The Interface Fresno, California; June/July 2000 Taking 8 Bits to the 21st Century "If you can't beat your computer at chess, try kickboxing." anonymous Contents Fixing a Reluctant Mouse New Commodore Mail List Bernardo on the Air Part 2 Picnic September 16 Club to Help With Pledge Drive Member Drawing Product News Making a Stubborn Mouse Go Again Brian Ketterling (Editor's note: My Commodore-compatible Smart Mouse suddenly refused to go up and down, although horizontal movement was OK. Brian provided this information in answer to a post on the Internet, and it's repeated here for others who may have a similar problem.) Flip the mouse over, remove the screw and take off the bottom plastic plate (gently, so the hooks at the top don't break). Set the plate right side up on your desk. Disengage the mouse's cord from the strain-relief slot in the upper half of the shell, then flip the circuit board right side up and put it in place on the bottom plate (handle the board by the edges). There are 2 slots at the top of the board and 2 in the sides that align with plastic support posts on the plate, and the wheels fit into cutouts of their own in the board. If you look at the wheel concerned (the one for vertical movement), you'll notice a couple of things. First, its edge has square "teeth," like a cog. Second, there's a little semiconductor device on each side of the wheel, out towards its edge. One is transparent and one looks black. The transparent one is an infrared-emitting diode, and the dark one is a pair of infrared-detecting diodes (in one package). The IRED emits a beam of infrared light which the diodes detect. In the gap between the two are the "teeth" of the wheel. As the wheel turns, they alternately block the beam and let it through, which is how the mouse detects motion. There seem to be two problems with SmartMouses: the IR signal seems to be "weak" or something and the board construction seems to introduce a certain amount of stress in the leads of the devices, which eventually causes them to bend slightly. When that happens, the photodiode can no longer "see" the IR beam properly, and it stops registering motion. So what you need to do is bend them yourself until motion on that axis starts working again. A pair of forceps, if you have them, is a handy tool. You could also use needlenose pliers, tweezers, or maybe your fingers --in any case, just be gentle. Start by getting both devices straight and square with each other, and aligned properly with the wheel slots (not in too far, so that the solid part of the wheel blocks part of the beam, and not too far out, so that the TEETH don't block the light). Then just start giving them little tweaks until you find a position where it starts working (on my mouse, they each actually point downwards slightly). It won't take much adjustment, but it will take a little trial and error. If it starts working, put the shell together again w/o the screw, pop in the ball, and check it --it may take a couple of cycles to get it, but that's all there is to it. When I first got my mouse, I had to do this several times within the first month or so, but it's worked without problems for years since (it was in one of the first batches CMD made) --I guess the stress just has to be worked out of the leads. (Ed. again: In my case, it took just a gentle nudge with my finger to move the device very slightly and everything worked fine again.) New Commodore Mail List Homestead Commodore (homestead@videocam.net.au) This list was created out of a need to have a "everything including the kitchen sink" type list for Commodore conversations. In the TIFCU (The Internet for Commodore Users) list, a conversation on CDRom players should really be in a more general Commodore list, and in the COPS (Commodore Only PostScript) list a few members asked for a general list to talk about ideas relating to an "International Commodore Congress" and other general topics. The idea is to offer a warm and friendly place to simply chat about anything and everything relating to Commodore computing. The list is not moderated, nor is it in digest format. In case of emergency situations there is someone to make sure the mail list software operates properly. The easiest way to subscribe is from the web site at: http://cbm.videocam.net.au/homestead/ Or, you can use the following to subscribe via Email: To: homestead-request@videocam.net.au Subject: subscribe Body: subscribe To: homestead-request@videocam.net.au Subject: unsubscribe Body: unsubscribe Remember that the command must be in the subject line and the first line of the message body. Also, it works best if you delete ANY other text in the Email. To: homestead@videocam.net.au This is the address to use to send Email to the list. Cheers, Gaelyne Gasson C=Scape by Robert Bernardo (Continued from last issue) (In August, 1999, Robert Bernardo was interviewed by Hard Hat Mack (Justin Beck), host of the only radio show in the world that broadcasts Commodore SID music, on KDVS-FM 90.3 Davis.) HHM: I was going to ask you about your newsletter. Could you talk a little bit about that? RB: Well, we put out three newsletters. Our main newsletter, which is called the Interface, is a bi-monthly newsletter that comes out, and it has a variety of articles from various sources --original articles, articles from other newsletters, information off the Internet. Then we have our other newsletter called C= Voyages, the one that I edit, and that mainly features articles from my travels and from people or places I've been to. And then we have another newsletter called the Halfling, which is full of poetry and personal opinion and club happenings. And that's done by another editor, and she's in charge of that. The Halfling and C= Voyages come out more irregularly, even though I try to make C= Voyages a bi-monthly. It's hard during the summertime when I'm traveling around to keep it going bi-monthly, so I apologize to all the members who have not received their newsletter yet. HHM: Robert, what do you do when you're not using your Commodore 64? RB: I'm a teacher for the Corcoran Unified School District, which is 35 miles southwest of Visalia, and Visalia is about an hour south of Fresno. HHM: O.K., and for the European listeners who... oh, some of them may know where Fresno is... I have a feeling that a lot of them don't... Fresno's what? Probably about a couple hundred miles south of where we are? RB: Yes, that's true. It's about 4 hours south of Davis. Just think of dead center of California... in the Central Valley. So we're not near San Francisco and we're not near Los Angeles. We're like in farm country. HHM: Right. Right in the middle... in the Central Valley of California. I wanted to ask you little bit about that demo party that you went to in Leeds [England]. When was that? RB: That was the DejaVu demo party, and that was on the July 9-10 weekend, I believe. Well, actually, it encompassed Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday. So it went on for 2 nights, 3 days or 2 nights, 2 days. In a demo party, you have all these programmers who congregate and what they try and do is they try and program these visuals and music and put them up on the videoscreen so that people can judge who makes the best demo in this demo party, and they win prizes. HHM: We should have set you up with a pair of headphones, Robert. Sorry about that. Robert's sitting out here in the dark, because we didn't have a pair of headphones for him. But anyway, let's... let's get back to talking about that demo party in Leeds, England. That was this July? RB: That was this July. I attended it with another person, Allan Bairstow of Commodore Scene magazine. We went there specifically to see if there were any C64 programmers out there. There were many PC programmers out there. There were some PSX, Playstation programmers there. There were 3 Amiga programmers there. There was only one C64 programmer there. HHM: No!! RB: Yes, just one. Jason... Jason Kelk of Commodore Zone magazine, but he was there busily working on his demo. And it was finally demoed on Sunday. Unfortunately, I wasn't around to see him in his hour of glory. But he was the only C64 person there, so he won the grand prize for C64 demos, which was 94 pounds or approximately $144 dollars... something like that. HHM: Not too shabby. RB: Not too shabby. HHM: Earlier you told me that he probably blew more money than that on the monitor he had to buy... RB: That's right. He had to buy a little, 4-inch color monitor just to program with it. He had to have the bus fare from his city that he lived in... very far away... 4 or 5 hours away from Leeds. So it was quite a trip just to go over there. Programmers are in a different level, in a different world when they go into programming. HHM: Yeah, not being a programmer myself, I can't exactly relate, but if I ever do get into programming, I suppose it would be so I could make my own SID tunes. RB: Very good. Yes! More SID tunes. HHM: Yeah, well, there could never be too many SID tunes, I suppose. And of course, for the listeners who are not familiar with SID, this is all music which is composed on the Commodore 64 home computer. And I'd like to extend thanks to all the people involved in the High Voltage SID Collection, because that's where I get all my material from. The High Voltage SID Collection is the largest collection of SID music anywhere in the world. Their website can be found at: www.hvsc.c64.org and pretty much any type of machine that you're using... if you're using Windows or a Macintosh operating system or even if you're using Linux, you can access this site and download over 11,000 Commodore 64 tunes. It's quite an impressive thing they have going on and utterly essential for my radio show. So I can never be too thankful for that project and all the hard work that goes into it. I wanted to ask you, Robert, does the Fresno Commodore Users Group have a website that we can look at? RB: We only have a web page, not a website. HHM: A web page? That's fine. RB: The web page, if I can remember it very quickly, it's at... um... Oh, it skips my mind right now. I'll probably have to remember it a little bit later. HHM: Hopefully, we can find it with a search engine. RB: I know it's at Gaelyne Gasson's website...oh, I think I remember it now, O.K.. It's: http://videocam.au/fcug.html HHM: O.K., great. The web videocam... does that mean when you have your meetings, you have a webcam up? RB: No. No, we don't have a webcam, unfortunately. (Laughter) RB: However, there is a person who has developed an interface to connect a webcam up to Commodore machines. HHM: You're kidding? RB: Yes! HHM: That's very cool. RB: Yes, Nate Dannenberg out of the Midwest. He has his interface, and well, you have to build it yourself, but he has the plans, and... HHM: Wow, I'm still registering that in my mind... a webcam for the Commodore 64. That's just so amazing to see. (Laughter) HHM: It just goes to show how cool the Commodore 64 machine is. And, uh, isn't there a new Amiga system coming out? RB: Well... HHM: You can't exactly talk about that. RB: Yes, there is. There have been reports in Forbes magazine and some of the other magazines about the new Amiga coming out at the end of the year or the beginning of next year with the new operating system. HHM: O.K., well, I think I'll start putting ads in the newspaper to get rid of my PC. Start saving up money for the new Amiga system. RB: Of course, everybody knows that Amiga is owned by Gateway. HHM: O.K., well, is there anything else you'd like to say to the people living out there in Europe or the rest of the United States. RB: Well, I just want to say, Justin, that you're providing a great service here, I mean, providing SID music here at KDVS-FM radio station, and you're making SID music available to people who have never heard it before --a lot of these tunes I've never heard before --and I believe that you are... in your own way you are at the forefront of spreading SID music...Commodore SID music around the world. And I'd like to thank you for your involvement in what you're doing and wish you the best of luck and hope that you continue for a long time to come in your radio program here. HHM: Thank you so much, Robert. I really would like to thank you, too, for taking the time to come down to the KDVS studios, and I forgot... we forgot to even mention that you're a graduate of U.C. Davis, class of 1977. RB: Right, class of 77. Aw... that... there goes my age right there. (Laughter) HHM: That's all right. Not exactly, but maybe we can guess with some sort of range there. RB: That range! HHM: Yeah, but anyway, Robert, thanks for coming by the KDVS studios and talking with us over the air. I hope the listeners have enjoyed this interview, and we're going to play some messages and get back to the SID music. RB: O.K., thank you, Justin. HHM: All right, Robert. I'm Hard Hat Mack, and in just a few moments, we'll be back with some more SID tunes. So please stay tuned. (SID music plays for several minutes.) HHM: Hard Hat Mack back here on KDVS radio in Davis, California, and on the Internet, www.kdvs.org . You probably recognize that from the Exorcist, a sound made... a tune made famous from that movie. The composer was Mike Oldfield. The name of the song was Tubular Bells, but the person who composed the song on the Commodore 64 is unknown as of this date. Maybe we'll find out one day. That's from 1985. Robert and I wanted to get back on the air and talk about the Vintage Computer Faire [a.k.a. Vintage Computer Festival], which is coming up this September in Santa Clara. Is that right? RB: October 2 and 3. HHM: OK, so tell us about the Vintage Computer Faire, Robert. RB: This is its third year. I've been to Commodore computer shows in Illinois and Michigan, and people have always asked why don't we have a West Coast Commodore computer show, and our clubs out here don't have the organization, don't have the wherewithal to put on a show ourselves. But the Vintage Computer Faire is there already. It's going to be at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, California, just a few blocks away from Great America. It's a great venue. They have the tables all set up. They have the organization. They have the sponsors. And I thought to myself, well, why don't we have, you know, Commodore users come into the Vintage Computer Faire. I mean our group, the Fresno Commodore Users Group... we're going to have a table there, we're going to be promoting the latest in Commodore, like Wheels 64 and Wheels 128 and the SuperCPU's. It's a two-day event. Last year, VCF was reported on C-Net Central, a television show on Sunday morning on the Sci-Fi Network. HHM: Wow! RB: So they've had coverage of the show. I'm sure this year it'll be bigger and better than ever. I mean, even if you're not into Commodore and if you want to see older computers from the past, like from the 1950's, 60's, and 70's, come to the show, and you'll be surprised at what they have there. I mean, there'll be many displays there from the Computer History Museum also. HHM: So do you have any contact information that people can use to find out how to get into this convention? RB: Yes, you can e-mail to Sam Ismail; that's I-s-m-a-i-l, and his e-mail address is: (spelled out for the audience) siconic@jasmine.psyber.com He's the organizer of this show; in fact, he's been reported on in the San Francisco newspapers about his shows in the past. Also they have a website at www.vintage.org/vcf HHM: Vintage Computer Faire, this October in Santa Clara. RB: Santa Clara, October 2-3. HHM: Wonderful. Once again, Robert Bernardo, I'd like to thank you for being on the show today. Robert Bernardo is from the Fresno Commodore Users Group, and it's been a real pleasure having him on 6581 SID today. Thank you, Robert. RB: Thank you, Justin. HHM: O.K., so we're going to continue on with the SID music just for a couple more minutes, and then Justin (a different Justin) and the Evil Spider will be up at 9 o'clock, playing you the best in punk rock music. So I think you should stay tuned. (SID music plays --"Take a Chance on Me" from Abba) Thus ended my first foray in broadcast radio. While Justin wrote down some notes, the next DJ entered. Justin and I got out of the disc jockey's booth, and I gathered my Commodore materials. It was getting late. Justin being a Star Wars fan, I promised to send him some Commodore Star Wars demos and games as we walked out of the Freeborn Hall basement into the cool, night air. He invited me to come back and visit anytime. I thanked him and said that I would consider it. We waved to each other as he and his girlfriend, Danae (another KDVS DJ), walked off into the darkness and I headed toward my car. I was famished and aimed myself toward downtown Davis in search for a nice java shop and live music. And I found it! ----- Skip forward to March, 2000. On comp.sys.cbm, Justin announced that KDVS was having their yearly fundraiser from April 9-16. Not only were monetary donations needed, but to make it extra special, Justin would offer Commodore prizes to those who donated. He needed C= hardware or software to give out. Knowing that our club had a glut of extra hardware/software, I e-mailed him, writing that we would gladly donate some of our stuff for such a worthy cause. Justin reassured me that all C= materials donated would be fully tax-deductible. I told him not to worry about it, and I then started making my contacos. FCUG newsletter editor, Dick Estel, had a complete set of our older disks-of-the-quarter ready to give away, in addition to a set of public domain Print Shop graphics and other odds-and-ends. Todd Obermann, of Clovis, California and a former C= user, had a complete C128 system (minus monitor) plus peripherals and original software. All I had to do was to pick the stuff up and transport it to Davis. Friday, March 31, I left school early and drove to Fresno, driving to Todd's house first. I was amazed at the excellent condition of his boxed equipment and thanked him profusely for his donation. He said that his brother had even more C= materials, and when that was ready in a few weeks (but too late for the fundraiser), I could pick it up, too. Before I left, I had to urge him to stay with Commodore, even if it meant getting an emulator to work on his Pentium. He agreed, and I felt my mission was accomplished. Then it was off to Dick Estel's house. We talked about PC-to-Commodore and Commodore-to-PC graphics conversion, and on his PC, he showed me the operation of Congo 3.0, a PC program which could handle such conversions. I was pleased that such an efficient program served the needs of us C= users and wondered if a similar program were available for my other computer, the Amiga. I couldn't stay too long, because I had another 2-hour drive in front of me, and so, Dick packed his materials into my car. Off I went to the nearest Burger King for some chicken sandwiches, and not long after that, I was on the road to Stockton, my stopover for the night at my parents' house. I arrived at 11 p.m., exhausted but happy, the entire front and back seat of my car crammed with C= stuff (the trunk was full of school stuff). The next day, Saturday, Justin e-mailed me to meet him at his Davis apartment at 7 p.m., the time he got off of work. I spent most of the day meeting with best friend and fellow C= user, Kevin Baysinger, and talking about his house, my current C= adventure, and chowing down at a nearby Chinese restaurant. In no time at all, I had to leave for Davis, a little more than an hour away. I arrived at 6:30 p.m., searching for Justin's apartment address in the dark. Fortunately, I knew that area of Davis, and it didn't take me long. I went to the third floor, knocked on his door, and waited. Nobody appeared, except his next-door neighbors, another young couple going out. I asked about where Justin was and reassured them that I was a friend, bringing computer materials for him. Satisfied with my explanation, they smiled and remarked he must still be at work. I went down to my car and waited. Twenty minutes later, I went back upstairs and tried again. Justin had just walked in through the door, and a few minutes later, Danae showed up. I was astounded at how much Commodore stuff had been already collected. In the middle of his compact, 2-bedroom apartment was a pile of keyboards, disk drives, disks, and software--enough to fill a wheelbarrow or two. With the load of stuff I brought in, that tripled or quadrupled in size. He then showed me his Pentium 100 tower computer, which ordinarily wouldn't interest me but was made special because he had SIDPlay installed in it. On the monitor screen, SIDPlay was divided into several windows, one of which showed the list of SID tunes he had saved. I asked him how many he had; he replied that he had the entire High Voltage SID collection (now up to over 12,000 files)! Then what astonished me even more was that he started playing some of the SID tunes through his stereo system, and the tunes exactly sounded as if they were played from a Commodore. How was this possible? Was he running a Commodore emulator? No. There was a cable which extended from the PC and plugged into the user port of an actual, brown C64. Then from that C64, the audio was routed to the stereo. The special PC-to-C64 cable was not very expensive, but Justin had to order it from one of his European SID friends. After all of the Commodore talk, we had a vegetarian dinner at the apartment of the aforementioned next-door neighbors, and I spent the night in Justin's spare bedroom. The next day Justin had to go to work for a few hours, but I would be leaving before he returned. We said our good-byes, and I asked him to keep me up-to-date on the fundraiser. He departed, and I then packed up my things and got ready to attend Sunday services at the local Catholic Newman Center, a place I had not visited since I was a graduate. Then after grabbing a sandwich at a local coffee shop, I was on the road back to Stockton. ----- April 10 --it was Tuesday and the second day of fundraising week for radio station, KDVS. It was also the night of Justin Beck's 6581 SID Show. I really wanted to find out what was happening... how everything was going with the fundraising during his show. I also wanted to donate some money to keep the radio station going, to keep the SID music coming. Though I was too far away to pick up the radio station over the airwaves, I knew that it would begin at 8 p.m.. I waited for a bit to allow Justin time to get the show rolling, and then at 8:25, I phoned in. Justin picked up the phone, saying that I was live on-the-air at 6581 SID. I greeted him and responded that I wanted to donate some money. He asked who I was, and I identified myself. He immediately thanked me, Dick Estel, and Todd Obermann for generously giving our C= software and hardware and time in helping to make the 6581 SID Show a success during the fundraiser. At that point, I asked about how much money had come in during the show. With my donation, it was up to $240. Not wanting to take up any more airtime, I thanked him for the SID music, and he then transferred me to an operator who would get the specifics of my donation. I was switched to another person who manned one of the 4 phones in the phone bank. I gave my name and address, and I asked for complete information on where to send my check. Then the operator asked me to select a C= prize as a reward for my donation. A bit surprised, I related how I had brought in most of the software/hardware they were giving away and that it wasn't really necessary for me to receive a prize. The operator did say that SID audio CD's were also available. Suddenly, I was interested, and I agreed that they could send me the CD's. A few weeks later, I received a letter from KDVS, thanking me for my monetary donation and stating how much the radio station had gathered during the week --a record-breaking $35,853.12. I found out later that the 6581 SID Show itself had gathered $1,110 --three times that of any other KDVS program. A few weeks after that, I received a large package in the mail --a nice Commodore sticker and 4 audio CD's, Back in Time I, Back in Time II (both autographed by the editor, Chris Abbott), Hard Hat Mack's SID Spectacular volume 1, Hard Hat Mack's SID Spectacular volume 2. Justin also included a CD-ROM named the High Voltage SID Collection v3.5; I'd have to play those files from a PC, transfer them from a PC to my Commodore with the use of Little Red Reader 2.7 for the Commodore, or read them via a CD-ROM drive connected to a CMD hard drive with the use of CD Commander 128. Now I had many more hours of SID music to add to my SID audio CD collection. KDVS 90.3 FM 14 Lower Freeborn Hall University of California, Davis Davis, California 95616 U.S.A. Main office: 530 752-0728 Business office: 530 752-2775 Request line: 530 752-2777 FAX (c/o KDVS): 530 752-8548 Internet: www.kdvs.org www.kdvs.org/6581SID (which includes interview articles and Real Audio archives of each show) Justin Beck: justinbeck2000@yahoo.com Product News August 2000 The following information is provided as a service to readers. No guarantee is made as to the suitability, availability or quality of products mentioned. Readers should be aware that many products come and go quickly, and other planned products are never actually marketed. Dick Estel reports that he has been purchasing replacement ink jet cartridges from Lasersharp Imaging, www.econoink.com; www.lasersharp-imaging.com; P O Box 58, Grapeview WA 98546; phone 888 742 7797; fax 360 277 0930. Prices are less than half those of brand name cartridges, and delivery takes about two working days. Shipping is free with orders of $25 or more. An order of two color and two black & white cartridges totals a bit over $31, compared to nearly $25 for a single brand name color cartridge at local office supply stores. From Gaelyne Gasson in the Land of Oz: VideoCam Services is proud to announce two new Commodore related products: Commodore FTP Site CD- All the files from ftp.videocam.net.au/cbm/ 221B Baker Street BBS C64/128 Files CD- All the files from ftp.videocam.net.au/221b/ The proceeds from the CDs will help to defray the cost of the FTP site (approximately $180 AU per year), and it will help support our endeavors to offer continued support Commodore computing. Price per CD: $20 Australian plus $6 shipping Approx Prices in other Currencies, INCLUDING shipping: $16 USA / $23 CDN / $32 DM / $10 UK / $16 Euro We can accept Visa, MasterCard, Bankcard, Amex or personal checks, but we can't accept money orders. To order a CD, please visit our Web Store at: http://videocam.net.au/commerce/shop/webstore.php3 Or, for a printable order form and much more information on the CD's offered, visit http://cbm.videocam.net.au/cd.php3 VideoCam Services 90 Hilliers Rd. Reynella SA 5161 Australia Phone: +61 8 8322-2716 FAX: +61 8 8387-5810 (707) 897-0676 (USA) Email: videocam@videocam.net.au Web: http://cbm.videocam.net.au Picnic Set for September 16 The annual club picnic has been scheduled for September 16. Once again Sandy and Ingrid Dippollet have made their yard and patio available for the event. Members will bring dessert or a salad; and the main course will be provided by the club. Due to the date of the picnic and the Labor Day holiday, there will be no regular meeting in September (normally September 2). Get Well to Doug Cunningham Our best wishes for a speedy and full recovery go out to Doug Cunningham, a long-time FCUG member. Doug "celebrated" the 4th of July holiday time with bypass surgery, but is home and answering his Email. I've Got Five Dollars and It's Saturday Night Our June member drawing saw Robert Bernardo walk away with five bucks. The goat ate our notes but we think it was on the first spin. In July Chester Sohm's name came up first, but since he was not present, a second spin made Robert the winner for the second month in a row. Robert has graciously offered to put the money into a recruitment ad in the Thrifty Nickel. We draw names till there's a winner, stopping after the third name, and if none of them is present, the pot goes up to $10 the next meeting. Other Y2K winners: Chester Sohm, Dick Estel, Helen Silvas (twice), Bill Gilbert. Absentee names drawn in 2000: Jack Dickey (twice), Keith Sohm. FCUG to Help at KVPT Pledge Drive Volunteers are needed to help man (and woman) the phone banks during the KVPT, Channel 18 pledge drive. Exact dates and hours are not final, but if you are interested, please let Robert Bernardo know. Free Commodore Stuff! Harold D Johnston has a large amount of Commodore items he would like to give away (you pay for any shipping costs). Contact him at 1019 Elizabeth Court, Bakersfield CA 93308-1409, or by Email at Hajujohn@aol.com Hajujohn@aol.com