HALIFAX AREA
                PERSONAL COMPUTER SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER                                     DECEMBER 1994

Meets 4th Sunday of each month, 7:00 pm
     Nova Scotia Institute of Technology (NSIT)
     Leeds Street, Halifax, N.S.

8 January Meeting

Feature Event -     The Third Annual
                    Swap Meet and Flea Market

     An informal meeting offering the opportunity to trade or
     sell unwanted computer bits and pieces.


IN THIS MONTH'S ISSUE:

Announcements

Swap Meet / Flea Market
The Society's Third Annual event 

We're Connected
The Society is on the Chebucto FreeNet

FreeNet User Profiles
Setting up your own profile

Horrors - My Computer Made A Mistake!
The Pentium problem

Buying A New Computer
A few observations

About This Document
A few notes about this document

Meeting Schedule 94/95


ANNOUNCEMENTS

We would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

As you can see above, there is no meeting in December but there
are two in January.  The first of these will be our swap
meet/flea market.  See the article inside for more details.

Next Planning Meeting
Will be held right after New Year's.  We will give everyone a bit
of time to recover so it will be held on Tuesday night, January
3rd, at 7:30 pm at the Institute of Technology Campus (NSIT),
Leeds Street in Halifax.  Anyone wishing to have input into what
goes into the next meeting or has some comments on any other
Society business is welcome to attend.

At the next planning meeting we should discuss sponsoring a phone
line for the Freenet.  We've talked about it a little but we
should decide and move on to planning the mid-summer BBQ.  


The Winner is...

Greg Smith was the lucky winner of the CD-ROM at the November
meeting.

Congratulations! (We're all envious, including George who wanted
a second one.)

Our thanks to Rob MacCara who provided the CD-ROM for us and who
has offered to provide the 14,400 Fax/Modem that we're drawing
for in January.  Tickets will be on sale at both meetings in
January with the draw being held at the second meeting January
29/95.

Good luck!


Membership Expiry Dates
Please look at the upper right corner of your newsletter mailing
label for the expiry date and renew if possible.  This is one way
to ensure that you receive a copy of each newsletter and know
what interesting meetings are coming up.

OS/2 Users Group
Meets the third Thursday of each month.  For more information
contact Carey Rolfe at 462-4551 or E-Mail crolfe@fox.nstn.ns.ca


WordPerfect Users Group Meeting
Meetings of the Atlantic Canada WordPerfect User Society are held
on the third Wednesday of the month at 6:30 pm.

For more information contact:

Therese Mackintosh, 435-5456.


Wanted
Anyone or knows of anyone with a MacIntosh computer that could be
used for a few hours - for a reasonable rate (in-expensive),
please call  Desmond Fox at 435-4412.

Advertising and Want Ads
We don't charge for small individual want ads.  That is any
Society member or other interested person with some computer
related item that they wish to sell, trade, or give away can
contact the editor to place an ad similar to the ones above in
the newsletter.  We would expect that more commercially oriented
advertising provide the Society with some remuneration for
carrying the ad.

An ad will normally only appear once but let me know if you need
it repeated.  Ads can be given to me at meetings or give me a
call two weeks to ten days before the next general meeting
(newsletter deadline).


THIRD ANNUAL SOCIETY SWAP MEET

The Society is holding an informal meeting and offering the
opportunity to trade or sell your unwanted computer bits and
pieces.  Any and all computer related items are welcome,
including books, hardware, software, etc.

The Rules:
- The meeting is open to members and non-members.
- Table space will be provided, as it lasts.
- You are responsible for all items that you bring.
- You must do your own bargaining and accounting.
- Software must be with original disks and documentation.
- Nothing is to be left behind.

Coffee and munchies will be available.  Good conversation as
always.

For further information contact: (evenings before 10 pm)

Andy Cornwall  861-4503
Bill Marchant  477-2069
Colin Stuart   461-0370


WE'RE CONNECTED!

By David Potter

Over the last couple of weeks the Halifax Area Personal Computer
Society, (HAPCS) has become a registered information provider
(ip) with the Chebucto Freenet (CFN).

Several members of the society are registered to upload, and
maintain what I have come to call 'The Resource'.  These include
myself, Henry Hill, Bill Marchant, Rob MacCara and Michael Smith. 
There is no hard limit as to how many members may be authorized
to undertake maintenance of the resource and I would welcome
other members of the society to this project.  The only
requirement is that you be a member of the society and have a
Freenet Account.  It is not absolutely necessary to be a member
of the Freenet Society but if you are using that resource and can
afford the $12.00 I would recommend you join the society. 
(...they largely use the memberships to acquire additional phone
lines.)

Freenet users should take a look around our area.  We're located
under the Science and Technology section... look for computer
stuff.  Remember to let us know if you're on the freenet/internet
because we would like to add your name and address to our members
page and homepage if you've customized it.

So far our main index has the following items each of which will
lead you to more information (...uc = under construction):

We're here to HELP  Monthly Meeting Schedule
Coming Events
Membership Information
Current Newsletter
Newsletter Archive...uc
Members of the Society
Library ...uc
More on the Society
Other User Groups
Comments Appreciated

The ...Help Page has a basic dictionary of computer terms and has
the potential to become a valuable tool to our members as well as
other internet users.  This area should probably have an editor
for the dictionary along with a couple of editors for the general
help resource.  Getting involved in this project would be a
fast-track to learning about the freenet/internet.

The Membership Section needs an editor to maintain the listings
of members and member profiles.  You should be a regular on the
Freenet but this doesn't take much time.

The Newsletter Archive Editorship has the monthly task of
uploading the current newsletter, and setting the links for the
previous month's newsletter in the archive.  Henry has been doing
this for several of the local bulletin boards and has agreed to
give it a try.

The Library Section may need an editor also.  I say may because
as a group we have not had a chance to discuss this topic yet.  I
expect that we will have a listing for new disks and have our own
download area or contribute to the CFN public download area but
it's to early to say for sure.

The user group page probably should have it's own editor as well. 
Currently the WordPerfect Group is in the process of providing
some information on their group that will be accessible through
our pages.

TRAINING for anyone who wants to get involved in any of these
projects is available either through the freenet or at a session
which we can organize and run ourselves.

Stay tuned for more!


Biblical Bits #14
-- Microsoft? --
made his wonderful WORKS to be remembered   PSALMS 111:4


FREENET USER PROFILES

By David Potter

Custom user profiles are a gift to the extrovert and shy alike!
It's a great way to strut your stuff and meet other people who
are interested in the same things as you are.  In the land of the
internet, most people refer to these profiles as a 'home page'
but in this article I'll continue to refer to a user profile
because of the filename.

Customizing you user profile is not the first project you'll take
on but the day will come when the dull boring user id (Comment
to:ab934) will cry out for more!

One of the things I did before I started to customize my profile
was look around to see what everyone else does.  Plagiarism is
the highest form of flattery.... One of the best places on CFN to
start this exploration is the profile of (aa360) Pierre Belec. 
G)o People
Search Belec. Pierre has been collecting links to customized user
profiles and you have a good look at a number of the variations.

To get an idea of what 'html formatting' these others have used
press the '\' key. There before your very eyes will appear the
source text.  If you would like to study a document at your
leisure try to 'Download the document, if that doesn't work use
the 'Print option to save it as a file and then download it from
your home directory.

The starting point to the work itself is a file called
Profile.html found in your '/public_html' subdirectory on the
Chebucto FreeNet. Use the G(o) Files command and tab your way to
the subdirectory entry,... press 'Enter' to move to the
subdirectory,... 'tab' to the 'Profile.html' file and press 'E'
for Edit.  As with all else, making a copy of your original is
not a bad idea.  As well, I have the sneaky suspicion that the
first file in the list called Profile,profile,PROFILE,etc.. is
the one that is read.  I renamed mine Profile.bak and this seemed
to be the one that was displayed to other users rather than
Profile.html which was my custom vroom-vroom version.

From here on out, the sky's the limit.  Drop me a line when
you're ready and we'll do the Ooo! and Ahh! tour and add your
name to the membership profile page.


HORRORS!!  MY COMPUTER MADE A MISTAKE!!!

By Bill Marchant

I read some place the other day that IBM had stopped shipping
computers with the  faulty  Pentium chip installed.  The article
stated that IBM s motive may not be of the purest variety, since
they are also attempting to market a chip of their own, and to
discredit a competitor might be to their advantage.   At the same
time, they are Intel s biggest customer.   Maybe they see this as
something like a football game, where a vicious tackle can be
delivered while the game is in play, but you help the guy up
after the whistle has blown.

At the same time, I came across a simple test to determine
whether a particular chip has the alleged flaw.  It is as
follows:  In any worksheet, enter 4,195,835 divided by 3,145,727
multiplied by 3,145,727.  The answer should be 4,195,835;  which
is the first number entered.  If your chip gets a wrong answer,
it is faulty.  The error is said to occur in the long division
calculation.  (Remember learning that stuff at school?)

The calculation uses the floating point processor part of the
Pentium.  This function used to be provided by a separate math
co-processor for CPUs up to the 80486, when Intel began to build
the co-processor right into the main chip.  The 486SX does not
have a math co-processor built in, but the 486DX does.

The controversy over how often the average user will run into
this flaw would seem to depend on what use is made of the
machine.  Obviously a word processor would seldom if ever make
such a calculation.  On the other hand, there are millions of
spreadsheet users who do calculations every day, and there are
many systems like CAD/CAM which constantly use the floating point
functions.  IBM s estimate of the frequency of error is about
once a month for the average user.  Intel s is once every 27000
years.  The truth probably lies somewhere between these extremes.

It is remarkable how soon people tend to forget what things used
to be like.  Before computers, many of the calculations which are
now made daily by ordinary computer users would have been nearly
impossible.  Indeed, many computer users do not even know what
calculations are being made on their behalf.  

Early experimenters with logarithms knew that there were errors
in their tables.  They didn't know where the errors were, but
they used the tables anyway, because they were the best
available.  Some calculators (people in this case) spent their
entire lives recalculating logarithms to greater and greater
places of accuracy.  Now computers have completely replaced
logarithm tables in ordinary use.  And the computer you use can
reproduce all the work of several life times in only a few
minutes or hours.  Because of the high reputation for accuracy
that modern technology has earned, howls of anguish are heard
around the world when a single elusive flaw is uncovered.

I do not suggest that we should not continue to seek perfection
in our machines, of course we should.  But it does seem that the
more functions technology provides for us the less we appreciate
it.  Remember the days when you had to know how to change a tire
if you wanted to be a competent car driver?  Today most people do
not even know where their car s spare tire is located.

In ordinary computer use, there is such a thing as recognizing an
improbable answer.  If we multiply 2 times 2 and get 5, we know
something is wrong.  But may users will never check an answer. 
It is considered correct because  It was done by computer , hence
it cannot be wrong.  The old excuse  The computer made a
mistake.  is still heard frequently.  Most of the time it is the
human who made the mistake.  The computer is just a convenient
whipping boy.  

GARBAGE IN - GARBAGE OUT is still and always will be true.  Long
answers require longer checking procedures.  Long strings of
numbers are extremely hard to check: first, because their hand
calculation is extremely laborious, and second, because the human
calculator is much more error prone than his or her computer.

I suggest that the person who found this particular Pentium error
was checking his work.  He knew what the pattern of his answers
should be and he spotted something that did not match the
pattern.  Maybe he used a different computer to assist in
checking.  On further testing he proved that the stuff going in
was good.  It was the stuff coming out that was bad.  If he had
not taken the time to do this checking, we would all still be FAT
DUMB and HAPPY in our ignorance.  

A computer is just a tool.  Like any tool it can be misused, and
it can also make mistakes.  But it is also extremely valuable.  A
better understanding of how a tool works is important for its
intelligent use.  Perhaps there is no better comment on the
function of our Computer Society than to suggest that by
fostering a better understanding of our computers, we are making
the occurrence of errors, both human and machine, less likely.


BUYING A NEW COMPUTER
Some observations

By Colin Stuart

So you are going to buy a computer?  Where do you get one, why
almost everyone seems to be selling them these days.  The
question has come up several times in the past few months so I
thought that I would write a short article about the subject with
emphasis on why price seems to vary and some of the problems one
can encounter.

Quickly, I will break down the main places you can purchase a
nice new machine as follows:

1. Big specialized computer store, usually a chain.  (eg.
ComputerLand)
2. Smaller specialized computer store, usually local.  (eg. Bits
& Bytes or K-PC)
3. Very small operation, probably one person working out their
home. (eg. Rob)
4. Non-specialized store, sells other things besides computers. 
(eg. Business Depot, Wacky's, Sears)
5. Mail order from "away".

I won't give any examples of the later.  The prices can vary
throughout this group.  There is substantial competition out
there and as a result, there is actually not much profit margin
in the hardware for the vendors.  One once remarked to me that he
just covered his costs selling a machine.

The big specialized places tend to have the higher prices.  They
have higher overhead but can purchase in bulk therefore can
sometimes be competitive.  The second group has a lower overhead
than number one but substantially higher than the very small
guys.  One thing that gets included in overhead is the people
that work in the stores.  The big ones tend to pay more and you
can find techs (hiding in back) there that actually know
something.  Some of the smaller ones can have knowledgeable
people also.  The sales people will vary in knowledge.  The very
small guy may or may not be knowledgeable.

The ones in the fourth group often depend on volume and there are
no tech people working in the store.  The sales people may not be
knowledgeable at all (some may take offence at this but it is
true).  They sell computers just like any other commodity in the
store and it can be very difficult to get something that it not
standard whereas the specialized places cater to this type of
thing.  Mail order can be scary but more about that later.

At present a basic computer has a basic price no matter where you
buy it.  The selling operation tacks on their overhead and there
you go eh?  So why do some seem to cost so much less?  As in
almost anything you buy, you can only get what you pay for.  A
computer with a price that seems to good to be true has something
different about it than the one that costs a bunch more.

So what can be different?  It is not like buying a car and going
to different dealers selling the same model.  The computers are
fairly generic with hundreds of names and models, and they change
with sometimes annoying frequency.  Let's look at a typical
machine sold today.  A 486DX/2-66 based machine.  Has keyboard
and monitor (maybe).  If you are shopping for one I often suggest
starting with a known product, something from one of the "big"
guys like IBM or Compaq.  Write down on a piece of paper
everything that comes with that computer including things like
warranty and technical assistance.

Looking at some example pricing, a new DX/2-66 can cost for
example, about $1900 to $2100.  Some sell for less, some more.  I
see one advertised for about $1500.  Now I may be a bit off in
some of the pricing, things change quickly.  As in cars, the
options have a great deal in determining the final price.  Some
come with 128K of CPU cache RAM.  Others come with 256K.  The
cost difference is about $30 for this.  Hard disks can vary the
cost, there is a difference of about $70 between a 420MB drive
and a 250.

Monitors can make a difference.  A .39 dot pitch VGA monitor
costs only around $250 while a decent non-interlaced .28 dot
pitch super VGA one is closer to $400.  Video cards and I/O cards
also vary.  Local bus cards add some to the price, maybe $15 to
$30 per card.  Additional memory on the video card costs more
also.  And you need it if you are going to play in Windows with
CD-ROM stuff and lots of colours.

Keyboards and mice.  Very important things, but many computers
have the cheapest possible ones provided.  A cheap mouse is $20
while a Logitech or Microsoft one can run you $50 to $100
depending on model.  Keyboards have the same sort of range, with
cheapies costing $30 and better ones over $100.  I personally
like one with a good solid feel that lasts.  I am still using my
old IBM XT 101 keyboard from 1986 and it works just fine.  I have
seen some others fail in six to twenty-four months.

Motherboards and RAM.  All are not created equal.  I looked
inside a "special" purchase a few days ago and was kind of
shocked.  I realized how it could cost less when I looked to see
where the CPU was.  It was soldered to the motherboard.  Can't be
changed or upgraded.  Costs less to do it that way for the
manufacturer.  There were only four 30 pin SIMM slots.  Each held
a 1meg SIMM.  It was therefore currently "maxed out".  If you
wanted to add more memory then the ones there had to be removed
and replaced with higher capacity SIMMs.  So the typical upgrade
on this machine would be to go from 4 megs to 16.  No in between
as I haven't seen any 2 meg SIMMs around lately (there may be
some but they are not common).  No CPU fan, just a little heat
sink.  I have heard of others putting in lower rated CPU's and
running then at higher speeds.  PC Magazine said they got one
like that in for review but they couldn't finish it as the thing
melted.

Mail order seems to offer lower prices but do you know what you
are getting for your money?  One person said to me that before
buying something from a company long distance, check the Better
Business Bureau in the city in which the company is located as
well as locally.  There is one in paper I see often from Ontario,
but I am told it is not a good place to deal with.  Also, if you
have a problem, what do you do?  If you bought it locally, you
can stick it in your car and bring it back, maybe only a few
minutes drive away.  If you bought it mail order, check to see
what the warranty terms are.  Most have you call and get a
"Return Material Authorization".  Some then have local places
that service their equipment for them and it does cost you
anything except the drive there.  This is excellent.  Others have
you package it up (did you keep the boxes?) and send it back at
you expense.  Just one of these can quickly eat up any sort of
savings you made have made ordering this way.

Technical assistance is not available from some vendors while
others offer toll free phone support.  I have heard that it is
difficult to get through to these sometimes (often) but I did
manage to get through to Packard-Bell once.  Like many of these
companies they get hundreds of calls.  I check to see where they
are located and call when it seems likely that there are fewer
people calling.  For example, if the company is in California and
is open from 8 to 5 Pacific time, that is 12 to 9 pm our time. 
If you call in the afternoon you are calling at the same time as
everyone on the US east coast and all those calling in the
morning across the rest of the country.  I might try later on,
after supper around 7 or so.  Just a small aside on the main
topic here but I thought that I would throw it in.

Personally, I would buy from someone locally, someone that you
have checked out or got a good recommendation from a friend. 
Take a look inside the machine.  Ask questions.  If you are not
knowledgeable get some questions down on paper with the right
answers on another (that the salesperson can't see).  I have
bought software mail order but there you are dealing with a known
commodity with a much smaller chance of not getting what you
ordered.

So looking at the items I have mentioned above, you can see that
the price between two "486DX/2-66" machines can easily vary by
$300 to $400 just on the hardware.  And this does not include the
hidden costs of support and general assistance.

I will go back to the car example again to finish off, for
everyone has heard about the shady used car dealer in the white
shoes and loud outfit that tries to pass off a piece junk as a
real bargain.  Like I said above, you can only get what you paid
for.


ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT

One thing we almost always need are good articles.  If anyone has
something that they feel would make a good article or even a good
meeting topic, please don't hesitate to pass it on.

I will accept articles in almost any format, ASCII text, AMI Pro,
MS Word, Windows Write, and of course WordPerfect.  We look
forward to hearing from other members who have a good story to
tell or come across something that may interest others.

How to get an article to me?  You can bring it to a meeting or
you can give me a call and upload it to me.  If you are on the
Chebucto FreeNet you can send something to me via the internet
(or have your own account) to where I work -
hlfxtrad.educ.stuartce@gov.ns.ca

It works, that's how David Potter sent me his contribution.

About the newsletter itself, for those who may be interested.  It
is formatted using both the DOS and Windows versions of
WordPerfect 6.0.  The original was printed at 600 dots per inch
resolution on a HP Laserjet 4M.  If I don't have access to this
printer then we print it on an Okidata 850 at Bits and Bytes on
Portland Street in Dartmouth where they allow the Society to
print the originals at no charge.

The main body of the newsletter is set in 10 point Palatino with
the article headings being 14 point bold.  The title on the first
page is ITC Zapf Chancery Medium Italic 19.2 and 16 points.

Again for those interested in numbers, we made about 95 copies of
the newsletter this month and mailed out around 80 of these.  The
extra copies from the previous few months issues will be brought
to the next meeting for those who are new to the group or may not
be in regular attendance.  I do have a complete set of all the
previous newsletters and if someone wanted to look through these,
let me know and I can bring them to the next meeting.


MEETING SCHEDULE - 94/95

The dates for the general meetings for this year are listed
below.  Note that there is no meeting in December.  It has been
moved to the second Sunday in January because it happened to fall
right on Christmas day this year.  The regular January meeting is
on the fifth Sunday of the month.

8 January
29 January
26 February
26 March
23 April
28 May
25 June

The planning meetings are normally held on the second Monday (8
days) after the general meeting (none in January).  They are also
located at NSIT, in a small boardroom to the left as you come in. 
Anyone is welcome to assist in the planning of future meetings or
events.

Any changes to the scheduled dates will be announced where
possible at the regular monthly meetings and/or in this
newsletter.