CALENDAR 1996

April 11 - Maidenhead Computer Club Meeting
14th. Birthday Party
Cox green 7.4pm. BRING YOUR MACHINES; Also Alan will give
us the chance to see whar can be done with Photofinish.

April.......13-14 World of Amiga Show .. Novotel Hammersmith.
................. NB ICPUG STAND
............14-16 ECTS.................. Grand Hall, Olympia.
............20 .. MCD Computer Auction . Chertsey Hospital.
............21 .. All Formats Fair ..... Tolworth Rec. Centre.
............23-26 Comdex UK '96 ........ Earls Court ..
May ........9 ... M.C.C. Printers...... .Cox Green C/Centre.
............11 .. MCD Computer Auction . Chertsey Hospital.
............19 .. Internet World inter'l Olympia 2.
............21-23 The Home PC Show ..... Earls Coutr 2
June........1 ... MCD Computer Auction . Chertsey Hospital.
............13... M.C.C.Windows 95...Cox Green C/Centre.
............16 .. All Formats Fair ..... Tolworth Rec. Centre.
............19-21 Audio '96..............Olympia
............22 .. MCD Computer Auction . Chertsey Hospital.
July........11... M.C.C. An Evening Out .Cox Green C/Centre.
............13 .. MCD Computer Auction . Chertsey Hospital.

Thanks to John & Janet Bickerstaff (ICPUG National & ICPUGSE)Bruce Everiss (All Formats Computer Fairs Ltd.), Mark Walton (MCI Computer Auctions), and Abtek Systems Ltd. for information.

Rambling Roms!
and other ramblngs by Doug Small

I was in a local photographic shop recently (a real one, not D***NS [name disguised to keep away the lawyers - Ed.]) talking to the owner about the just released APS film system, when a lady rep. Volunteered the information that "APS images could be loaded straight into a PC and stored on floppy disks." Thinking that this was really amazing I questioned her further on how this would be achieved and was told it was the data recorded magnetically along the film edge. My credit card was in my hand when she dealt the death blow to my ambition for cheap photo storage: the scanners weren't available yet. My son (the photographer) reports that during the FOCUS exhibition at the NEC photo-imaging was very prominent with gadgets and software being demonstrated. Apparently, though, Bob Carlos Clarke is finding it a little bit confusing.

Why do MS hide things? That useful little program SYSEDIT, which makes editing AUTOEXEC.BAT, CONFIG.SYS etc. so easy through windows, is tucked away in the windows/system directory; but resist fiddling with them! (If you can't resist, make sure you've got a system floppy with versions of these files you can boot up with if - when - you crash the system - Ed.] Another little program that I've just come across (but I expect that everyone else knows all about) is "MS Diagnostics"; from C:\ type MSD and you can find out all the details of the technical bits of your system; this works for DOS 6, I don't know about other versions.

My colleague's laptop has been returned from the firm's service contractors with a replacement hard drive configured even smaller (68Meg) than the original: and when we looked in the BIOS setup there was no way to see how the drive was set up, let atone change it. How do they do that? (Looks like a good reason for someone to write more on this subject - HINT! - Ed.)

'NETtled"? Great clouds of steam could be seen rising over a certain house in Tilehurst recently as for the nth. time Alan 'phoned PIPEX regarding our change from the BBC to PIPEX, and the delay in sending our new Comms. software. It turns out that as we need to have our BBC passwords etc. modified the new disks won't be dispatched until April. But if they open a completely new account for us it takes two days! So, after nearly two months delay we should have a new Pipex account up and running before the March meeting. (In fact it was delivered and installed within two working days of that 'phone call).

Continuing my exploration of the NET I've now come across even more canal pages. Ifs fascinating, for instance, to read about the Cheasapeake and Ohio canal and how recent flooding has affected it, and the efforts now being put in to the restoration. From another site you can download the complete text of unedited classic books.

WINning. According to PC Direct (April), Windows 95 can get a little bit confused by systems that contain a single CD drive which can hold three CDs. The standard software just can* t understand why it can take up to 10 seconds to access the CD (the time it takes to unload one and toad the next) and will therefore report a system error.

Did you know that you can amuse yourself changing the Windows (3.1.1) system clock from a 12 hours to 24 hours and back again. Edit the WIN.INI [INTL] section:

for 24 hour clock..........iTIME=1

for 12 hour clock..........iTIME=0

Whinge? Why does MS Publisher Wizard for creating inserts for audio cassette tape boxes assume that everybody just records music on tape?

At last the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) are to force advertisers to comply with regulations which say that all prices shown should be inclusive of VAT (unless companies are selling direct to the trade). Just walk around places like PC World to see the double pricing; VAT exclusive price in large print and VAT inclusive much smaller- although the worse offenders are the computer magazines with their blatantly misleading prices.

ADI apparently produce a 17 inch monitor that rotates through 90 degrees to allow complete A4 pages to be displayed full screen. This is from the APRIL edition of PC PRO. And in the APRIL Computer Life there is the "Double-Dubber" video recorder that not only records two channels simultaneously on the same tapp, but also allows you to watch the two together on playback using a split screen. [Make up your own minds about these}.

Clever as Windows 95 is, on my 486 it seems to do things much slower than when Windows 3.1 was installed, so ifs off with the new and back on with the old until I get my hands on a Pentium.

And finally. According to several magazines prices of memory modules are falling, and a quick look at some of the adverts seems to confirm this. Also predicted is a price cutting war on recordable CD drives; this being the next piece of hardware "they" will try to convince us we cannot do without.

DGS:

C CHANGE FOR ICPUG

Janet Bickerstaff, Regional Organiser for ICPUG National, has written to inform affiliated Group Organisers of a name change:

"When you receive the next issue of the Journal you will see that the word Commodore has been dropped and has been replaced by the word Computer. The acronym and logo of ICPUG remain the same.

"This was agreed at a meeting of the National Committee at the beginning of March and is in accordance with a decision taken at the last Annual General Meeting to give the Committee the power to change the name if they thought it necessary. The name of the co-operative registered with the Registrar of friendly Societies remains the Indepedent Commodore Products Users Limited. The Committee felt that the time had come for ICPUG to widen its horizons.

"As an autonomous regional group, the name by which your group is known is your choice, and not all of you include ICPUG in your title. Please let me know of any changes in order that I may keep the list of regional groups up to date."

Having read Janefs letter I suspect that the National Committee shared our doubts as to the future of the models stocked by Escom.... MGH.

Cityscape and Holiday Inn. FreeNet is also looking for a telecomms provider and is talking to Cambridge Cable, BT and Mercury. FreeNet plans to open 200 public access Internet terminals, in the city library, town hall and local businesses. FreeNet will also provide links to local businesses, municipal and academic users. The company offers access and email, as well as allowing local businesses to post their own Web pages free of charge. There are restrictions to the service, however.

Due to system limitations, FreeNet will not provide a full list of newsgroups. It has not yet been decided which groups will be excluded, but Jaregui stresses FreeNet will not be exercising editorial control.

OHMS (On Her Majestys Surfing). The British Government plans to inject £35 million into a four-year initiative to encourage businesses to embrace the on-line world. The Information Society Initiative (ISI) is a partnership between Government and industry, and represents the first step in making Britain a leading force in information technology. Britain is already playing catch-up with the US, claims Trade and Industry Secretary lan Lang, and is in danger of being overtaken by its rivals in Europe and the Far East. The ISI aims to turn the situation around by demystifying new technology for thousands of companies. The initiative will include a traveling roadshow extolling the virtues of communications technology for the business community, as well as 50 nationwide support centres providing hands-on experience and advice. As part of

the initiative, companies are being given a £3 million incentive to come up with innovative projects using multimedia. The ISI is leading by example and will be posting a site on the World Wide Web (http://www.isi.gov.uk) alongside its telephone enquiry line (0345 152000).

It's Good to Type. BT has decided it wants a slice of the Internet action and has launched its first access service for the General public. The service falls roughly in the middle of the pack in terms of pricing. Unlike its existing service for corporates, BT Internet is aimed at small businesses and the home user. It will cost £15 (inc VAT) per month for unlimited access and users will also have to pay a one-off registration charge of £20. In comparison, the Direct Connection service provider charges £11.75 (inc VAT) per month for unlimited access plus a one-off registration fee of £17.63. Unipalm Pipex charges £17.62 (inc VAT) for unlimited access and a one-off setup fee of £48.64. BT says it is not aiming to be the cheapest, or the most expensive, but stresses that

existing BT phone customers can add the Internet' phone number to existing discount schemes such as Friends and Family to reduce costs.

Although BT will offer email and newsgroup support, it will not provide Internet access to groups it claims are 'illegal'. The company wilt allow consumers to connect to controversial groups of the alterotica type, but will ban access to around 20 topics that relate to activities, such as cockfighting, that are illegal under UK law. BT maintains it has not stepped over the boundary of common carrier by banning certain newsgroups. We are not looking at matters of taste and decency,' says BT's director of multimedia Rupert Gavin. The company says it is talking to the Home Office now, and backs industry initiatives for a rating scheme for Internet content. Once signed up to the BT service, consumers will be charged at the local rate (an 0345 number for the majority of users) and will be eligible for telephone support. They will also receive an enhanced copy of the Mosaic Web browser. BT Internet is currently only available to users in the UK, although the telephone giant does plan a push into Europe in the future. Details: 0345 585110

News from the PC Front. The PC you're likely to buy .in the summer will took very different from anything you've seen before. Compaq will have added a 120Mb floppy drive, quad-speed CD-ROM recorder and a keyboard that doubles as a scanner to its corporate PCs by June. Developed with Matsushita and 3M, the LS-120 floppy drive is an extension of today's laser servo device, but can record and read up to 80 times more than today's drives. It is backwards-compatible - it will read and write today's 1.44Mb disks, but will only be able to record 120Mb to a new design of disk. The drive itself will cost less than £170, and 120Mb floppy disks, which will be manufactured by 3M, will sell for around £10 each. The drive is expected to be bundled in PCs from other manufacturers towards the end of the year and will be available as part of an upgrade kit Compaq claims that the drive can be added to any PC. Compaq PCs will also start to come with a Panasonic PD-CD quad-speed CD-ROM drive and recorder. The drive retails for around £435. Eight-speed CD-ROM drives wilt begin to appear in PCs

later in the year, and Compaq expect to be selling computers with DVD CD-ROM drives by the'back end of the year'. They also plan to introduce a keyboard with a built-in scanner for corporate buyers. The keyboard is a smaller alternative to scanners and comes with Xerox software. It will add around £250 to the price of a PC and will be available in June.

Alan Everett.

FLYING COMPUTERS

By Ken Whittaker - PartI.

Modem aircraft are very much computer controlled; fighter aircraft, for instance are so inherently unstable that while the pilot initiates a maneuver the computer actually carries it out. The reason being that no pilot could possibly put in the number of control changes per second necessary to maintain stability. In fact the pilot has only 2 seconds to eject if there is a computer failure before the aircraft starts to break up.

As you will know Concorde flies at Mach 2, actually 2,2, and when cruising altitude has been achieved, i.e. 40,000 ft, the Captain puts the aircraft into level flight. This allows the aircraft to cruise climb as the fuel load is used. On a normal Atlantic crossing the final altitude achieved is, usually, approx. 59,000 ft. The crossing record from West to East is 2hrs 53 mins, what this means is that the aircraft has to fly at approx. 1500 mph over the ground whereas Mach 2 is 1350 mph. When the aircraft is flying at Mach 2 the air in the air intakes has to be reduced to 500 mph otherwise the flame wilt be blown out i.e. a flameout.

This is achieved by baffles in the intakes, these are completely computer controlled. The speed at which the plane is flying produces air friction such

that the temperature of the outside skin reaches 160C even though the outside air temperature may be as low as minus 50C. The reason that the aircraft was designed to fly at Mach 2 was that aluminum will not accept much higher temperatures than 160C.

When the plane is flying at Mach 2 the heat coming from the windows is similar to sitting by an electric fire and the aircraft has to be refrigerated, This is done quite simply, again by computer, by regulating the amount of fresh air being taken into the system from the engine air intakes. The Captain sets the cabin temperature.

Concorde is an old aircraft in terms of design and all the instrumentation is analogue. Modern aircraft however use CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) technology and this is completely computer controlled. What the Captain sees on the CRT screen is a display of the most vital information continually, Height, artificial horizon, and speed, plus a display of other information over a period of several minutes, one or two items at a time.

In the event of a problem the computer sounds an alarm in the cockpit and shows in red on the screen the malfunction causing the alarm. The computer then flashes up on the screen recommended courses of action in priority order. The

Captain is wise to accept the recommendations since the programmer knows far more about the performance of the aircraft than the Captain can ever hope to master, moreover, if there had to be an inquiry if the Captain had chosen to ignore the recommendations he would have to explain why.

The decision, however, is his/hers.

On the flight deck of a modem aircraft there ~I re 3 navigational computers on line. These are set on the runway threshold to within 1 metre both for latitude and longitude and height above sea level by the Captain. These computers

monitor each other and in the event that one disagrees with the other two it is automatically switched off. You will have read that it is proposed to introduce Satellite navigational systems for aircraft shortly in order to reduce fuel onsumption, currently aircraft fly great circle routes but have to be separated in distance and height to minimise the possibility of collision, the new system, when introduced, will mean that aircraft will be able to fly much closer together and more directly than at present. Whether this is a good thing or not is a matter for others. In addition to the navigational computers there are many others - in a 747 approx. 20, you will have noticed that if you turn on the light over your aircraft seat that there is a delay. In a 747 there is reputed to be approx. 1000 miles of wiring, the control centre of the aircraft is just behind and below the cockpit this contains all the computers and electrical equipment; the light switch at your seat activates the computer which in turn directs your light to operate. A similar system operates for all the other functions also, i.e. channel for your headset, call button etc. Boeing have, to date, not introduced the fly by wire system used on the Airbus which is fully

computer controlled, no doubt, however it is only a matter of time.

Passenger aircraft operated by British Airways have a recording system within the cockpit which monitors the instruments for the whole of each and every voyage if there is a malfunction during the trip the tape can be run on an Engineering computer which will show the position of every instrument immediately prior to and at the time of malfunction this will enable the Engineer with the computer to identify the cause, remedial action necessary, order the spare parts, stipulate whether the aircraft can complete its trip or

whether it must be corrected at the first stop, if it can wait until return to base, or withdraw the aircraft from service. It also identifies the time necessary to carry out the repair. It was intended that this information could be passed to Engineering at Heathrow while the aircraft is in the air; whether

this has been achieved I do not know.

KW

EDITORIAL

I'm putting myself away at the end this month and not writing much because I'm delighted to say we have a lot of contributions and a big issue this month. Thanks to Alan Everett and Doug Small, and especially to Ken Whittaker who has produced a fascinating article on computers in aircraft. We're serialising this so the second half will be in next month's Newsletter, with a section on all sorts of facts which you never knew about aeroplanes (we always seem to bring in the Michael Caine "not many people know that" approach at some point, don't we...). See you at the Party for Alan's "Photofinish" presentation and all

the latest gossip! Mike Hatt.

ODDS & ENDS

AUCTIONS:

MCD Computer Auctions are on 01932 571911. Mark Walton and his team hold auctions in the grounds of St. Peter's Hospital, Chertsey, one mile from M25 Junction 11.

Please note that the last auction was at the northern end of the grounds with the only parking nearby appearing to be the usual type with modern hospital trusts - PAY FOR IT! (This has annoyed me ever since I had to have all those ghastly kidney tests at Wexham and Ascot, with the additional torture of knowing that my car was costing me as much money in the car park as those of all the visitors who had come to annoy their sick relatives...!)

Abtek Systems are on 01722 413337. They run computer fairs and auctions at various locations, including Sunday auctions at the Paul Hamlyn Hall at Thames Valley University (Slough College), which is located at the side of the Students' Union building where our Club first saw ihe light.

ALL FORMATS FAIRS;

I still have some two-people-for-the-price-of-one tickets for forthcoming Fairs at the Tolworth Recreation Centre beside the A3 at Surbiton. Dates for the next few months are in the Calendar, but to avoid doubt the special price tickets are valid for 21 April, 19 May, 16 June and 21 July. MGH

MCC COMMITTEE 1995-96

President Brian Jones.
Chairman & Comms Organiser: Alan Everett.
Secretary, Amiga Librarian Mike Hatt.& ICPUG National Liaison:
Treasurer & Meeting Room Organiser: Ken Buckmaster.
Members Representative & Publicity: John Patterson

Technical Consultant & PC Librarian: Peter MacLaurin
Newsletter Duplication: Gordon Surman