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123,
Easy As CCC
Shiuming Lai
makes a full showing at Cheshunt's February
meeting
The original
headline of this report was going to be something
along the lines of, "We're Jamming...".
I had left work five minutes early with the
pedal firmly to the metal, in full anticipation
of rush hour traffic congestion. However, apart
from a horrendous snarl-up from Richmond all the
way to Hangar Lane, which took the best part
of a game of two halves, the rest of my journey
up the A406 towards Cheshunt Computer Club was
unusually plain sailing, mostly in fourth
gear. For the first time ever, I thought
I'd be in time for opening at 19:00, then as
I got closer to the A10 it became apparent that (shock,
horror) I'd in fact be early! This, even though
I was now confident enough of my memory to not
bring a map of any description and forgot the
last part, taking the wrong turn off one roundabout
- but still managing to sniff my way
towards computerdom.
Arriving early
has the benefit that one doesn't have to pay
for the car park next to the hall, even though
at 1/3 the price of parking in London, isn't
exactly expensive. Instead, there are parking
spaces at the front of the hall. I contemplated
visiting the neighbouring fish and chip joint
for some sorely needed food but it looked like
closing for the day so I left it for the moment,
hoping to grab a pizza or dodgy kebab a bit
later.
Once inside Wolsey
Hall it felt like I was still late anyway, as
most of the other members had turned up even
earlier. Peter West and Ian Smith, the West
London boys, were among
the first arrivals, sat in their corner of the
room with Falcon and PowerBook G4.
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Customary
shot of Peter West looking
busy. Here he's working on the
translation of Tempus Word,
a large project we hope to review
as soon as possible.
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![[Photo: Peter West and Ian Smith]](images/ccc02.jpg)
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Obviously
the Atari is more interesting
than the Mac!
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Steve
Sweet was still working on Mark Branson's CT60
Falcon tower project, I took the opportunity
to get Mad Butscher's CT60 (nickname: Frog) firmware
up to date, that is, when I could pull Mark
away from his many distractions for more than
half a minute! The update was successful, Steve
had done the PCB modifications including soldering
on a resistor, and finally it was running at
100.0 MHz, an extra 0.1 MHz faster than last
time, with ABEv5L and SDRv5E. In between hacking
away on Mark's Falcon, Steve was busy with the
replacement for the PC he destroyed last time
I was there, trying to get it to recognize a
200 GB hard disk, it wasn't having it, so they
had to settle for 120 GB. Mark is going power-crazed
over his Falcon, I can't wait to see the Super
VIDEL, which is currently in an advanced stage
of development. He wants to load his Falcon
to the max, and a big fat EIDE hard disk seems
like a nice way to do it.
There
wasn't much in the way of hardware, especially
compared to the number of visitors. This should
certainly change once I get out of the current
state of my various projects all in limbo. If
I had known there would be a television set
there, I could have brought a 2600 along! I
was playing Street Racer on mine at home just
the week before.
![[Photo: Derryck Croker, Peter West]](images/ccc03.jpg)
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Derryck
Croker checking out progress
of Tempus Word. Both Derryck
and Peter are members of DDP
Translations, the current most
active software translation
crew on the Atari platform.
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![[Photo: Steve working on CT60 Falcon]](images/ccc04.jpg)
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Tinkering
with the mighty CT60.
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![[Photo: Derryck playing with a PC]](images/ccc05.jpg)
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Woolly
jumper convention!
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I
remember one time the club met at a local internet
café, that was a meeting I missed. Not to knock
the usual tea and biscuit provisions, but I
always fancy something more substantial when
I get there because I don't get a chance to
eat during the long journey there. Nobody knew
of a curry house but there was the Harry Ramsden's
fish and chip shop on College Road. I was disappointed
by the cardboard-like scraps of chips, and the
chicken pie was far too dry and not like chicken
at all! A bad first experience. If it's not
better next time, I'll go to the Pizza Hut next
door, methinks.
![[Photo: Harry Ramsden's Fish and Chips]](images/ccc06.jpg)
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Mmm,
food...
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Notable
by his absence was Felice, and I was also hoping
to meet with some of the UK based MyAtari team
for some chat about the magazine but none of
them could make it at such short notice. Still,
it was a very relaxed and productive evening,
a lot of ideas were discussed and I ended up
staying until chucking-out time.
![[Image: Club map and meeting dates]](images/cccmap.gif)
shiuming@myatari.net
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