Issue 11
Contents
Features
- | Foreword
- | Pump it up!
- | The 12 Rows of Schoenberg
- | Tripping the MIDI Fandango
- | Tip of the day
- | Mailbox
- | Portfolio Story 1
- | Up for it?
- | Unconventional 2k1 Report
Reviews
- | MyMail 1.50
News
Tip of the day Fox-1 has more Atari stuff than most of us have had hot dinners. One photo couldn't capture the whole eye-watering mess so here we have another gallery. Note the apparent lack of simple life-sustaining facilities such as a kitchen and normal bedroom. "An overview of the entrance to my neat-and-tidy computer room. This picture only shows one side of the room, due lack of space to stand it's impossible to take a photo of the other sides. It's the room I have to walk through to reach the real one and therefore has something of a corridor to be able to reach the next one. The upper shelf contains the less interesting stuff, like the documentation of some old Falcon terminals, which are located just out of sight. Well, maybe the Atari 520STF looks like it could be useful, but it isn't anymore, since it's just an empty case. The second shelf is more useful. This one holds all kind of Atari related books and documentation. Yes, some are missing (Mapping the Atari, De-Re-Atari, SpartaDos Construction Kit), but these are located in the other room for instant access. Behind the books are some Atari 8-bit parts, like joysticks, lightguns, disk drive mechanisms and more of that. The third shelf is dedicated to Atari computers. Actually, all free space is dedicated to that, but these are some of my 65XE/800XE/130XE computers. Some of them are brand-new. You need spares, don't you? On the right are some Compute! magazines. Not Atari-only, but there are some interesting Atari pieces in it. We've reached the fourth shelf. Some more peripherals, like XEP80 interfaces, data recorders, disk drives and some more fun. Some of those work, others definitely won't ever again. The fifth one contains too many different things to write down. Much of it is totally useless now, but hey, you never know what will happen in a few years. On the floor, right next to the shelves, are the boxed pieces. This stack contains several XF551 disk drives, VCS2600s, a Jaguar, some XL computers, and probably a lot more things I can't remember. That pile of aluminium sticks is an antenna, used for another hobby. For the technicians, it's a home-built 5-element short Yagi, designed to transmit (or receive at wish) on the 3M band (about 100MHz). This hobby doesn't seem to be the most legal one over here as the local authorities told me several times when they came by for a "chat", so I had to lower the activities a bit (and build/buy new equipment again!). The door on the left leads to the programming room, which also acts as sort of unprofessional music studio, gaming room, and technical documentation library for my cars (another hobby again). It's also the place where I do my electronics and more of that. Oh, it also seems to be my sleeping room, even though the whole place is only a couple of square feet. It's located directly below the roof, hence the mobile air conditioner. I need it to keep my Atari floppies and audio tapes in shape. As a bonus, it's also a heater. I live in the Netherlands, you know. This is a picture of my multi-purpose room, taken by Nir Nary from Israel when he came by to travel with us to UnConventional 2000. Too bad I was too late to hide myself. The big screen on the left is/was my TV, which served as an Atari monitor and died a while ago. Right next to it is my main Atari set-up, which is an Atari 130XE with Black-Box, a 676MB SCSI hard disk and some disk drives. The screen is just an old TV, but it works. On top of the disk drives is the box with floppies I most often use. No games in here, just utils, copiers, editors, whatever. On the right side of the drives, there is the other Atari set-up. It's similar to the first one, (Atari 130XE (320KB), Black-Box, 676MB SCSI HD), but this one has a 14.4K modem connected and a RTC interface. Useful, since this set-up runs the BBS. The software it uses is Sparta-Dos 3.3b, Ramjet, and of course BBS Express! Professional 5.0b. Further to the right are some other systems, like some Pentiums and more of that. An old 486 is installed to run A.P.E. to transfer files between PC and Atari 8-bit. All PC stuff is connected to each other with an Ethernet hub, and the whole network is connected again to the internet. Next thing is to connect the Atari in a more direct way to the network, which would make some things much easier. Out of sight is (More?! - Ed) an Atari 800XL set-up, and a wall filled with cartridges, boxed software and audio CDs. A picture of the ugliest and least comfortable (very noticeable after a 2,600 kilometer ride!) transport I have, but it's a useful Atari-party cruiser since we can load a whole lot of stuff in the back! Besides the four subwoofers, speakers, amplifiers, and the remaining audio stuff there is still space left to put five Atari 8-bit set-ups, one Jaguar set-up, and an ST set-up, complete with monitors, peripherals, whiskey, beer, and other important stuff, like sleeping bags and more primary things, like more whiskey and more beer. The picture was taken at the ABBUC JHV in Germany I think. Don't know who took it, but found it on the net." Submit your Tip of the day via e-mail to matthew@myatari.net, or by post to the address below, the more untidy the better! MyAtari magazine c/o Matthew Bacon 49 Douglas Road Surbiton Surrey KT6 7RZ United Kingdom Please note that all postal submissions are non-returnable.
Useful links Grtx, Sysop Fox-1 http://www7.ewebcity.com/atari Local webserver http://hit.dynu.com
MyAtari magazine - Feature #5, September 2001
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