*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* SYNDICATE ZMAGAZINE Issue #131 November 13, 1988 *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* Publisher/Editor: Ron Kovacs Assistant Editor: Lisa Kovacs Post Office Box 74 Middlesex, NJ 08846-0074 *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* Weekly Conveyance Via PayBax BBS (302) 731-5558; All Bauds *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* +-* CONTENTS *-+ (*) Editors Desk..............Ron Kovacs (*) ZMag Special Report....Tony Robinson (*) ZMag Archives "1987 Comdex Report" (*) Area Code Listing........Lisa Kovacs (*) What is GIF?...................GEnie (*) Announcement........................ (*) Notes on GOE..........David Sullivan (*) ZMag Humor.......................... (*) Bit versus Baud........Peter Vaughan (*) ZMag Circulation Counts...Ron Kovacs _______________________________________________________________________ Editors Desk by Ron Kovacs COMDEX begins this week and look for updates via ST-REPORT on CompuServe and in next weeks edition of ZMAG. Reprinted in this issue is a press release from Atari from the 1987 Comdex. Dont confuse this with any 1988 press release (if any). If you missed the Nov 9th conference on CompuServe last week, you can find it in the Atari Arts NEW UPLOADS data library #1. Duw to space limitations, we cannot reprint the entire conference here. The ZMagazine Survey has been completed and will be uploaded to the services after Wednesday. Please take the time to download and send it back to us to accumulate the results. You can send the file back to us via email or through the US mail. _______________________________________________________________________ ZMag Special Report "The First Canadian Atari Users Convention": In the Promised Land By Anthony L. Robinson (CHAOS, Michigan) It was a cool day in Toronto, but for the Atari enthusiast it was a beautiful day. It was the "First Canadian Atari Users Convention". Over fifty booths of nothing but Atari hardware and software of every kind. There was even a 260 ST on display at one of the user group tables. The convention, open from 10am-6pm, had nearly 700 show-goers in attendance by 1:30 in the afternoon. The place was packed! A great beginning for a great show. Many well supplied dealers and user groups were there for the curious and seeking, even a few programmers, but most important presence for many was the Atari (Canada) Corporation. Business was swift and rewarding for all in attendance. Inquiries received demonstrations, and questions were given real answers. On the hardware end there were no such thing as shortages or unavailability of products, practically everything that Atari has manufactures in computers was on hand - in great quantities. Atari support, both from the company and from the users, was clearly evident. While at the Atari booth, it seemed like the only feelings of doubt or overall complaint came from the U.S. attendees. Conversations with the Atari representatives revealed several new developments, and responses to many current speculations. Although the representative was not free to announce all the facts (a privilege reserved for those at Comdex), he did talk about things in general. We can expect to see new products (ie...machines) to start coming out shortly after the first of the year. One of the computers coming will be a 68030 chip-based ST. It will be endowed with enhanced graphic resolution, a stereo chip, more colors, and the new TOS. It will remain completely compatible with existing ST software via the ability to load in old TOS, and it will support Unix in the same manner. A '30 upgrade for current ST's is being worked on, but may prove to be unfeasible due to the amount of reworking that seems to be necessary. Other goodies to be released will include a portable laptop ST, a "Amiga Beater" ST (not the 68030 one!), and later, a ST based game machine - currently incompatible, but still under development. On a lighter note, ST owners can also be on the lookout for a new light gun of the ST, as well as some new games to utilize it. The gun will basically be the same as the design currently available for the XE game system (let's hope the aim will be better!). One of the games to use the new gun will be "Crossbow", already available on several other computer systems. Another topic that came up was the company's image as a business company or game company. One of the attending users apparently felt that Atari was wrong to show the ST running games in its advertising. The Atari rep. said that there was nothing wrong with it. In fact, he said that Atari was interested in showing the business side of the Atari, but was not trying to kill the game side at the same time. Almost half of Atari's profit last year was from the games. When challenge with the low ratio of games available for IBM, the representative countered with statistics that almost 65% of the software available for the IBM was game oriented. Obviously, Atari wants to have something to offer for everyone. Further talk with the Atari rep. included references to Atari's efforts to encourage third party programmers to stick with the U.S. market till they get more ST's out in the U.S. (ST's are doing great in the UK and Europe, approaching around 200,000 ST's in the UK alone by Christmas!). He recited that they've already had success in this activity with programmers such as Epyx, Electronic Arts, and several others with more to come. He stated that all the ST will remain as upwardly compatible as possible, to help insure a long and happy life for the computer line. Another activity that Atari is conducting is the importation of european software to this side of the ocean. This brings hot, new titles to the users and helps show U.S. programmers what's being done in Europe on the ST - yet another market waiting for more Atari titles. Indeed, most Canadian Atari users seemed very happy with their machines and its creator. With plenty of dealers, products, and availability backed-up with plenty of advertising and promotions, its easy to understand all the positive and enthusiastic feelings found at the convention. To an American, it felt like being in the "promised land" (imagine what being in the UK must be like! Nirvana!?). Atari (U.S.) is promising to bring this "land" to the States. If Toronto is just a taste of paradise, it was a taste that should become a regular meal for every Atari user everywhere. _______________________________________________________________________ ZMag Archives (October 1987) PRESS RELEASE: OVERVIEW OF COMDEX 1987 ATARI BOOTH CONNECTIVITY, SOLUTIONS, AND TECHNOLOGY: ATARI ANNOUNCES NEW PRODUCTS (Las Vegas, NV -- Comdex Fall 87)... In a series of major product introductions, Atari Corporation emerges as a maker of a complete line of high-performance, low-cost solutions for the business world. New technology is showcased by Abaq, an ultra-high-performance workstation with blazing speed and dazzling graphics. The Abaq, based on a sophisticated "transputer" chip, runs more than 10 times faster than a PC/AT technology and more than 5 times faster than the 68020 with math processor. The parallel processing capability of Abaq lets a single system multiply its processing power by adding extra transputer chips. Atari unveiled its new CD player capable of reading CD-ROM disks and of playing musical CD disks. The CD-ROM is supported by a Mega and ST- compatible DMA interface, and will retail in early 1988 for under $600. Atari's connectivity answer is a LAN which is compatible with the NETBIOS standard used by IBM and Novell. It communicates data at 1 megabits-per- second to PC's and over 250K bits-per-second over Appletalk. Atari is planning to manufacture "PromiseLAN" adapters for the Mega, ST, and PC computer lines. The Atari Mega computers are showcased with a variety of solid business solutions. Desktop publishing is represented by both the Atari SLM804 Laser Printer and by G.O. Graphics, who are porting their Deskset program (CompuGraphics compatible) which Atari will market. Word Perfect is displaying the recently shipped Word Perfect ST and Atari is displaying Microsoft Write. A group of vendors are appealing to VARs with vertical packages running under the IDRIS multi-user multi-tasking operating system. Several new high-end CAD packages are on display including Foresight's Drafix 1. Atari expanded its PC-compatible offerings by adding two new models, the PC2 (PC XT compatible) and PC4 (PC AT compatibile), both with EGA graphics high clock speeds, and low price tags. A variation of the PC3 will operate in VGA graphics mode as well. The PC2 and PC4 will be offered with 3.5" or 5.25" floppy disks and with hard disks. These new models join the PC1, which at $799 is a basic 512K PC XT compatible, suitable for use as a LAN workstation and for standalone personal computing. The PC2 includes XT-compatible slots, while the PC4's slots are PC AT compatible. "We offer complete systems for the office," said Atari president Sam Tramiel. "I can see Atari Mega computers with laser printers as desktop publishing stations exchanging data with a satellite group of PC1's as LAN stations. An entire office environment can be created. The PC, the Macintosh, and the Atari computers co-exist. Each can do the things they do best." (PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS PRESS RELEASE WAS REPRINTED FROM THE ZMAG ARCHIVES. AND IS REPRINTED HERE AS A FEATURE BEFORE THE 1988 COMDEX SHOW. THIS COULD VERY WELL BE CONFUSED FOR A 1988 PRESS RELEASE. PLEASE MAKE A NOTE OF THIS.!!) _______________________________________________________________________ Area Code Listing as of Nov 1, 1988 201 - NEW JERSEY 202 - WASHINGTON D.C. 203 - CONNECTICUT 205 - ALABAMA 206 - WASHINGTON 207 - MAINE 208 - IDAHO 209 - CALIFORNIA 212 - NEW YORK 213 - CALIFORNIA 214 - TEXAS 215 - PENNSYLVANIA 216 - OHIO 217 - ILLINOIS 218 - MINNESOTA 219 - INDIANA 301 - MARYLAND 302 - DELAWARE 303 - COLORADO 304 - WEST VIRGINIA 305 - FLORIDA 307 - WYOMING 308 - NEBRASKA 309 - ILLINOIS 312 - ILLINOIS 313 - MICHIGAN 314 - MISSOURI 315 - NEW YORK 316 - KANSAS 317 - INDIANA 318 - LOUISIANA 319 - IOWA 401 - RHODE ISLAND 402 - NEBRASKA 404 - GEORGIA 405 - OKLAHOMA 406 - MONTANA 408 - CALIFORNIA 409 - TEXAS 412 - PENNSYLVANIA 413 - MASSACHUSETTS 414 - WISCONSIN 415 - CALIFORNIA 417 - MISSOURI 419 - OHIO 501 - ARKANSAS 502 - KENTUCKY 503 - OREGON 504 - LOUISIANA 505 - NEW MEXICO 507 - MINNESOTA 509 - WASHINGTON 512 - TEXAS 513 - OHIO 515 - IOWA 516 - NEW YORK 517 - MICHIGAN 518 - NEW YORK 601 - MISSISSIPPI 602 - ARIZONA 603 - NEW HAMPSHIRE 605 - SOUTH DAKOTA 606 - KENTUCKY 607 - NEW YORK 608 - WISCONSIN 609 - NEW JERSEY 612 - MINNESOTA 614 - OHIO 615 - TENNESSEE 616 - MICHIGAN 617 - MASSACHUSETTS 618 - ILLINOIS 619 - CALIFORNIA 701 - NORTH DAKOTA 702 - NEVADA 703 - VIRGINIA 704 - NORTH CAROLINA 707 - CALIFORNIA 712 - IOWA 713 - TEXAS 714 - CALIFORNIA 715 - WISCONSIN 716 - NEW YORK 717 - PENNSYLVANIA 718 - NEW YORK 801 - UTAH 803 - SOUTH CAROLINA 804 - VIRGINIA 805 - CALIFORNIA 806 - TEXAS 808 - HAWAII 812 - INDIANA 813 - FLORIDA 814 - PENNSYLVANIA 815 - ILLINOIS 816 - MISSOURI 817 - TEXAS 818 - CALIFORNIA 901 - TENNESSEE 904 - FLORIDA 906 - MICHIGAN 907 - ALASKA 912 - GEORGIA 913 - KANSAS 914 - NEW YORK 915 - TEXAS 916 - CALIFORNIA 918 - OKLAHOMA 919 - NORTH CAROLINA _______________________________________________________________________ WHAT IS GIF? GIF is a graphics format common to all machines that read GIF. What this means to us is that we can all see the same graphic from ONE file. The format allows for 256 level color and BW gray level. This 256 level is refered to as "8 Bit" graphics. Your machine does not display 8 bit you say, well the Gif format will show you the graphic as your machine can see it. I strongly believe in giving credit where credit is due. GIF is a format copyrighted by Compuserve, and they have placed it in the Public Domain. I want to thank Compuserve for the GIF format (even though Im a sysop on GEnie) because it serves a need that we have, and it does a good job. As to what machines do the best job, let me say this: I have seen GIF on Mac SE & Plus, Mac II, Atari ST, MS/DOS EGA,VGA and Super VGA. I have also seen Amiga Gif on my Mac II. There is a lesson to all of this ...Dont judge one machine from what you see on your Screen. Obviously the systems that can show the full 256 levels (8 bit) show up the best. The best displays I have seen by far are the Mac II and Super VGA. Next would come the Amiga (5 bit), then EGA. IF you are viewing on an SE or Plus, you really should stick to the MacPaint conversions (which we will discuss soon). On the EGA and other 16 color (4 Bit) machines, you will see a good image but wont be able to figure out why the rest of us are raving. To our ST friends, the ST gif I have seen was not super good, and I assumed it was under the potential of the ST; therefore I THINK its a software problem and thereby fixable. The quality of a Mac II and super VGA is reasonably close to that of a photograph. While the topic of 24 bit graphics will soon come up, GIF does not at this time support that high of graphics. Besides, the file transfers would be unreasonalbly long due to size of the files. A 24 bit file of 5x7 size (75dpi) is 544 K before compression, while an 8 bit of the same resolution is 181 K. HOW TO GIF How to Gif? Easy! All you need is a viewer and/or converter. A viewer is written for your machine and will open the GIF file. Many times it will convert that image to a graphics format common to your computer system. So all you really need is to download a file and have your viewer open it for viewing and possible conversion to your favorite graphics format. Where do I get these programs? Another good question!! We have all the files you need for most popular systems. Following is a list of file on the Photo RT Library that you may download at your convience. 878 CSHOW5.ARC Desc: CSHOW VER 5.0 GIF VIEW FOR IBM 751 PICEM.ARC Desc: GIF Viewer for IBM Computers 750 VGAGIF34.ARC Desc: GIF viewer for IBM VGA cards 641 AT8GIF.DOC Desc: documentation for AT8GIF.OBJ 640 AT8GIF.OBJ Desc: view GIF on 8 bit Atari computers 584 SHRCONV2.1.BQY Desc: update,view GIF on Apple IIgs 570 AMISTRIP.ARC Desc: STRIPS 1ST 128 BYTES OF MAC GIF 559 GIF QUESTIONS Desc: A MUST file for GIF users.TXT 557 MACGIF STRIP 4 ST Desc: MacGIF stripper for ST!! 554 HAMGIF.ARC Desc: View 256 color GIF files on Ami! 553 AMGIF.ARC Desc: Convert Amiga pics to GIF format 377 MAC.STRIPPER.BQY Desc: Remove Mac headers, for Apple // 375 IIGIF.BQY Desc: View GIF pics on Apple //+,//e,//c 374 SHRCONVERT.BQY Desc: View GIF pictures on the Apple IIgs 369 STIPGIF IBM.ARC Desc: IBM utility to view Mac GIF! 330 GIFCONVERTERDEMO Desc: Converts GIF files for SE/Plus view 321 GIFFER10.SIT Desc: Display GIF pictures on Macintosh. 320 GIFSHOW.ARC Desc: Display GIF pics on ATARI ST only. 319 TIGIF.ARC Desc: Display GIF on TI PRO computer. 298 CNVGIF.ARC Desc: Converts DEGAS and NeoChrome to GIF 297 GIF.ARC Desc: Converts Spectrum 512 Pics to GIF 296 CSHOW.ARC Desc: Gif viewer for IBM & compatibles 295 GIF SPECS.ARC Desc: GIF specs archived The subject of "Stripping" must also be mentioned. When a Mac is the source of the image, that system adds some information to the top of the GIF file. With this added information used only by the mac system, other Gif systems will not reconigeze the file as a GIF and will not open it. Most systems now have strippers that take off this information. Therefore IF, you have a GIF file you can not open, try a stripper on a COPY of the file. This is only true for source files from MAC systems! (More on this subject in the next topic.) EPHOTE GIF Anyone may upload GIF files or anyother format of photos and art. GEnie rules of ratings on the sexual nature of the files is enforced. If you have questions as to what this policy is, please Email the questions to EPHOTE. On the subject of "Stripping", scans from the PHOTO RT are done on a Mac II. While the older files do need stripping, the new files do not. Confused? Well if you see the words "pure GIF" the file will not need stripping. As a general rule, any file uploaded after 10-1-88 by EPHOTE will not need stripping. Thanks to Fritz Kass of INFO CENTER BBS, for showing us how to take out that Mac header. If you are a mac user and dont know how to strip out the header, I have placed the proceedure in the PHOTO RT Bulletin Board Category 15, or you can Email EPHOTE for the proceedure. _______________________________________________________________________ Announcement ***************************************************************** * " TELECOMMUNICATIONS FOR EDUCATION AND TRAINING " * * * * A Conference and Mini Fair sponsored by * * * * THE ISLAND/REACH COMPUTER USERS GROUP * * in consultation with * * The STATE of MAINE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION * ***************************************************************** SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1988 at DEER/ISLE STONINGTON HIGH SCHOOL Featuring presentations, discussions, source material and hands-on opportunities to try out NovaNet, GEnie, Compuserve, The Information Exchange, ME-LINK and many other state and national education and training services available via modem. The conference and mini-fair are designed for teachers, administrators and managers, school board members, parents, students and anyone else interested in using or learning about these new technologies for their education. The conference will begin at 9:00 am and will offer the following presentations: - MORNING SESSION - 9:30-10:00 TELECOMMUNICATIONS OVERVIEW 10:00-11:30 NOVANET: The nationwide educational service 11:30-12:30 COMPUSERVE & other NATIONWIDE INFORMATION SERVICES 12:30-1:30 OTHER TELECOMMUNICATIONS RESOURCES - AFTERNOON SESSION - 1:30-2:30 LUNCH BREAK 2:30-5:00 MINI-FAIR: The afternoon session will offer attendees hands-on opportunities to try some of the on-line education and training resources demonstrated during the morning. There will be several retailers representing their computers' educational instructional capabilities. REGISTRATIONS: $15 for the morning, $5.00 afternoon, $20.00 both For more information you may contact either: ISLAND/REACH COMPUTER USERS GROUP JIM CAMPBELL PO BOX 73 or ORLAND, ME 04472 DEER ISLE, ME 04627 1-207-469-7148 1-207-348-9917 _______________________________________________________________________ The Graphics Operating Enviroment >From Total Control Systems Designer David R. Sullivan If you are tired of hearing about the GEOS on the Commodore, the GEM desktop on the ST, and the desktop on the Macintosh, then this is the productor you! GOE, the Graphics Operating Environment from Total Control Systems, is THE desktop operating system for the 400/800/XL/XE/GS systems. First jus the facts, then I will give you my personal opinion. GOE is a desktop user interface similar to the desktop on the ST and many other machines. GOE will be released on a 64k "super cartridge" about the first week of November, 1988. It uses icons to represent the disk drives, a trash can for deleting files, and different icons to represent the different types of files on a disk. GOE operates on all Atari computers, including the older models as well as the new XE Game System. GOE supports windows that are resizable, slidable and movable. You can have up to 16 windows open at one time! There are drop down and pop up menus. The drop down menus at the top of the screen are definable by the user. This means that if you prefer to have the windows drop down when you point at the top of the screen with the mouse icon, it can be set up that way. However, if you prefer to have them only drop down when and if you "click" on the title of the menu, you can set up it that way. On the ST, the drop down menu stays on the screen, once opened, until you either click on an option, or drag the mouse icon to a blank section of the screen and click it to close the window. With GOE you can decide whether you want to "click" to close the drop down menu or have it close automatically upon your exit from the menu. In the desk accessories section, you have a control panel built into the cartridge, that allows you to set the screen width to 40 or 64 columns and define in which joystick port you want to use one of the following: joystick, mouse, koala pad, or touch tablet. You can also use the keyboard instead of any of the above. The CX85 numberic key pad can also be used with GOE, instead of the number row on the keyboard or the mouse pointer to choose numbers. You are not limited to the arrow keys for directional control of the pointer with GOE, as you can define which keys you want to uses the controlling keys. Also you can set the color of the background and the color of the drop down menus. There is a calculator included that allows you to do multiplicaton, addition, subtraction, division, square root, and percentage calculations. Of course there is also a notepad built into the cartridge that allows you to leave notes to yourself at almost any time. When copying files with the ST you are allowed to "lasso" a group of files and then copy them all to a new disk. This is also allowed with GOE. The function keys are also used with GOE. The HELP key is used for online help comment boxes. The START key takes you to DOS. The SELECT key brings up the control panel and the OPTION key allows you to change controllers. GOE works with the MIO, the ATR8000, the 850 and the P:R connection. GOE also works with any DOS, including SpartaDos X, MyDos, Atari ADos, Atari Dos 2.0, and more. Subdirectories, known as folders, are also supported. GOE comes with over 45cons to choose from, built into the cartridge, with an editor on a seperate disk. Disk naming and comment storage for files is provided for use even with MyDos. Time/Date stamping is supported for SpartaDos users. Directories cane sorted, on the screen, either by name or file extender. GOE only uses 8k of memory for a 64k program. If all this isn't enough, if your user group orders before October 28, 1988 you can get 10% off of an order of 5 or more GOE cartridges, 20% off of an order of 15 or more. Discounts must accompany user group presidents signature and information about the group's member's: size, types of computers owned, etc. Suggested retail price is $79.95 but for a limited time, you can take the above discounts, with the restrictions mentioned above, off of the special price of only $50.00 which includes a coupon for goWrite and goPaint at a special low price. These two products should be out soon. Now for my personal opinion of GOE versus the competition. There is no comparison! GOE is the best desktop operating system for the 8bit Atari available. ST jr. or Diamond, whatever the name, cannot compare to GOE. The GOE demo does more than the released version of Diamond! GOE takes up only 8k compared to a disk based program that uses up the limited amount of RAM in the Atari 8bit computers. GOE works with all DOS's compared to Diamond only working with Atari DOS 2.0. GOE is a very powerful easy to use interface for the novice or experienced user. It brings the ATARI 8bit into the 20th century. I have used it extensively, the demo version that is, and found it to be very easy to use and very powerful. I have loaded several terminal programs with no problem. The demo goPaint and goWrite are exciting in what they promise to do. In all, I heartily endorse Total Control System's Graphic Operating nvironment by David R. Sullivan and urge you to send in your orders soon as possible! I did! Total Control Systems 156 Tolowa Street San Diego, CA. 92117619 (Ed. Note: This product has been rescheduled for a mid-late November release. This known from the recent conference on GEnie.) _______________________________________________________________________ ZMag Humor (ED. You might have seen this file displayed at your place of employment, I thought everyone who enjoy reading it here.) CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD Leaps tall buildings in a single bound. Is more powerful than a locomotive. Is faster than a speeding bullet. Walks on water. Gives policy to God. PRESIDENT Leaps short buildings in a single bound. Is more powerful than a switch engine. Is just as fast as a speeding bullet. Walks on water if the sea is calm. Talks with God. EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT Leaps short buildings with a running start and favorable winds. Is almost as powerful as a switch engine. Is faster than a speeding BB. Walks on water in an indoor swimming pool. Talks with God if a special request is approved. VICE PRESIDENT Barely clears a Quonset hut. Loses tug-of-war with a locomotive. Can fire a speeding bullet. Swims well. Is occasionally addressed by God. GENERAL MANAGER Makes high marks on the wall when trying to leap buildings. Is run over by locomotive. Can sometimes handle a gun without inflicting self-injury. Dog paddles. Talks to animals. MANAGER Runs into buildings. Recognizes locomotive two out of three times. Is not issued ammunition. Can't stay afloat with a life preserver. Talks to walls. TRAINEE Falls over doorsteps when trying to enter buildings. Says "Look at the choo-choo". Wets himself with a water pistol. Plays in mud puddles. Mumbles to himself. SECRETARY Lifts buildings and walks under them. Kicks locomotives off the tracks. Catches speeding bullets in her teeth and eats them. Freezes water with a single glance. She IS God... _______________________________________________________________________ Bit versus Baud by Peter Vaughan I'm a telephone engineer. I get involved in the "bit rate" of modems, as opposed to the "Baud rate". I was talking to someone recently about my SupraModem 2400 "Bits per Second" (2400 BPS) modem. He came back talking about 2400 "Baud". You all probably know that our "2400" modems operate at 600, not 2400 Baud. But, just in case anyone doesn't and is interested: 1) The Atari XM301 and 1030 modems operate at a 300 per second "bit rate". The Baud rate is also 300, because the modulation method is simple frequency shift keying. One bit of digital information from the computer results in one tone frequency being transmitted on the telephone line. The rate at which information enters the telephone line is called the "Baud rate". So the bit rate equals the Baud rate, and both are 300. 2) At a 1200 "bit rate", (for example the SmarTeam 1200, or the Supramodem 1200) the Baud rate is not 1200, but 600. In this mode of operation, TWO consecutive bits of digital data from the computer are examined together. Depending on what these two bits are, they are then converted into a SINGLE phase shift of the previous tone, and then transmitted. Again, the rate at which information actually enters the telephone line is the "Baud rate". So, it's two for one again, and the Baud rate is 600, being one half of the 1200 bit rate. This modulation method is called Differential Phase Shift Keying, or DPSK. At the receive end, the modem compares the PHASE of the signal with the previous phase. Depending on what that phase shift is, it demodulates into TWO unique bits of data. Hence the "two for one". 3) At the 2400 "bit rate", the Baud rate is still 600. The modem uses a modulation system called Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM), which is based on the Bell V.22bis protocol. This QAM takes FOUR sequential bits at a time, and combines them into a SINGLE signal, which is a combination of phase and amplitude. At the receive end, this single piece of information is demodulated back into the original FOUR bits. So four bits of digital information from the computer result in one transmitted symbol, and the Baud rate is 2400 divided by 4, or 600. The reasons for reducing the Baud rate are twofold: A) Stay as near as possible to the middle of the passband of the telephone line. Stay away from the high frequency roll-off. The lower you make the highest frequency of a signal on the line, the easier it is to send it hundreds, or even thousands of miles without excessive roll-off of the highest frequency components. (For example, my brother lives in England, and uses our Compuserve network. The one-way path is about 45,000 miles! The path includes his analog tones on a lot of copper wire, some pulse code modulated transmission on more copper wire, an up-down satellite path of about 45,000 miles, followed by the same landline travel at this end, to a computer in Ohio.) B) With a low signaling information rate (that is, a low Baud rate), the duration of each piece of information sent is relatively long. So any momentary glitch on the telephone line is more likely to be too short to cancel the information, or change it in any significant way. The signal goes through, and the receiver demodulates it correctly. _______________________________________________________________________ ZMag Download Count Update by Ron Kovacs In the recent conference on CompuServe, a question came up about the circulation/download counts of ZMagazine. The following is a survey taken during the period of Nov 10-12. These counts were added together to arrive at the amounts indicated. The sources for these numbers were various BBS systems which carry ZMag for download and the online pay services. The BBS systems that were surveyed gave the information via the system sysop. There is NO validation procedure for this listing, other then the numbers on the online services. BBS Systems count = 15, online services count = 3. The current average per system ranges between 20-25 downloads per week of each issue. Either ARC or TEXT. Current listing of BBS systems lists 303 systems. Most operators stated that the issues are downloaded on Thursdays - Sunday evenings. Of the systems surveyed, 10 stated they only include ZMAG in the download section. Meaning NO other online magazines are offered. Of the 5 that offered ST-Report or other online publication, Zmag was NOT downloaded as much. Usual download count on these systems ranged between 5 - 10 downloads. ZMAG130.ARC 97 ZMAG130.TXT 88 = 185 ZMAG129.ARC 293 ZMAG129.TXT 133 = 426 ZMAG128.ARC 266 ZMAG128.TXT 94 = 360 ZMAG127.ARC 347 ZMAG127.TXT 142 = 489 ZMAG126.ARC 353 ZMAG126.TXT 174 = 527 ZMAG125.ARC 324 ZMAG125.TXT 159 = 483 ZMAG124.ARC 348 ZMAG124.TXT 168 = 516 ZMAG123.ARC 321 ZMAG123.TXT 112 = 433 ZMAG122.ARC 412 ZMAG122.TXT 190 = 602 ZMAG121.ARC 385 ZMAG121.TXT 107 = 492 ZMAG120.ARC 356 ZMAG120.TXT 84 = 440 ZMAG119.ARC 351 ZMAG119.TXT 135 = 486 ZMAG118.ARC 403 ZMAG118.TXT 167 = 570 ZMAG117.ARC 402 ZMAG117.TXT 130 = 532 ZMAG116.ARC 386 ZMAG116.TXT 204 = 590 ZMAG115.ARC 438 ZMAG115.TXT 239 = 677 ZMAG114.ARC 391 ZMAG114.TXT 165 = 556 ZMAG113.ARC 451 ZMAG113.TXT 257 = 708 ZMAG112.ARC 645 ZMAG112.TXT 462 = 1107 If your BBS system carries ZMagazine issues, Please let us know what the access counts are so that we can get a feel of what is actually being downloaded each week. Any assistance is greatly appreciated. *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* Syndicate ZMagazine Issue #131 Copyright (C) APEinc, Ron Kovacs, SPC *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* PayBax BBS, Wilmington, De. 302-731-5558 All BAuds