and has been corrected. While on holiday I saw the site on an iPad and noticed Safari messed it up a bit. I have hopefully also corrected that but no iPad to check this. The blocks in the two columns should now line up. They don't (8-(# The first two are OK, but it gets progressively worse from 'QCP'. He he - I typed 'QPC' first time round (8-)# This is both for Safari and Perfect Browser on the Ipad. Not so perfect then. The blocks are defined as 90px high, the text is 4 lines of 20px. So why do they insert extra pixel lines and get out of sync? Also SeaMonkey has this problem but there it was only visible on very long text as in the SysColours page, for which I enlarged that block size. It is text wrapping. SuQcess and QCP are five lines. It is the same with Firefox on my Mac. The Ipad is a red herring! Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Raspberry Pi
Norman Dunbar wrote, on 7/Sep/12 16:10 | Sep7: Hi Bryan, On 07/09/12 15:32, Bryan Horstmann wrote: It would be nice to demonstrate a set-up which just brought up QL quickly on switching on, as the QL did, providing programming straight away, or the Xchange suite if needed. No need for it to be a QL look-alike. Login to your pi as the pi user, for example. Then create/edit a file in your $HOME directory, named .xsession - leading dot and all lower case. Add the following: #!/usr/bin/sh /usr/local/bin/qm Save and exit. You can of course, replace qm with qx, qxx or qxxx to run Uqlx on login, or indeed, any other GUI type program can be started in the same file. Just add it's name into the file with a trailing ampersand to make it a batch job. Make it executable: chmod 755 ./xsession This causes Uqlx (the qm version) to be run whenever you connect with a GUI session. This works when you login as the pi user directly and the Pi is connected to the HDMI/TV or when you login to the pi user via a VNC session. (Which is what I tend to do.) ... and that user name caused me a few hassles when I set up mine. The first thing I did was get rid of that user, and make a 'tony'. However a number of suggestions on setting up had 'pi' in the command line and I didn't twig what that was first time! Any instructions, especially command line quotes, should put user when they have pi there! It only affects logins to a GUI and as the pi user. If you have more users set up and you want them to run something on login to a GUI, then instead of creating the same file in everyone's $HOME, create it in /etc/X11/Xsession.d and call it startup instead. Well, that's the theory at least, I haven't tried the latter version myself. I really must find time to play QL on my pi (8-)# Also a number of hardware mods are hinted at in the UK production. One definitely is removing the three pcb fuses (F1/2/3). Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] the heat!
Norman Dunbar wrote, on 23/Aug/12 18:37 | Aug23: On 23/08/12 16:26, Tony Firshman wrote: I find mine *does* need an external power supply when running some keyboards. Yes, the two USB ports are poly-fused to 100mA each. Some keyboards and/or mice draw more so the fuses kick in and increase resistance (why am I telling you this?) reducing current. This causes the keyboards to act like a QL with a dicky membrane, and misses keys or start auto-repeating at a huge rate. I have a USB wireless keyboard and mouse for mine, a Perixx Periduo 707 Plus, and it too draws too much from the USB port. Plugged into the Benq monitor's powered hub, though, it works as good as it does on my work laptop - both show the same problems such as it hangs unless I leave it connected after power up, for about 30 seconds - or I can unplug and replug the wireless dongle to get it working fine again. The Apple keyboard for instance wouldn't work at all when Pi was run off my monitor usb. I know they say 700ma, but it can be a *lot* less than that. 700 mA is the minimum required for the Pi, but the USBs are limited to 100 mA each. ... and the Pi to 750 ma. The codes on the poly fuses are: PSU - T075 USB - T014 ie 750ma and 140ma respectively. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] the heat!
Tony Firshman wrote, on 26/Aug/12 12:12 | Aug26: Norman Dunbar wrote, on 23/Aug/12 18:37 | Aug23: On 23/08/12 16:26, Tony Firshman wrote: I find mine *does* need an external power supply when running some keyboards. Yes, the two USB ports are poly-fused to 100mA each. Some keyboards and/or mice draw more so the fuses kick in and increase resistance (why am I telling you this?) reducing current. This causes the keyboards to act like a QL with a dicky membrane, and misses keys or start auto-repeating at a huge rate. I have a USB wireless keyboard and mouse for mine, a Perixx Periduo 707 Plus, and it too draws too much from the USB port. Plugged into the Benq monitor's powered hub, though, it works as good as it does on my work laptop - both show the same problems such as it hangs unless I leave it connected after power up, for about 30 seconds - or I can unplug and replug the wireless dongle to get it working fine again. The Apple keyboard for instance wouldn't work at all when Pi was run off my monitor usb. I know they say 700ma, but it can be a *lot* less than that. 700 mA is the minimum required for the Pi, but the USBs are limited to 100 mA each. ... and the Pi to 750 ma. The codes on the poly fuses are: PSU - T075 USB - T014 ie 750ma and 140ma respectively. ... and I now see they are removed! https://www.element14.com/community/message/59032 I will jumper them on my board, and I expect my Apple keyboard will spring to life. Sounds a mite dodgy though, as people may add 500ma devices. The Pi does not have any other protection. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] the heat!
On 24 Aug 2012, at 12:11, Norman Dunbar nor...@dunbar-it.co.uk wrote: any one got any tales of annoying little things which in retrospect are quite charming? How about debugging DJToolkit way back when, by single stepping through my code and making sure everything was doing what it was expected to, and just as I was about to get to the stage where I suspected a bug was, the freezer started up and hung the whole system. That was irritating to say the least. It was that sort of QL crash (washing machine in my case) that prompted me in 1985 to design Computer Cleaner. It worked so well I started selling it at the ZX Microfairs and was sucked into the QL trading business. I sold thousands of the things! That was well before anyone like Belkin was even heard of! Now Belkin and others sell flashy Chinese made ones that are mainly inferior, but far far too cheap to even consider competing with. I had very recently a very pretty looking Belkin one to repair for a friend. It had far fewer and smaller components than mine did in 1986, and didn't even have inductance. The neutral lead had broken off! Tony -- t...@firshman.co.ukhttp://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44 (0) 1442 828254 Fax: +44 (0) 1442 828255. Skype: tony firshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, Tring, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] the heat!
Norman Dunbar wrote, on 23/Aug/12 15:37 | Aug23: Hi Tobias, On 23/08/12 15:22, tobias.froesc...@t-online.de wrote: Hi, another aspect of computing in the early eighties - not related to heat (even if it had some potential to heat up the atmosphere) - were the competing interests for the (sole) TV set in the house. Kids of today can't really understand that. They will. Just as soon as their Raspberry Pi arrives and they want to plug it into the TV! ;-) (8-)# I find mine *does* need an external power supply when running some keyboards. The Apple keyboard for instance wouldn't work at all when Pi was run off my monitor usb. I know they say 700ma, but it can be a *lot* less than that. I suspect a wireless keyboard (and mouse if really wanted) and the pi would quite happily run off a TV usb output. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] the heat!
Norman Dunbar wrote, on 23/Aug/12 18:37 | Aug23: On 23/08/12 16:26, Tony Firshman wrote: I find mine *does* need an external power supply when running some keyboards. Yes, the two USB ports are poly-fused to 100mA each. Some keyboards and/or mice draw more so the fuses kick in and increase resistance (why am I telling you this?) reducing current. This causes the keyboards to act like a QL with a dicky membrane, and misses keys or start auto-repeating at a huge rate. Interesting. Yes I knew about the fuses, of course, but not the capacity. However my Apple keyboard is fine when Pi is run off a USB charger, but not off the monitor usb port. The issue must be the monitor power limit, not the polyfuse limit. Do these polyfuses degrade at all I wonder? Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] qpc2/linux
arnold.cla...@talk21.com wrote, on 14/Aug/12 18:24 | Aug14: From: Computer Research Centrum, Ltd computer.resea...@centrum.cz To: ql-us...@q-v-d.com Sent: Friday, 10 August 2012, 19:22 Subject: Re: [Ql-Users] qpc2/linux Norman thanks for the info but I do not know how to get the command line:sorry. Norman wrote: Just find and run the Terminal application. http://technical-itch.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/ubuntu-terminal.png Arnold wrote: I have got as far installing wine, but the bit about agreeing with the Micrsoft conditions I click on 'ok' and nothing happens. I have tried several times. I notice I now have an icon in home-dash marked terminal. Great Arnold wrote again: Sorry to bother you again, but I have entered wine home/qpc2/qpac2.exe in terminal and the response is can't find 'home//qpc2/qpc2.exe' I have entered just 'wine' and I get three options 'wine - with argument' 'wine - version' 'wine - help' when I enter 'wine /help I get message : cannot find LC;\\windows\\system 32\\ help.exe. I copied QPC2 from windows folder onto a usb flash drive, then, using the usb drive copied QPC2 into a folder marked QPC2 in 'home' on the ubuntu machine. The command to run is /home/qpc2/qpc2.exe A misplaced '/'. The first '/' tells the system to start at the root, and the remaining '/'s are directory separators (just like the windows '\'). Mind you it is hard to figure what you originally did - I bet there are some mistypes above (8-)# You can also 'cd /home/qpc2' (and ENTER) and type ./qpc2 (and ENTER). Type $PATH and ENTER - this will give a list of default directories. If you copy qpc2 to one of those, then all you need to type is 'qpc2' from anywhere. Some default directories may need root access. BTW you need to configure your mailer for in-line quoting with the '' character. As time goes by your emails (with replies) are becoming more and more unreadable. I have edited this one to the way it should have been (possibly)! Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] qpc2/linux
Norman Dunbar wrote, on 12/Aug/12 16:19 | Aug12: Arnold, I have got as far installing wine, but the bit about agreeing with the Micrsoft conditions I click on 'ok' and nothing happens. What you have to do is use the down arrow to get to the bottom of the agreement. Then the OK button is enabled. Then you can press TAB to make sure the highlight is over it, then press ENTER to activate it. It's a ploy by MS to make you pretend to have read the agreement before you simply click OK! There ought to be a prize to *anyone* who has read any of these agreements. I certainly haven't. Right at the bottom, I am sure, is the one allowing M$ to allow hackers access to their systems - M$ accept no responsibility for loss of data or misuse of the system (8-)# Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] qpc2/linux
Computer Research Centrum, Ltd wrote, on 10/Aug/12 19:22 | Aug10: Noman thanks for the info but I do not know how toget the command line:sorry. Just find and run the Terminal application. http://technical-itch.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/ubuntu-terminal.png Wow - really the *whole* point of using Linux is the sophistication of the command line. Linux defaults to the command line and the GUI has to be run as a program. That is what I especially like about Macbook OS X. The command line is a flavour of Linux. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Rasberry Pi arrived
John Alexander wrote, on 4/Jul/12 09:17 | Jul4: Dave Walker wrote (sometime!): ssh not working What distribution are you running - ssh is not enabled by defau7lt on all of them even though the software is installed in the image! The recommended distribution is Debian. If it is the Debian 'squeeze' release then there is a file in the FAT32 partition that needs renaming to get ssh enabled on boot. If it is the Debian 'wheezy' release (http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=50t=8071) which is far better than the 'squeeze' one despite it being labelled beta then ssh should be enabled by default. So far I ahve found the new 'puppy' linux to be the most responsive. That is however labelled as a 'alpha' release although it does look feature complete. Dave Walker The Debian has it in and I'm fairly certain I didn't switch it on myself. However none of the networking stuff fires up if you don't have a network lead connected as you boot up because I assume DHCP hasn't been able to configure the interface The squeeze release I have does *not* run sshd. One has to mv a /boot file. ssh works now. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Rasberry Pi arrived
Stephen Usher wrote, on 3/Jul/12 12:48 | Jul3: On 24/06/2012 16:17, Tony Firshman wrote: The Pi powers off a USB socket and outputs video via an HDMI socket. Both these should be on modern LCD TVs. That is why they did it this way I am sure. Tony, actually, the power supply port was designed for Nokia chargers and requires a great deal more power than USB's standard 500mA allows, so you can't power it directly from a normal USB port. Yes in theory at 700ma plus usb devices, but http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=63t=6050 finds 210ma max. It works fine on all USB sockets I have used. I suspect though that my monitor allows more than 500ma. I wonder whether it has the 'intelligence' to complain (8-)# My M/C helmet, BT keyboard charger and Apple chargers will also do. The GPIO header looks great. Other that power and ground it looks user-definable. I must see if I can get the QL I2C devices working. I presume drivers do not yet exist. Also an LCD monitor (via ribbon to the motherboard) would open the way for long lasting battery powered units. At present it is not possible to ssh in - 'connection refused' - and sshd is running. Where do I investigate I wonder? Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] The *ins...
Marcel Kilgus wrote, on 25/Jun/12 13:38 | Jun25: John Gilpin wrote: Thanks for checking on me, well the message is from me and not a hoax. That is about as likely as me winning the lottery... and I never buy tickets. Whoever you are, you truly have no shame. Indeed. Looking at the message source, it is mightily odd with a very complex (but apparently) harmless html part. A very clever hack by someone who hacks into accounts, and reads past emails for relevant details, like being on holiday and where. If I lost my money the last thing I would do is blanket email my friends. The banks and consulate would help. AOL was also hit by an account hacker and I helped one victim last week, ironically, to move to BTinternet. The moral here is secure passwords, and change regularly. Secure ones are like Ge4?pP9a . Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Rasberry Pi arrived
On 25 Jun 2012, at 11:00, John Alexander acontractor...@yahoo.co.uk wrote: You can drive a composite display from the Raspberry Pi so any old TV should do not just the fancy HDMI. Support your QL(OK sort of formally QL) trader and get one of my cases. Then your capacitor wont fall off ! ;) Asda/Tescos/etc etc do 4GB cards pritty cheap. I've got some 4GB ones with a bootable image on already for £7 if thats useful? Yes indeed, as long as it has composite video input. I must say I have never owned an old TV with such a socket (normally phono). The point I was making was that most modern LCD TVs have both hdmi (and composite video) and USB sockets, so only a mouse and keyboard are then needed (powered off the TV via the Pi). Note the USB socket is a mini one - smaller than the connector on cameras and the like. Like firewire, there are a plethora of connectors. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.ukhttp://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44 (0) 1442 828254 Fax: +44 (0) 1442 828255. Skype: tony firshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, Tring, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] The *ins...
George Gwilt wrote, on 25/Jun/12 14:59 | Jun25: On 25 Jun 2012, at 14:54, Tony Firshman wrote: The moral here is secure passwords, and change regularly. Secure ones are like Ge4?pP9a . Hmm! Looks a bit like my grandfather's name. (8-)# Mine was F0r5hm8n . ... and that is a common method of disguising words, which I am *sure* hackers are on to. The hacked AOL account was probably due to a dictionary word password with '16' appended. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] J Gilpin
Dave Park wrote, on 25/Jun/12 16:38 | Jun25: I replied with I'd be glad to arrange help. Please continue the sequence AH, JM, __, __. I figure a !one_of_us would be lost at that. Good one. I am not sure even I can do that from memory. JS and MG? Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] J Gilpin
Dave Park wrote, on 25/Jun/12 19:00 | Jun25: On Mon, Jun 25, 2012 at 12:41 PM, Tony Firshman t...@firshman.co.uk wrote: Dave Park wrote, on 25/Jun/12 16:38 | Jun25: I replied with I'd be glad to arrange help. Please continue the sequence AH, JM, __, __. I figure a !one_of_us would be lost at that. Good one. I am not sure even I can do that from memory. JS and MG? Which info has now been mailed to that mailbox by the list, which ruins the test ;) (perfectly correct, by the way!) (8-)# I am glad (I remembered I mean). You have to devise another test. Mind you I think the situation is now resolved. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Rasberry Pi arrived
Tony Firshman wrote, on 23/Jun/12 10:43 | Jun23: and mine has arrived. snip The best working solution is a monitor with USB and HDMI sockets. snip A few people have been puzzled by this statement. The Pi powers off a USB socket and outputs video via an HDMI socket. Both these should be on modern LCD TVs. That is why they did it this way I am sure. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
[Ql-Users] Rasberry Pi arrived
and mine has arrived. Two problems - no spare SD card and no suitable monitor (8-)# I am told capacitor C6 (by the power socket) can break off - I will secure mine with carpenter's hot glue. The best working solution is a monitor with USB and HDMI sockets. I wonder if UQLX is going to work.. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Where has Knoware gone?
Ade Vickers wrote, on 20/Jun/12 09:45 | Jun20: pjwitte wrote: Like reading my bloomin obituary ;) No, Im alive and QLing, though not actively developing stuff (for the time being). Knoware is down as I dont have a host. Tested hosting it on an old laptop via DynDNS, but could get it to reliably wake up via internet, and didnt think it worthwhile keeping runing 24/7. Now the laptop's dead :( Im thinking of getting a cheap-to-run netbook or something, and might try again. Let you know if or when I get back online. In the mean time, if you need anything, and know what you need, let me know. Per, I have a virtual server which is hosting some other stuff 24/7, I'd be quite happy to host your domain as well if you like, totally FOC. I don't have a control panel on it, so it's all Linux command line stuff, if you can handle that, you'd be welcome. Drop me a line off-list at a...@qluser.org Cheers, Ade. ... but he probably would not need to use the command line, as he could (S)FTP in I am sure. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Where has Knoware gone?
Ade Vickers wrote, on 20/Jun/12 09:45 | Jun20: pjwitte wrote: Like reading my bloomin obituary ;) No, Im alive and QLing, though not actively developing stuff (for the time being). Knoware is down as I dont have a host. Tested hosting it on an old laptop via DynDNS, but could get it to reliably wake up via internet, and didnt think it worthwhile keeping runing 24/7. Now the laptop's dead :( Im thinking of getting a cheap-to-run netbook or something, and might try again. Let you know if or when I get back online. In the mean time, if you need anything, and know what you need, let me know. ... but of course he probably would not need to use the command line, as he could (S)FTP in I am sure. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Where has Knoware gone?
Lee Privett wrote, on 19/Jun/12 17:56 | Jun19: This isn't the guy I suppose? http://soundcloud.com/per-witte No. The QL Per has a pony tail, and is never to be seen without a small cigar! He is on this page: http://dilwynjones.topcities.com/qlers/qlers.html ... but without cigar! Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Where has Knoware gone?
Tony Firshman wrote, on 19/Jun/12 18:10 | Jun19: Lee Privett wrote, on 19/Jun/12 17:56 | Jun19: This isn't the guy I suppose? http://soundcloud.com/per-witte No. The QL Per has a pony tail, and is never to be seen without a small cigar! He is on this page: http://dilwynjones.topcities.com/qlers/qlers.html ... but without cigar! ... and I see myself *twice* on the page. I am just in the photo of Lau Reeves (8-)# Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Withdrawing from the QL Market
Rich Mellor wrote, on 13/Jun/12 10:38 | Jun13: On 13/06/2012 10:21, thorsten herbert wrote: Seems to be too late now, but this really sounds like a perfect case for Kickstarter: http://www.kickstarter.com/ It's a crowd-funding site, people can say hey, I have this cool project and if 100 people pledge to spend 50€ on it, it will be built. If not, no money is lost. Most projects are relatively small, but recently a computer game even pulled in funds of several million dollars this way... Not sure if a QL product can pull it off, but if a phone-soap (that's actually the combination of a phone charger with a UV-lamp for killing germs) can pull in $63.000 of funds, everything seems possible ;-) http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/588318042/phonesoap-simultaneously-charge-and-sanitize-your?ref=card Marcel Why not just test the waters? We could do some research of interest using Rich's mailing list (e-mail addresses). After that the project should be placed on Kickstarter in order to collect a certain amount which would may persuade Adrian to pick it up again and finish the project. Nothing to lose ... The research mail should be very simple: Interested in buying for the QL: A) SD Card internal solution B) SD Card ROM Port solution C) nothing. If the outcome should be, as you have put as an example, about 100 people at 50 Euros than this is may enough to go into production (?) Would be interesting to find out if this would work as for other projects the same could be easily done again. T ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm I agree that this is a good idea (although you do have to be careful as to how much money kickstarter take of the 50 euros or whatever and ensure that people are well aware of the amount which will be used as a deposit on their order (ie. not the full 50 euros!) That said, the other alternative would be to get the information and then make an approach to Quanta with a well written business case - Quanta can see the sense of getting a QL-SD interface made in any case, so the business case does not have to say how many people would buy it ! Quanta gives an interest free loan to develop projects (and the loan can be repaid as a fixed amount per card sold), but no-one appears to bother approaching them! This would be cheaper all round than using Kickstarter, or could be used in conjunction with Kickstarter - I did offer to write the business proposal to Quanta for Adrian as I have successfully accessed their funds in the past. As far as I can see, the internal solution is unfortunately a non-starter for several reasons: a) The board needs to use an EPROM on it which contains both the driver and the QL operating system. So far as Adrian and I understand, the QDOS license does not allow it to be distributed with new hardware, so that means either people would have to provide their own QDOS ROMs to be programmed onto the EPROM (or program them themselves), or would have to accept that only Minerva is supplied with the device. Unfortunately, Minerva means that not all of the older software will work easily and it also uses more memory (which is tight if you only have just the QL-SD Interface and a standard QL) - particularly so if you need to use dual screen mode to get the older programs to work! b) The lead between the board in the QL Internal ROM socket and the SD card reader board is also an issue - on some QLs, the noise from the power and TV circuitry behind the microdrives appears to cause interference and stop the QL-SD interface working. The length of the lead is also critical ! Certainly this appears to have been Adrian's experience, where the interface worked on some combinations of QLs and hardware, but not others. Why not use a coax cable with the shield grounded. The external ROM port solution seems a more sensible way to go as it addresses both issues, but then we are left with someone needing the time to redesign the whole interface (time is Peter's main issue here) I must say the external ROM solution is the neatest. Peter's design though is very elegant form what I have seen. It would also mean Romdisq couldn't be used at the same time. This would be fine if the ROM SD card was bootable. It would mean Romdisq was not needed. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] last opportunity
On 9 Jun 2012, at 12:10, Urs Koenig \(QL\) q...@bluewin.ch wrote: Urs/ Gerhard Plavec wrote: If you want to come on the meeting in Prottes (near to Vienna, Austria), so it's time to get your ticket and book a room :) All details at http://kuel.org; I hope to see you there This (long) weekend is the QL meeting in Vienna, Austria. This year I couldn't make it for several reasons. As I have an hour for QLing right now, I'm going to post this and some other postings on qlforum. For those attending the meeting I wish you all a great time. Here in Switzerland it's raining for two days now (heavy rain, floodings). As a kind of a virtual meeting here's one of the videos of the 2010 show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4Q7IUMKvRM Thanks for the link and I have just shown it to others at the show. using Andrea's internet link via her Iphone hotspot. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.ukhttp://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44 (0) 1442 828254 Fax: +44 (0) 1442 828255. Skype: tony firshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, Tring, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Raspberry Pi Tracker (Google Maps)
John Alexander wrote, on 1/Jun/12 11:42 | Jun1: The problem with just the Domain name thing is that you then need to support the server so : a) you need a server b) need to power maintain and maintain security on etc etc c) need to host it if that's what you are doing d or home host which is strictly speaking against your service agreement What is 'home host'? Are you saying that hosting a website at home is against your ISP broadband contract? Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Raspberry Pi Tracker (Google Maps)
Bryan Horstmann wrote, on 30/May/12 13:27 | May30: On 30/05/2012 12:07, Dilwyn Jones wrote: I was going to put mine down then it asked for a confirmation email...Nice try i wonder what they send you after you have clicked In my case, absolutely nothing Neil Some do, some don't. Most sites force you to enter an email address for validation to prevent automated spamming and possibly malicious intent (someone signing you up to something without your knowledge - stops me signing up every QL user I know to QL Forum and this list without their knowledge, for example). Must admit, if a site I don't know wants an email address from me, I usually avoid it if I'm unsure. That said, there are some temporary (short-lived) email address services you can use just for signing up to websites like this to avoid using your regular email address - once the short-life email address dies after you've had long enough to sign up and respond to a validation email address, they can't spam your regular email address if you are unsure about a site. I suppose it pays to have an extra email address you can use just for purposes like this, to control spam etc. That way, once you are satisfied the website is bona fide, they will let you alter your email address later to your regular email address if you wish. I'd probably go as far as to say that unless you are 100% happy with a site, NEVER use your regular email address to sign up to anything. Dilwyn Jones My son-in-law is in the computer industry and I was discussing the source of spam, and he has given me, on his own domain, ten email addresses which he can change as needed. You plant one when you are asked to respond with a contact, and if it goes further, you know who to blame. Works a treat to have email addresses under one's own control independent of service ;provider. He recommends having one's own domain which only costs about £5 pa. £3 with most including the superb gandi.net. Don't sign up though for web hosting unless you really have nowhere you can host it. Hosting is how they make most money! If you have a fixed IP address, then it is is easy to set up a website using your own broadband, albeit slow upload. You simply set DNS with the domain host to point to your IP address, and run a web server like apache. Dilwyn for instance used 123-reg I think for his domain, but points DNS to my server. Incidentally Dilwyn, there was a short outage last night from about 23:00. The data centre had a power failure. I was there until about 03:30 rescuing my server and a host of WN ones. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Errors with uQLx on Raspberry Pi
Martin Wheatley wrote, on 24/May/12 12:59 | May24: On 24/05/2012 12:37, John Southern wrote: Hi John - nice to hear you are still about. Takes me back to one evening in the top room of a pub near Tony's You and I and Colin Murphy were over in one corner meeting for the first time and the experts were all at the tables dazzling each other! (8-)# I don't recall a 'top room' - what pub was it? I remember a side room in a pub in SOuthwick Street, Paddington near 12 Bouverie Place. It became a restaurant, and is now empty! ... or are you referring to another Tony? Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] qStripper updated to 1.05
Norman Dunbar wrote, on 13/May/12 13:29 | May13: Morning (!) Tony, It is Norman's time that is worng (from the header): Norman: 01:30 PDT (Pacific Daylight Time) Dilwyn: 01:54 PDT Maybe, Norman, you are on SST (Scottish Summer Time) (8-)# Scottish summer time? That's when it rains then! No, my laptop is set to an NTP server so the time is always correct. But having said that, I checked and noticed that it had lost the NTP connection and I never noticed! (8-)# Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Blowtorches
On 12 May 2012, at 01:05, John Alexander acontractor...@yahoo.co.uk wrote: I had hundreds of memory boards from some mainframe and stripped off kilos of chips. Back in the day of 41256 RAM chips almost every one had a set of pulls from myself. Kept me in University ...Cheers guys John A Ah mainframes. I remember an auction in the 90s where someone arrived with two large box vans and bought a vast qty of mainframe equipment for maybe £150. He was the only bidder. Each item went for under £10. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, Tring, Herts, HP23 4DG --- ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] qStripper updated to 1.05
Added manually: Norman Dunbar wrote on 12/May/12 10:30: Dilwyn Jones wrote, on 12/May/12 09:49 | May12: Dilwyn's reply was 9:49 of course, and Norman sent at 10:30, confused by Dilwyn's mailer not having an attribution! It is Norman's time that is worng (from the header): Norman: 01:30 PDT (Pacific Daylight Time) Dilwyn: 01:54 PDT Maybe, Norman, you are on SST (Scottish Summer Time) (8-)# Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
[Ql-Users] Blowtorches
I see from the current issue of Quanta that a joky quote of the show referring to Lee's removal of components from pcbs using a blow torch. This is not a joke. I too used a purpose built 2kw hot air gun to selectively remove components from QL pcbs. This I suspect is similar to the 'blow torch' Lee used - nothing like the gas powered paint strippers one no doubt imagines. After much practise I managed to remove a whole dodgy std 68008 socket on its own. A quick re-blast on the pads and the new turned pin socket popped in without soldering. It was not possible to detect that it was not the original soldering. I must have removed thousands of components in this way, including the uhf modulator. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Raspberry Pi - starts
On 23 Apr 2012, at 11:40, Malcolm Lear malc...@essex.ac.uk wrote: On 23/04/2012 15:23, Bryan Horstmann wrote: On 23/04/2012 03:15, tobias.froesc...@t-online.de wrote: more specifically: google.co.uk only (They don't seem to consider this an international anniversary) -Original-Nachricht- Von: Lee Privettlee.priv...@gmail.com An: ql-us...@q-v-d.com Betreff: Re: [Ql-Users] Raspberry Pi - starts Datum: Mon, 23 Apr 2012 15:27:02 +0200 Google image is very retro today ZX Spectrum anyone ___ My Google search shows a St George logo. Bryan H Well, it seems to be on google.com. Not when loaded in NH, USA. We are getting the normal logo. Tony -- t...@firshman.co.ukhttp://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44 (0) 1442 828254 Fax: +44 (0) 1442 828255. Skype: tony firshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, Tring, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Quanta Library Guide
On 21 Apr 2012, at 10:10, Ralf Reköndt ralf.rekoe...@t-online.de wrote: snip CLOSE #channelsclose channels What is the syntax? close #2,#3 ? Tony -- t...@firshman.co.ukhttp://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44 (0) 1442 828254 Fax: +44 (0) 1442 828255. Skype: tony firshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, Tring, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Raspberry Pi - starts
On 19 Apr 2012, at 15:10, Malcolm Cadman q...@mcad.demon.co.uk wrote:
In message 4f8fe256.8070...@newlan.org, Bryan Horstmann b...@newlan.org
writes
Hi Bryan,
Yes, every computer language has its own way of doing things, hence the
variety.
Python seems to be in the middle ground, where it has features like the more
complex C/C++ and Pascal, etc, and yet you do not have to all of that endless
'compiling' to see a result.
So like all the BASICS, it is interpreted as it is run.
Not quite the same. Yes- superBasic runs uncompiled but errors only show when
they are encountered.
Python (and perl - my preference) compiles first, syntax errors show then and
it stops with error display - often wildly confusing if things lke closing
quotes (or a dreaded ';' in Perl) is missed. Only if it compiles does it run
the program.
One of the aims of the Pi, is to encourage programming, again, to users and
especially younger users. To see a quick result.
It will be interesting to see whether this happens, and which computer
languages actually then get used.
One of the really great features of python is no {} structure or semi-colons -
it relies on indenting. This imposes good layout, which I in fact always
attempt in perl ( and C).
I always thought it was a pity superBasic demanded line numbers. They were not
actually necessary, and if GOTO did not exist, not even used.
Tony
--
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Voice: +44 (0) 1442 828254 Fax: +44 (0) 1442 828255. Skype: tony firshman
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Re: [Ql-Users] Raspberry Pi - starts
On 20 Apr 2012, at 16:40, Dilwyn Jones dil...@evans1511.fsnet.co.uk wrote:
So like all the BASICS, it is interpreted as it is run.
Not quite the same. Yes- superBasic runs uncompiled but errors only show
when they
are encountered.
Python (and perl - my preference) compiles first, syntax errors show then
and it stops
with error display - often wildly confusing if things lke closing quotes (or
a dreaded ';' in
Perl) is missed. Only if it compiles does it run the program.
It will be interesting to see whether this happens, and which computer
languages actually
then get used.
One of the really great features of python is no {} structure or semi-colons
- it relies on indenting.
This imposes good layout, which I in fact always attempt in perl ( and C).
This all sounds very interesting and possibly a fairly straightforward
language for S*BASIC users to learn. I notice there's versions of Python for
Windows as well as Linux etc. Anyone know if a Python program written on one
platform such as Windows, be run on another such as Linux? Guess if the
programs are written and saved using a text editor there's a chance this
might be possible, although probably endian issues might arise with numbers,
for example? Admittedly I know nothing about Python (yet... - it looks
interesting)
I don't really know python, but I am sure it is much like perl.
One has a first line for Linux - #!/usr/bin/perl/ - which points to the
compiler.
Under windows one uses 'perl program name' - and it ignores the pointer, as it
is a comment!
Any extra modules needed are loaded using 'include', again at the beginning.
There will be no issues with the code as long as these modules are there -
usually. However, especially in the area of gt lt etc, syntx changed. These
languages though seem to be backward compatible in the main.
I always write witth a text editor, often on a different platform.
I always thought it was a pity superBasic demanded line numbers. They were
not actually necessary,
and if GOTO did not exist, not even used.
I think QLiberator at least can compile without line numbers (never actually
tried that). Perhaps George could tell us if Turbo can too.
GOTO and GOSUB are one thing, you can usually do without them. What about
RESTORE line_number though?
Ah I didn't know about that one, and have never used it.
Tony
--
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Voice: +44 (0) 1442 828254 Fax: +44 (0) 1442 828255. Skype: tony firshman
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Re: [Ql-Users] Raspberry Pi - starts
On 19 Apr 2012, at 06:00, Bryan Horstmann b...@newlan.org wrote: I've had a look at Python too, Malcolm, and found Python Languages Syntax Cheat Sheet. Under basic arithmetic it says i=a%b e.g. 11%3 2 I cannot make sense of that. I'll just hope that we can get an emulator and stick to SBASIC I know. But if RS have 220,000 outstanding orders, it'll be some time before I get one! I bet this includes a lot of duplicate 'registration of interest ' They still have not even asked if I even want to place an order, which I don't. In fact succesfully placed an order with Farnell on the second day. Tony Bryas Nice to misprint ones own name! Well unless I altered it by mistake. I quite often type 'Tiny'! -- t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, Tring, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
