by Jack Kincaid / jkinca1@cugkc.cjb.net
With the demo of Newsroom by Lenard Roach, the February meeting of the CUGKC was very good despite the lack of a full house. I now have a greater appreciation of the gymnastics Lenard and his family have to go through to get out our newsletter every month. Maybe we can see if there is an easier way - could Printshop be any easier? It seems such a waste of time to have to retype all the articles again into the Commodore format. Could "The Big Blue Reader" be used to convert IBM to Commodore format? Would that really save any time or work? This should give us some things to talk about at the next meeting.
The Club didn't realize we had a celebrity among us! Congratulations Gabriel on the USAA National Science Award!! I'll bet we know who will be shopping for those XXXL large shirts!! At a time we hear so much of the bad things that kids are into - it is such a pleasure to hear some of the good things kids are doing and especially someone we know. Keep up the good work, Gabriel, it does pay off later.
I would like at this time to thank those that did show up at the meeting. Our numbers seem to be dwindling again! Maybe Vance and Bethyl can make it next time.
All right then - next meeting will be on March 17 at 5120 Cedar the Roeland Park library at 6:30PM. (A little GREEN might be required!)
Go to our website at http://cugkc.cjb.net and leave messages at the Forum.
I still have 64s and 128s with 1541 and 1571 disk drives. I also have monitors and printers just sitting in my basement doing nothing. For a small price they can be in your home doing something! Call or see me at the next meeting. My phone number is 816-761-4777, and I am home most days after 4:00 pm.
Financial Report
Balance Jan. 2005 ................... $291.49
Income: Feb. 2005 ...................
$ 0.00
Expenses:
Feb. 2005 .................-$ 0.00
Closing Balance Feb. 2005 ........... $291.49
by Scott Heider / sheide1@cugkc.cjb.net
The Group meeting for February was held Thursday, February 10th at the Cedar Roe branch of the Johnson County Library. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend, so I do not know how many other members attended. I also cannot report what happened at the meeting.
You may recall that the Roach family attended the 2004 LUCKI Commodore Spring Expo in New Albany, Indiana. Well, the 2005 Expo schedule has now been announced on the LUCKI club's website at http://luckyclub.net/expo.html:
The 2005 LUCKI Expo is scheduled for Friday the Thirteenth! That's right, we have moved the Expo away from Memorial Day traffic and higher airline ticket prices at the request of our fans. The 2005 LUCKI Expo will be a 48 hour Expo from 6:00 pm on Friday evening (May 13th) through 6:00 pm on Sunday (May 15th). Also at the request of last year's expositioners, we will start the "official Expo" at 11:00 Saturday morning and run demonstrations thru 7:00 pm or so.
Finally, a reminder about the next Group meeting. It will be held at our usual place, the Cedar Roe branch of the Johnson County Library, on the St. Patty's Day, Thursday, March 17th at 6:30pm. See you then!
by Lenard Roach / lroach1@cugkc.cjb.net
I would like to thank everyone at February's meeting for allowing me to demo "The Newsroom" publishing package that I use to create our newsletter. I didn't mean to make it look like a pain to do our newsletter. For the most part I take last month's clip art, banners, and panels and update them for the present month, then change the name of the file so both the previous month's and present month's newsletters are preserved. If I would have brought the data disk I used for the last three issues you could have seen how easy the program is to manipulate once permanent fonts and graphics are in place.
I am thankful once again that Gabe is seeing ahead and has convinced me to use my 1581 disk drive a lot more than I do. Ever since the massive destruction on that fateful October day when a bad printer sent feedback through the serial cable and destroyed a 1541, 1571, 1581, and a C128 in the blink of an eye, I have been leery of using a 1581 for fear of a repeat performance. The 3.5" drive is hard to find, both when they were first released as well as now. But with my enrollment in a correspondence school of writing I am going to need some serious disk space to hold all of my homework. Already our home is inundated with 5.25" disks, and they seem to accumulate on a daily basis. Most of my 5.25" disks are 20 years old or older. Already I had to throw away a master copy of GEOS 128 v2.0 because of age wearing at the thin material that 5.25" disks are made of. I am grateful for copy programs like Maverick that allows me to preserve programs I use onto newer disks, but even with this protection time marches forward and the disentegration threat looms. The sad part, I think, is that even with computer advancements like hard drives and compact disc data recorders, the disintegration threat still seems to be a threat of some source to our gigabytes of data.
When "the paperless society" was introduced to us with the invention of the computer, I've noticed that our paper consumption has increased even more, for those who deal with computers know that a hard (paper) copy still seems to be the best way to preserve important information. I know this personally, for all my important documents, both writing and programming, are preserved in a hard copy format and filed in one of several cabinet drawers at my home. It may be quick to pull a file off a disk, CD, or hard drive, but when it comes down to preserving important material, it would seem the ancient way of just writing it down is still the best way. So whatever you document, be it computer program, personal journal, or important manuscript, please write it down, print it off, and file it away carefully for future reference for yourself and upcoming generations.
by Jon Searle / jsearl1@cugkc.cjb.net
The first time I encountered this program by Maxis, Inc., I thought, "What a neat, challenging idea. Now the average guy can see just how well he can measure up against the actual city managers. Wow!" The program sets you, the player, in a totally undeveloped area. Your challenge: Build a city from scratch, manage it, and keep it growing in spite of all the usual obstacles: floods, earthquakes, fires, tornadoes, and even attacks by giant lizards (Godzilla??). It looked daunting enough that even I, a classic strategist, was thrilled.
At the start, the player gets to choose from a variety of random maps, many with rivers or shorelines. Then, one has to build a power station, residences, industrial and commercial areas, and of course, roads to join them all. One must not neglect to place enough power lines or water pipes. Without them, the city draws few simulated occupants. And that's what gives this game its charm.
Those little computer generated people, the 'sims', will begin to move in, increase in number, and make all sorts of demands on your city's resources. However, it's those same little dot-like sims that generate the revenues that you draw on to build your city's improvements: roads, bridges, parks and more buildings. As more sims move in, those buildings will randomly increase in complexity, and if some sims become 'unhappy' and move out, those same buildings may become old and need to be bulldozed. Oh, yeah, about that bulldozer... Everything that isn't part of the city will have to be bulldozed to make room. So, get rid of those trees, rubble piles, and unwanted areas quickly and cheaply (just don't run over your own power lines).
Unfortunately, the Commodore version has some limitations. The taxes never climb over about $65,000. There is no way to apportion the taxes once they are collected, and there is only one type of road and bridge allowed. Nor are there police stations, fire stations, schools and colleges, libraries, subways, or various types of power stations. There are no railroads or highways. And, once built, the only real challenge that can exist is if the player chooses to have a disaster visit the city so that he can have the 'fun' of rebuilding it again. All those other features (and a few more) exist in the I*M versions of this game and make them much more challenging and enjoyable. At least the Commodore version does allow the building of seaports and airports.
But, this game was the first of its kind. My suggestion is that everybody climb into their workclothes, put on their hard hats, and give it a try. Enjoy!
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 library of over 1000 public domain and shareware disks.
Dues are $15 the first year, $10 annually thereafter. Disks of the month and library disks cost $3 each for members.
Meetings are held on the second Thursday of every month at the Cedar Roe branch of the Johnson County Library, located at 5120 Cedar Street in Roeland Park, Kansas. 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
6025 Corona Avenue
Kansas City, Kansas 66102