by Jack Kincaid / jkinca1@cugkc.cjb.net
Spring is one day away and guess what - SNOW! All right, just a little, but still SNOW. We sure did need the rain that came with the snow; it has been too dry this winter and they are predicting a very dry summer. And speaking of DRY - where is everyone? Did they dry up and go away? There were only nine people at the last meeting. So come on down!
For those who can get on the Net, go to http://cugkc.cjb.net and look around the Club's home page.
We had two renewals at the March meeting: Richard Wagner and Thomas Moloney. Thanks for your continuing support!
Leslie Lacy is still fighting with GEOS to try and get the newsletter back on track. I have been over a couple of times to help(??) and to troubleshoot some equipment failures like a drive that won't boot GEOS. We still have not figured out the CMD RAM Drive either, but he has been able to enter articles into GeoPublish, so we are still at it.
Is there anyone out there that would like to upgrade from a 64 to a 128? I have two or maybe three 128s; if someone wants one, call or see me at the meeting. Also available are monitors and disk drives, so if you want a spare or a second or third drive, now is a good time. I need to get rid of some of this stuff to keep peace in the household.
Need an extra monitor? Another drive? A printer? Give me a call; we have them all! I have an Okimate 10 color printer with docs and interface.
Financial Report
Balance Feb. 2000.................... $288.76
Income: Mar. 2000
Renewal (2)..........................
$ 50.00
Expenses:
BBS Phone Bill.......................-$ 22.95
Closing Balance Mar. 2000............ $315.81
by Scott Heider / sheide1@cugkc.cjb.net
The Group meeting for March was held on Wednesday, March 1st at the Plaza Library. The attendance was approximately 10 members.
Our new publisher, Les Lacy, is still working to learn how to assemble the newsletter. Until he is able to print an issue, we will try to update the CUGKC website at http://cugkc.cjb.net with the most recent newsletter. Your patience is appreciated!
Latest Wave news: Maurice Randall is still debugging it. According to Vance Kellinger, the Wave may work with one of the free ISPs, http://www.freewwweb.com... If this is true, the future of the Commodore looks bright -- a free graphical web browser and free access to the Internet! Stay tuned for more Wave news soon.
There was no Disk of the Month again this month. Vance guarantees that he'll have one at April's meeting. If you would like to purchase any previous Disk of the Month, they will be available at the next Group meeting for the low price of $3 each.
It was mentioned that the March issue of Wired magazine contains a favorable article about the Commodore. Read all about it at http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.03/diehardware.html and http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.03/diehards.html.
Finally, a reminder about the next Group meeting. See you at the Plaza Library at 7:00 on Wednesday, April 5th.
by Lenard R Roach / lroach1@cugkc.cjb.net
This article isn't about the Commodore, but then again, it is. It's basically about you, the Commodore Users Group of Kansas City member and "Ryte Bytes" reader. It is about how much you have helped me to grow both as a user as well as a writer. Without most of everyone's support from our membership, I would not be doing what I am doing today. I am happy to be a contributor to "Ryte Bytes" and I am grateful that "Ryte Bytes" is willing to accept most of my submissions even if the editor has to bend some of my text to make it fit the requirem for passing material.
When Frank Scott asked me to write an article about the Pulpit as a promotional for my BBS back in October of 1995, I was excited. I got to get published and give the BBS some limelight all at once. I put a lot of thought and time into that first article; I even uploaded the material to the Commodore Central BBS about three times just to make sure that the editor got it all. I waited in anticipation for that issue of "Ryte Bytes" to come out. When it did, I was shocked. My article was, for a great percentage anyway, re-written. I approached the editor at the next club meeting and expressed to him my concern. He patiently explained to me since my BBS was religious in nature and the newsletter was a non-biased publication, it was necessary to re-write my material to approach everyone on an equal basis. I remember how insulted I felt that day. I almost swore off writing for "Ryte Bytes" at that moment, but Frank as well as Indiana Jones of "The Temple of Doom" BBS asked me to give regular monthly updates on what was happening on the Pulpit as time moved on. I agreed, but it was against by better judgement.
For the last four months of the Pulpit's existence, I made regular updates in the newsletter on how things progressed, but each time I got printed the editor added his little disclaimer stating the club's impartiality. Finally when the Pulpit died, I stopped writing for the newsletter altogether. "It didn't matter anyway," I thought. "Four months of promotion and nothing. What a waste." So there I sat in my chair at the meetings, not doing anything. I went to programming, and that peaked the members of the club's interest. Frank asked me to write a report on my latest programming project and put it in the newsletter. I did and for the first time my material was accepted at almost 100%, with some minor spelling and sentence structure errors corrected by the editing department. This felt pretty good. "This is how my material should be treated," I thought. A little ego kick started to show up now, but not too much.
I occasionally began sending bits and pieces that leaked out of my head to upload to file section #30 of Commodore Central and each time I found it published in "Ryte Bytes." I tried at the time to keep my information as factual as possible until one day, I completely ran out of facts; so I tried a fictional storyline, hoping that it will be accepted. Somehow, someway, the idea of "news" letter was waived and this piece of entertainment was inserted as part of the contents of the newsletter's structure. Now a whole new world has been opened to me from the editor of "Ryte Bytes." "Oh, boy," I thought again, "I'm gonna have some fun now!" After that moment came the flood of informative and recreational material that was from the depths of my warped mind. I tried to put the Commodore into every possible situation I could think of and each month so for I've been graced with a published article. I quickly gained access to a dictionary and thesaurus. I also grabbed some 8 1/2" x 11" pads of writing paper (5 for 88 cents at a local department store) in case ideas came to me at work, in the car, or anywhere. I was ready, and I was happy.
Users and non-users alike have been enjoying my material for about a year now. Some people are almost fans of my lame scribblings and look forward to my next installment. Readers have their favorite stories, and ones that they dislike; but nothing would have happened if the members of the Commodore Users Group of Kansas City didn't support my efforts. Now my talent is spreading to some churches in the metro Kansas City area.
I appreciate the blessings this club membership has been to me over the years. I have grown and matured since I became a member in January of 1995. My jottings have also changed into more readable, flowing material instead of the fragmented works they started at almost five years ago. I'm suprised that anyone could ever understand any of my earlier works, but I guess everyone did because here I am, still writing. I'm writing more because I want to; I'm writing more because you read it; I'm writing more because some of you ask me to do so. Now that's what I call a confidence builder.
Thank you everyone, for aiding in the development of a person into what he truly can become. I remain in your debt.
The Commodore Users Group of Kansas City is a not-for-profit educational support group for persons using Commodore computers.
Membership benefits include a monthly newsletter as well as access to CUGKC's Bulletin Board System (BBS) open 23.5 hours every day, with upload and download privileges, plus electronic mail, and access to over 500 doors of the FidoNet (part of a world-wide network). Also, members receive access to a library of over 1000 public domain and shareware disks.
Dues are $30 the first year, $25 annually thereafter. Disks of the month and library disks cost $3 each for members.
Meetings are held on the first Wednesday of every month in the Lower Level Meeting Room of the Plaza branch of the Kansas City Public Library, 4801 Main Street, Kansas City, Missouri. Visitors are welcome to attend any meeting. For more information, contact any officer:
Email us at cugkc@cugkc.cjb.net
or visit our web site at http://cugkc.cjb.net.
Our snail-mail address is:
CUGKC
PO Box 36034
Kansas City, Missouri 64111