Timex “iss Sinclair

Newsletter Dedicated To All Personal Computers

“the HACKER” is an official publication 1991 NOT TOO GOOD

of the Timex/Sinclair User Group of Las Vegas-a non profit, educational FOR USER GROUPS

organization. Subscription to the Well, just as I said. The groups

“HACKER” is $15.00 per year (12 sie issues) and aak DE ING to around the nation are not sticking

TSUG of LV. Please remit to: together as far as supporting the Raiph Hammer(treasurer) Sinclair family of computers. The

A 2105 Oakwood Ave. latest to fall-by-the-wayside is the Las Vegas, NV 89030 only group left in the Southern

Califorina, the South Bay Computer Club Timex/Sinclair Users Group. .

jan 20 pecs ieee pm They have decided to cease the

SPC SIG-------..------ 3-4 pm. publication of the newsletter and 1- the public is WELCOME meet on a bi-monthly basis and shift

l ~ their interests to. IBM usage. “CONTRIBUTING STAFF: The South Bay club is not the first STEVE SAWCHUK---—-- EDITOR IN CHIEF nor the last to change the format of RALPH HAMMER ----—-- CO-EDITOR the group. The interests of the CHRIS FENN--------- ART DIRECTOR members change, so goes the groups.

_DAWN SAWCHUK-----MAILING DIR. it's sad to see these things happen, but lets all wake up and smell the

WHAT'S see burnt toast. pre Lets not see any more groups cease LAPTOP TAKES HONORS------- PG. 2 production of their newsletters TIMELY NEWS---------------- PG. 3 within the coming months and surely PROGRAM OF THE MONTH----- PG. 5 not let us see any more groups fall. THE HONEST TRUTH----------- PG. 6 If your group is deciding to fold, start FROM THE EDITOR------------- PG. up a SEG group (Special

Education Groupjand help each other out DON'T JUST GIVE UP. ;

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The Hacker was saddened to learn of the passing of one of the most respected users in the Sinclair .

community. On Nov. ist, Mr Warren

Fricke passed away. Warren has written many programs for the 2068 as well as the other T/S computers. Warren was a subscriber to the “HACKER” as well as many other publications. Warren will be missed by many, but his programs will live on forever. The Hacker staff extends their condolences to the Fricke family in their time of sorrow. -

GRAND CANYON ULTIMATE EXPERIENCE 136-6700

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C2)

Mention the “HACKER”

No Expiration Date

LAPTOP. TAKES _ g é TOP HONORS Deu

-- A panel of international computer journalists has voted the Psion

- MC400 laptop PC as “computer

of the year.” The British company walked off with the award, presented by Chip magazine of West Germany, polling the highest score of any computer in the competition.. For the tenth year running of the awards, organized by Chip magazine, trade journalists in eight countries voted for their most highly rated computers in five separate categories. In use of innovative and

ground-breaking technology. The

MC 400 was judged to represent “the

mont ei realisation of

the truly portable computer with 60 hours life and the use of solid state disks for data storage,” according to the judges.

TIMELY BITS OF NEWS. .

FROM AROUND THE

WORLD & OTHER PLACES

NEW FOR IBM: Mouse Systems’ Hand-held Scanner -- Input device specialist Mouse Systems Corporation has developed a black-and white. hand-held scanner, packaged with software to give users an easy start. with the system.

The PC PageBrush/32 runs under DOS 3.1 and needs Windows 2.1lor » higher, 640KB of RAM, a graphics card with VGA, EGA or VGA mcnitor and of course, a mouse. It has the ability to recognize up to 32 shades of grey, has a one-bit-per -pixel mode and is compatible with all major desktop publishing programs.

Resolution can be set between 100 and 400 dpi (dots per inch)-and the device has a scan width of 105mm. This allows it to operate with Prodigy OCR which converts text into word processing format and has the ability to merge two scans together to form an §-inch wide scan, La Palette is also bundled, a new color scanning and painting program for Microsoft Windows.

A color version will be announced soon, Mouse Systems said. “We do

not want to be seen as just a Mouse manufacturer,” Monica Kirkdale, manager of European operations for Mouse Systems said. “We provide a complete range of high quality alternative input devices and complementary software."

NEW FOR IBM: Sony-Compatible Rewritable Optical Disk -- Kurary Co. has.introduced a 5 1/4-inch

rewritable magneto-optical disk that

is compatible with Sony’s line of rewritable optical drives.

The disk is part of the company's line of “Lifetime” rewritabie rnedia, which the company says has received confirmation of its . compatibility. with Sony and the standards established by the American National Standards Institute and. the International Standards Organization.

“More than 65 percent of the rewritable market belongs to Sony,” says Tom Russell, president of Kuraray's U.S. marketing firm. "By providing an alternative media source for the industry de facto standard, Kuraray ensures availability and competitive pricing for distributors and VARs.”

“One Lifetime 5 1/4-inch optical © disk can store literally thousands of pages of information,” Russell says. "This high capacity, coupled with the ability to erase information, makes Kuraray rewritable media the optimal storage medium for applications such as computer-aided design and multimedia production, as ` well as document storage and retrieval.”

The disks carry a retail price of $170.

NEW FOR IBM: Corel Unveils - CorelDraw 2.0 -- Corel Systems of Ottawa unveiled Release 2.0 of its CorelDraw graphics software at the Canadian Computer Show here. New special effects and expanded font capabilities are among the changes to the software.

Fiona Skelding, a product demonstrator for Corel, said the new release supports more than 150 typefaces. Corel has also added the ability to export typefaces in a variety of formats, including Adobe Type 1.

New special effects include envelope, perspective, extrude, and blend features. Users can create fish-eye lens effects, vertical arching, block letters, and fit text inside a shape.

The new release also imports full-color scanned images in TIFF format, Skelding said.

The suggested retail price is US$695 or C$835. Corel is charging US$99 or C$125 to upgrade from any previous version of CorelDraw to the new version. "We've justified (the upgrade fee) based on the number of new features,” said Seana White of- Corel at a Toronto press conference. The last. new version of CorelDraw was 1.2.1, released in May to add support for Microsoft Windows 3.0.

NCR ANNOUNCES COURT VICTORY. OVER AT&T

-- NCR has announced that Judge Frederick Smaikin, Federal District Court for the District of Maryland, has dismissed, without prejudice, an amended complaint in a lawsuit filed by AT&T against NCR and the Maryland attorney general.

The complaint by AT&T sought a declaratory judgment that the « - receipt of revokable proxies by AT&T for purposes of a potential. shareholder vote would not make AT&T a beneficial owner of NCR shares represented by such proxies under the Maryland Business Combination Act. NCR said that, under the Maryland Business Combinations Act, a “beneficial owner” of 10 percent or more of the outstanding voting stock is precluded for at least five years from entering into any “business combination” with that corporation unless the company's board of directors approves prior to the beneficial owner becoming a 10 percent shareholder.

NCR also announced that the court did not consider AT&T's request to enter a temporary restraining order which would have barred NCR from commencing or prosecuting any litigation against AT&T in connection with a tender offer in any other court.

AT&T spokesperson John Shako stated that the Maryland decision will not deter AT&T in any way from its attempt to acquire NCR. Skalko said: “We'll just proceed to to the next step”. ~

THATS THE THIRD TIME YOU'VE PUNCHED THE WRONG BUTTON

"MONTH

This month we are printing a small program that was sent to us by S everyones favorite programmer, none other than Joan Kealy herself.

The program is a 2K for the 2068.

In her letter she states,” This one

may look flippant but it's serious, I í got it stright from my CPA”. Also are some of the screen responses thatthe program figures out. Thanks Joan, at. this time of the year, a good chuckle. .

is needed,

WHAT HORE VICES & LUXURIES WILL COST... IN. 1991

$2.28 MORE EVERY WEEK AND $14,56 HORE FOR

$8.64 HORE EVERY WR. AND $33.25 HORE FOR YR.

UP $0.72 PER HO. $6.64 PER YR.

AND FOR THE YUPRPIES $299.5 LUXURY TAX

$598 LUA TAX FOR A TOTAL #164: + SALES TAX IN H

AND FOR THE

MONTHLY TH YEARLY $46

THPUT UHAT YOU CAN AFFORD BEYOR COMPUTING

1 PAPER 7: CLS : EASES based on BPR re ü Budget Act EFF i

5 PRINT “UHAT HORE AURIES WILL COST IN :

18 INPUT “NUMBER OF ji IGARETTES PER WEEK" .C: #.0¢: LET YsWs52: PRINT `

HORE EVERY WEEK’ ’" AND $” ORE FOR THE YEAR" 12 TNEUT “NO. G PACKS BEER PER HK "iB: LET UbsBs.416: LET YRsUE #52: PRINT ARET = ie HORE ENE UK.” ” AND $”; YB; MORE FOR YR.” 15 INPUT “WO. WINE BOTTLES PER MONTH "ML: LET THUs.1SsHU: LET YTH=124#TMH: PRINT “UP $°; THUD” PER HO. $; YTLIG PER YR,"

17 PRINT “AND FOR THE YVUPPIES

16 INPUT “PR GUER $3880: $ 1-300001: PRIN Y TAX” FOR A TAL $ " + BALES TAX IN HOST :

28 INPUT “PRICE oe Lis JEWELRY (OVER g10e@0 ra oa Tes. Lx (L2-18000@) i SRINt LUX TAX'’" FOR A TOTAL Tey fio SALES TAX IN MOST

Se INPUT “PRICE ER $1800@000)";L3: L 188868): PRINT “$” X°’"" FOR A TOTAL #& SALES TAX IN HOST

#4 INPUT “PRICE LANE (DUER #258880: ~ »14{(L4-2588881: PR LUX TAX"? FoR + SALES TRE PRINT “AAD

“INPUT “NUMBER O ASOLINE PER UK" ,.G: | 5: PRINT *“HONTHLY $i MG”? YEARLY $", 30 PRINT * “INPUT

AFFORD BEYONDCOMPUT S@: PAPER @: CLS

9997 STOP

9998 CLEAR : SAVE #"LUXUIS" LINE 1

Ho, Year and all the other to-do

Ho, Ho, Happy New that goes with it. I hope that your holidays were kind to all of you. Even if it only comes once a year, it is still a good time to sit back and review the

past. For most of us, there are a tew days away from the

workplace, to spend some time with our families and friends. The kids were guessing what Loys that Sante would leave for them, and maybe even Mom und Dad for that matter. I still believe in Santa and the spirit o giving. To see the expressions of joy in faces young and old is neve to be completely forgotten. And the traditional Christmas Day dinner, where the food and time together is good.

The New Year sprang up on us the following week. A time to look forward into 1991, and see what is on the road ahead. The world is turning at an exceptional pace, we never know what's going to happen from one day to the next. We have ‘all made some sort of resolution or goal for ourselves. How soon will they be broken or discarded. Most of the goals set are realistic, and when attained, we set new ones. Such is life.

The year of 1990 was not a ! ' one for us TS'ers. A f: setters pic’ ~p their

The honest

Truth

by Ralph Hammer

bags and left us. A couple of groups were disbanded, and one or two even reformed wiih emphasis in PC-SIG. A national magazine dropped the TS computers article, but it was soon picked up by another. And last but not least, some of us abandoned it all-together.

Not to worry. There are still quite a few of us old faithfuls still around. I know I'm not going anywhere sooi. As I have mentioned before, miy 2068 is dedicated to doiny things that my PC can't. A few editors are still putting out real decent N/L’s. And a few

groups are still hanging in there.

There will be more dissappointments down the

road, rest assured. Lets not make such a big deal about it...

upcoming months. so if your subscription is due, renew now so you won't miss any issues. Until

Well, There went another year and we are still hanging in. As you have already read, a lot of newsletters and clubs have gene into la-la land. Now with the threat of postage going up, I wonder if more will fall by-the-wayside I hpoe not.

Now for some good news. Back by popular demand (mine), we will have the priviledge of filling the newsletter with the words of wisdom from John Sumpolec, the BBS greu of Vegas. If you can remember that far back, John wrote for the "HACKER" as SYSOP JOHN. well starting soon ,he will be filling our pages once more with his wisdom of the phone lines.

Also we will have a guest writer (yeah!) reporting on various subjects within the computer world. Maybe we can get some more 1000, 1500 and 2066, maybe even some 288 material squezzed into this publication now and then (I hope so).

We hope to have several program reviews in the up-coming issues. They are two of the most exciting programs I’ ve ever seen. One is a game and the other in an add-in program. A what-in program? If you don't know what an add-in is, you will just have to read about it in the

WrarotGy

RENEWAL NOTICE

This notice is to remind the following people that their abecripHon ‘membership

is due on the dates indicated:

RMikami & D. Silvestri----2/1/91 | R. Curnutt & G Hudlow----- 3/1/91

Without your support, We can't function.

Please renew today.

XXKRRARKAXARKKRKXARKKKRRN RNG MMH Kh eh Mo 2 NEW RELEASES FROM ##> RMG ENTERPRISES <uu HERE ARE 2 NEW RELEASES FROM THE WRITING TEAM OF JEAN AND BRANSON WILCOX. We hope that you wili aive, them a try and help support our 2068 software producerai

This one is tor all of you TAROT card enthusiasts. I really have not seen a better program of its type for the 2066. It is fun to get your readings done by THE AMAZING CLIVE from his TAROT oarda! Also introductory pricad atı ONLY mize. QEpiua 62 PH

RMG ENTERPRISES . 4419 1/2 7TH STREET

OREGON CITY, OR 97045 BeBe Ba Be BeBe BeBe Be Be Be he Be Be Be Be Be Be Be Be Be Be Be Be Be Be Be Be Be Be Be Be Be Be Be Be

"H ACK ED iy

COMDER SHOW DAILY

“Trust me on this, son. i |- Goldilocks is not going to be a

peaca ii a fa LTE PAE aaa

: “Where is the spell check when ` you peed iP" ci ag

€OMMDER' SHOW DAILY —

‘ t ae N

“Ofcourse the instructions come separately. They're $400!”

- “We used to be buried in tons of ` unfiled paperwork. Now we're buried in tons of unfiled floppy disks." is