BTN: Birmingham Telecommunications News COPYRIGHT 1989 July 1989 Volume 2, Issue 7 Table Of Contents ----------------- Article Title Author Policy Statement and Disclaimer................Mark Maisel Editorial Column...............................Randy Hilliard From The Halls Of Comdex.......................Doug Reinsch PCBVerify Door.................................Joe Kearley Insights.......................................Ron Albright The World Of MIDI Part 1: MIDI History........Keith Cahoon Transfer Protocols Part 2......................Tom Egan Profile: Gary Godsey..........................Chris Mohney From The Kitchen...............................Chez Stephan Message Board..................................Barry Bowden Known BBS Numbers..............................Mark Maisel ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Disclaimer and Statement of Policy for BTN We at BTN try our best to assure the accuracy of articles and information in our publication. We assume no responsibility for damage due to errors, omissions, etc. The liability,if any for BTN, its editors and writers, for damages relating to any errors or omissions, etc., shall be limited to the cost of a one year subscription to BTN, even if BTN, its editors or writers have been advised of the likelihood of such damages occurring. With the conclusion of that nasty business, we can get on with our policy for publication and reproduction of BTN articles. We publish monthly with a deadline of the fifteenth of the month prior to publication. If you wish to submit an article, you may do so at any time but bear in mind the deadline if you wish for your work to appear in a particular issue. It is not our purpose to slander or otherwise harm a person or reputation and we accept no responsibility for the content of the articles prepared by our writers. Our writers own their work and it is protected by copyright. We allow reprinting of articles from BTN with only a few restrictions. The author may object to a reprint, in which case he will specify in the content of his article. Otherwise, please feel free to reproduce any article from BTN as long as the source, BTN, is specified, and as long as the author's name and the article's original title are retained. If you use one of our articles, please forward a copy of your publication to: Mark Maisel Editor, BTN 221 Chestnut St. BHM, AL 35210-3219 We thank you for taking the time to read our offering and we hope that you like it. We also reserve the right to have a good time while doing all of this and not get too serious about it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- A M E R I C A O N L I N E America OnLine's phone numbers are now Node 1 323-2016 --\ Node 2 323-2031 \on rotary from 2016 Node 3 323-2032 /(300/1200/2400) Node 4 ???-???? --/ NODE 5 251-2344 -- USR HST 9600 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- S P A R T A P C B O A R D Tentative move date is now set for July 17th. New numbers have been reserved in Monroe, LA., as follows: US Robotics 9600 Callers - (318) 396-0764 Hayes 9600 V Series - (318) 396-0870 The board should not be down over a couple of days during the move. However, I am moving into an area where cable facilities are very sparse and South Central Bell is working to clear a couple of extra cable pairs to accommodate the BBS lines. Bear with us during the move! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Editorial by Randy Hilliard I'd like to begin this editorial by letting all of you fine folks out there how happy I am to be here... ... ... no I'm not. Actually I am a little happier about offering the editorial for BTN this month since Mark has promised me a 15% pay raise. I haven't taken the time to figure out exactly how much the increase will come to yet because the batteries in my calculator died and I'm too lazy to do the math in my head. Can anyone out there tell me what 15% of zero is? Anyway, Doug Reinsch has a very nice article this month on Comdex. Comdex is sort of like the candy store for us tech freaks and if we go into the display areas we usually come out with a severe case of schizophrenia trying to decide what we want the most. A new type of automated verification system is in use on at least three local BBS's and Joe Kearley was gracious enough to take the time to write and let us know what to expect when we use this mode of verification. Ron Albright is back again (two issues in a row; takes a lot to scare this man) and this time he is writing about on-line information retrieval systems. There is a special treat this month for the computer oriented musicians in this issue. Keith Cahoon has a very nice article on the need for the MIDI interface. Here is another surprise; Mark managed to sucker... I mean entice Tom Egan into writing his second article on transfer protocols. Watch this space next month to see if Mark can pull three rabbits out of his hat... The ProFile victim this month is Gary Godsey. So far Mark has managed to turn down all of Gary's monetary offers to A) select another victim or B) tell him who nominated him for this honor. Chez Stephan declined to pull his grill out this month (I think due to the negative scarcity of rain) but he has gifted us with some very thoughtful suggestions for a breakfast spread. Barry Bowden's Message Board is here again this month as is Mark's Known BBS listing. I'd like to take the time to personally thank the authors of this months articles for two reasons: A) I think they have done both themselves and BTN proud with their creative efforts and B) by the sheer volume of their creative output this month, they have edged our Idiot-in-Cheif out of an article slot in this issue. Keep up the good work fellows! If you continue at this rate and quality I'm sure that you can finagle Mark into a 15% raise the same way I did. Let's see, 15% of zero dollars is...is.. Whaddaya mean ZERO! This calculator is obviously broken or something. Mark wouldn't do that to me... would he...? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- From the Halls of COMDEX by Douglas A. Reinsch Flying to Chicago is not my idea of a good time, but we must all pay the price of our addiction. My addiction is technology, and as a veteran of Spring Comdex I had boundless expectations and unbridled enthusiasm for Comdex Spring '89. Though this year's Spring Comdex lacked some of the landmark introductions of Comdex-Past, it was still filled with a wealth of information and ideas, a parade of the best and most wonderful aspects of computer technology. A word to the wise: Comdex is not for the weak of heart. Imagine spending four days on your feet in a strange city, with no companions, eating questionable food (at best), in a building with precious few water fountains, surrounded by hundreds of obnoxious technophiles, and to top it all off, there weren't any decent malls nearby (in fact I didn't find any at all). Now, if you still feel like you would have wanted to be there, then you are probably about as crazy as I am. Comdex had an interesting flavor this year. This was the year of the side-show. Most of the major exhibitors hired varied talent to entertain the masses. Between Hewlett Packard with "Accompany Success!" and WordPerfect's talk show motif I was dazzled by how much talent a few dollars can buy. Sony actually hired a juggler, who at the peak of his performance juggled odd items (including an ax!) while balanced on a rope three feet off the floor. Boy, that sure has a lot to do with computers. It was fun to watch though. Even more fun was seeing the full color VGA LCD monitors that Toshiba, Mitsubishi and a couple of others displayed. Seeing is believing, and those babies are even sharper than full blown VGA monitors. Intel was mildly disappointing with a limited seating movie that looked like 2030 - A Space Odyssey, but then what do you expect from a chip manufacturer? Are they going to give a demonstration? Intel did announce the coming 80486 chip, but we were all expecting that soon anyway. A total surprise was a relative newcomer to the high-tech arena, Vendex. Evidently Vendex has been around for a long time (or so THEY told me), but recently they have decided to market under their own name. While I have seen quite a few ads for Vendex machines, their huge display complete with an open movie theater was all but devoid of life, which is hard to accomplish in a large, crowded room. One of the more interesting exhibits was by another newcomer to Comdex, Kyocera. Some of you may have seen Kyocera involved with video equipment, but they are into printers and scanners in a big way. They have low-end laser printers (if several thousand dollars can be considered low-end) that deftly put the HP Laserjet II to shame. They come standard with more memory and more paper trays than an HPII, optional collating trays and a new sort of font cartridge. A traditional HP II font cartridge is about four by six inches and is about half an inch thick. Kyocera doesn't really have cartridges. They have font cards. These cards are about the size of a credit card (in all dimensions) and can contain printer fonts (type styles) or even graphics. For a small fee, they will load company logos, letterheads, unpopulated forms or any other graphic onto one of their cards, and that graphic will be immediately usable by the printer. If you're not impressed by credit card sized font cartridges, you may be impressed by the Kyocera flat-bed scanner. Yes friends, for a mere $2000.00 you can be the proud owner of an 800 DPI (dots per inch) flat-bed scanner that will blow the socks off of just about any other scanner in that price range (and a couple of price ranges above). If I weren't already poor, they would have had a sale right there. (Note: Technojunkies should never attend Comdex without first acquiring considerable debt.) Comparing this scanner to the MicroTech MSF300 isn't fair. The Kyocera wins hands down. I wonder if they would consider a trade-in... Haven't you always wanted a Mickey Mouse watch? I always did, but now I have the latest -- a Logitech Mouse watch (they just couldn't resist). Otherwise, Logitech had only their new form factor mouse to show off along with increased resolution on the mouse (Hi-Res, 320 DPI) and hand scanner (ScanMan, 400 DPI). Off in a dusty corner of the same room where Logitech, Sony, HP and even IBM were displaying their wares was a sad little place called MacDex. With high hopes I had scheduled a fair amount of time for MacDex, thinking it to be a smaller version of Comdex. At the gates of MacDex I discovered why town criers had been dispersed into the mobs of Comdex to generate interest in the "sister show". Only a handful of companies had booths in MacDex, leaving most of the reserved floor space empty. It takes very little to draw my attention in a convention like this, but I walked through MacDex in less than five minutes. In all fairness I should note that many companies who sell products for MacIntoshes (or any other type of micro) had very interesting and successful displays in Comdex. After all this wasn't a PC Expo. Back to the lighter side, there were a number of very interesting products introduced at Comdex. One which comes to mind is a chassis the size of a 5 1/4 inch, half height disk drive which is designed to mount a 3 1/2 inch hard drive. The chassis has a sturdy plastic handle on the front with clever plug-in connectors on the back and a key-lock as well. You guessed it. East Asian ingenuity has turned a simple 3 1/2 inch hard drive into an expensive 5 1/4 inch removable hard drive. The design was very attractive, and the low cost of their chassis will probably compete very well with "show-nuff" removable hard drives. If only such ideas could grow on trees. There were a number of "new" products centered around sound. Speech synthesizer boards were talking up a storm under PC control, and Voice recognition products were displayed also. Some of these were quite good. In at least one instance, a combined speech recognition/voice synthesizer product was being billed as a user interface for blind people. Maybe one day we really will talk TO computers instead of AT them. Imagine... User: "You #$@^%& computer, why did you do that!?!" Computer: "Because you told me to ____Head, and now I simply don't feel like working for you any more." Oh boy. Zenith was one of a couple of vendors who displayed new 33 MHz, 80386 based machines. I might have been truly impressed if I thought that this plateau might remain standard for more than a few weeks. Zenith deserves credit though, since they were the only vendor who openly displayed support for the coming EISA standard (they gave out campaign buttons). I firmly believe that IBM is close to breathing its last in the micro arena, but it makes you wonder when Compaq doesn't even deign to show up for Comdex. Is that over-confidence or what? Another most interesting display was put on by Brother. Believe it or not, they conducted a running ping-pong tournament throughout Comdex. Aside from that, they displayed their new HL-8e Laser Printer. Even if you choose to ignore the fairly recent reviews showing the HL-8e to be superior to virtually all Laserjet II type printers, take it from my personal experience, they are hot. Just to give you a taste, the HL-8e has 7 internal fonts, 5 of which also have bold and italics included and all of which may be printed in portrait or landscape mode (regular or sideways). It will emulate the HP Laserjet II, the Diablo 630, the IBM Proprinter XL, the Epson FX-80, the Brother Twinriter and (icing on the cake) a generic HP Plotter (HPGL plotter language). To cap it all off, the HL-8e has 1 Megabyte of memory standard. Nothing short of brain surgery will make an HP Laserjet that good. My personal favorite of the Brother display was a full color photocopier. "Sure," you say, "I've seen those advertised on TV." Well all I can say is that the output from these things is fantastic, and it isn't produced with colored wax like most high-end color printers. Special paper (translation: expensive paper) is used which has tiny containers of dye embedded in it. Different colored dye is placed in different little containers in the paper. When the paper is exposed to varied frequencies of laser light, certain of the little containers weaken. The paper is then passed through a crusher which uses several thousand pounds of pressure to burst the various weakened containers leaving a stunning color photocopy (Rube Goldberg would be proud). Tectronix and QMS were among the few displaying high-end color printers. Don't get me wrong, colored wax makes a beautiful printout as I will gladly show if you are interested, but colored wax also has a tendency to melt when exposed to high temperatures. That doesn't seem to be a very reliable method to print lasting color images. Another interesting product I saw for the first time at Comdex is a keyboard with a built-in graphics tablet. Though several vendors showed versions of this idea, Keytronics seemed to have the most durable design. If you decide to replace your old keyboard with a new one, you might consider paying an extra couple of bucks for the graphics tablet (assuming you want such a thing). For the AutoCad users out there, there is a neat little Cad drawing utility that allows you to view and file AutoCad drawings without starting up AutoCad. The images are smaller, but are really quite good representations of the actual drawings, and access is extremely fast. On the subject of graphics, there were three companies showing new graphic overlays for Microsoft Windows. These products effectively remove the remaining differences between MS Windows and the MacIntosh (except that these are in color). Icons can be used to manipulate programs without ever typing on the keyboard. Did someone say "Lawsuit"? Out of deference to the aging giant "Big Blue", I have saved IBM for last. Many of you have probably never seen a real, full-blown IBM display, but as usual IBM did itself proud. IBM's exhibit spanned the largest hunk of real-estate in the middle of a Comdex hall (there were two). Row upon row of computers, peripherals and software were on display with more-than-eager salespeople standing next to each and every piece. I find it amusing that despite this huge show of force, IBM commanded less attention than many of the small booths at Comdex. Many attendees seemed to intentionally avoid walking by the IBM display for fear that they might be sucked into a heavy discussion on Token Rings or some such. I, unfortunately, have never exercised enough caution and typically seek arguments where I ought to remain silent. This propensity for combat placed me in a head-to-head dual with an IBM Rep about the merits of Token Ring architecture. After a short sermon I decided that it wasn't fair to pick on the poor guy, so I moved on. All in all, this year's Spring Comdex did not show as many new products as in the past, but enthusiasm was not lacking. Comdex mirrors the power that microcomputers have become in our world, and I can only hope that it will continue to do so for years to come. Maybe next year you can spare a day trip to Atlanta for Spring Comdex 1990. Hope to see you there! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- PCBverify Door by Joe Kearley PCBverify is a door program that lets new users gain instant access to a BBS by establishing callback verification. Why I, as a SysOp, like PCBverify PCBverify allows callers to to gain verified access to my bulletin board without me having to voice verify each one. Because of past experiences with a few obnoxious callers, I set up my system to allow only partial access to the board until I had voice validated each user. This rapidly became a royal pain in the neck. Some of my callers were having to wait about one or two weeks before I found the time to call and voice valedate them. I also kept getting a lot of busy signals or no answers. With Call back verification, the user can gain instant access and does not have to wait a week or two be validated. It also allows more users to get on the board and build up the user base. As all SysOps like a large user base, I think they will like this program. They will have more control over who their users are because you will have an accurate record of their phone number and can call to check if they see a problem developing. Why you, as a user, would like PCBverify Have you ever called a new board to see what it had to offer only to find out that you could not do anything on it until you had been validated? Now you have the opportunity to gain instant access with the call back verify door. No more waiting to get a phone call validating you for the board. You will be able to check out what the board has to offer right away. Then you can decide if you like the board and will continue to call it or don't like what you see and never call back again. PCBVerify also has a nice feature called "call back mode". If you are a validated user, call the board, and happen to get a noisy line, you can enter the door in the "call back mode". Pcb Verify auto- matically detects a user level above new-user status and switches to a call-back mode. The door will accept your phone number (same as in the verification process) and call you back in hopes of getting a clean line. I know it works because I had a user do just that the other night. He was having a hard time on the board because of line noise. He used the call back feature and got a clean line. How call back verification works When you call a board that is using the PCBverify door you enter the door, read the instructions, and enter your phone number. The door will ask if the number you entered is correct. If you answer yes, it will then ask if the number is long distance otherwise it will begin asking for the phone number again. The SysOp can elect to allow or disallow long distance calls and the time frame to allow them (when rates are cheapest). If the number is long distance, (again depending on the SysOp), the door will drop carrier and call the phone number you entered. When you enter the number and see the board dropping carrier you will need to set your terminal mode so you can answer the call. When you see a ring you will need to answer by typing ATA (in capital letters) or use your auto-answer mode if your communication program supports one. You will then see "This is (the boards name) looking for (your name)." After a few seconds, It will ask for your password. If you type in your password correctly (and you are long distance) the door will update your security level and hang up. You then can call back and enjoy full access to the board. If you make a local call (answer no to the long distance question) the door will reconnect you to the board, update your security level, and give you full access. If your verification was successful your phone number will then be put into what is called the "trashcan" file and cannot be used again for verification. If more than one user lives in the same household and shares the same phone number, you will need to leave a comment to the SysOp or fill out a Script Questionnaire, if there is one available, in order for the second user to be validated. Personally, I think the PCBverify door is a great program. I have used it for the past few weeks and it is working very well. I have had a dozen or so users gain access to the board using the door so far. Although some users have tried without success (did not know how to answer the call or gave a wrong phone number or entered their password incorrectly) they have called back and filled out the script questionnaire. The PCBverify door has saved me from having to call quite a few users to have to voice validate them. If any of you users out there are using a communications program other than Procomm Plus and know how to answer a call, I would appreciate it if you would leave some comments on a few boards explaining how to do so. This would help some of the users that are unfamiliar with their communications program to be able to use the PCBverify door. The latest version of PCB Verify can be downloaded from Premier BBS (615) 675-3244 2400/1200/300 N,8,1 24 hours a day Curtis Kowolski, Sysop (and author) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- INSIGHTS by Ron Albright For some time now, I have been sermonizing about the benefits of being "connected," electronically, to my friend Alan. Alan, is a busy cardiologist who, like many in his profession, has more money than time. Alan is burned out by medicine (it happens, trust me) and is looking for a way to branch out into something new. Namely, a business venture. He has the dream of becoming an entrepreneur and developing some product or service that will bring some challenge and excitement back into his life. He doesn't have a clue as to what that enterprise might be, but he knows it's out there - waiting. Back to the story at hand. I have long been expounding on how, if Alan used a PC and got into communications and information access by modem, he could really have a better way of selectively looking for what is hot and what is not in business. I have told him about information services and how he can search for data about virtually anything. He can use the medium to screen for what he is interested and quiet the noise of "information overload" that deafens even those with enough time to read the Wall Street Journal and Business week. Alan has been skeptical all along. Finally, after my latest discourse, he challenged my hypothesis. "OK, Ron, I have a test for you. I am going to call your bluff. I want you to find some facts for me with your computer." There was almost a snarl in his voice as he gave me the challenge. "I want you find out the following: - where, when, and by whom was the Subway Sandwich franchise started - what is their growth rate and projections - how much does a franchise cost - and what is their best selling sandwich and I want you to call me back when you have the results." He gleefully barked out the order, said goodbye and left me alone to deal with the problem. Now picture yourself trying to deal with this in a traditional way. You would go to the library, fumble through a dozen or so dusty indexes, write down what you found on index cards, and pray that the library had the journals you needed. Seldom were all of the processes simple much less fast or efficient. I, on the other hand, leaned back in my office chair, and thought about where best to look for the information. The possible resources were myriad. I could log on to the Dow-Jones News/Retrieval and scan their full-text coverage of the Wall Street Journal (since January, 1984), Baron's (from January, 1987), their "Business Library" (covering 7 national magazines - like Inc., Forbes, and Fortune - and 2 news wires), or their "Business dateline (covering 140 regional business publications since 1985). I could call up NewsNet and scan their collection of over 300 newsletters covering 30 industries, including food services. A smile (or was it a snicker?) came to my face as I diabolically accessed just how I was going to handle the dare. I settled on using a service called "InfoMaster" available on Western Union's EasyLink electronic mail service. InfoMaster is an incarnation of Telebase Systems' "EasyNet" information bank. It is also available on CompuServe as "IQuest." Regardless of where you use the network, you get the same thing. Specifically, a simple, fast "gateway" to over 700 different electronic databases. A "gateway," in electronic vernacular, is a single inlet to several different systems. It works this way. InfoMaster maintains accounts on almost all the available database providers - including Dialog, BRS, Mead Data General's LEXIS/NEXIS, and others. Instead of you subscribing and maintaining accounts on all this hosts (an expensive proposition, to say the least), you only use and pay InfoMaster. You need not learn the multiplicity of interfaces for these information giants. You only work through a single set of prompts on InfoMaster. Unless you are a search specialist, it's the easiest way to go. After hooking up to Western Union, I chose InfoMaster from its menu. I was then carried to the main set of selections on the system. InfoMaster allows you to chose the specific database you want (if you happen to know the name of it - there are some 700 to choose from) or, based on your response to several menus, it will pick what it thinks is the appropriate database for your search. Usually, it is right. You simply tell IM if you want to look for a specific topic (business, science, medicine, etc) or for a company or product. After narrowing down your area of interest, you are asked for the word or phrase you want to search for. Completing that, you sit back and relax. IM goes through the process of calling the appropriate network, sending in your search, collecting the results, disconnecting and returning to you with the treasures. You can then browse through the ones that appear worthwhile. You only get the articles' titles, authors, and journal reference to start. If any appear particularly "hot," IM will go back and get the full-text of the paper if available. You get the ten most recent titles IM finds and 1 full-text article for a flat $8.00. If nothing was found, you get billed nothing. Sounds fair enough to me. Back to the "Alan Challenge." I gathered just what I needed on IM and all within ten minutes of hanging up with Alan. Loading my guns, I called him back. "Alan, I have some information for you. Fred DeLuca, a college student in Connecticut, opened the first Subway Sandwich and Salads store in Milford, CT in 1965. He was 17 at the time. His current franchise fee is a modest $7500 with an 8% royalty. They currently have 3000 stores and the company goal is to have 5000 in place by 1994. DeLuca won the 1988 "Entrepreneur of the Year" award from Venture Magazine..." Alan and, I hope, you, got the point. That being, and I will defend it to the death, if you need information, if it is important to you, and you are willing to pay for it, "computer-assisted information retrieval" (or "C.A.I.R.", pronounced "care") is the best way to go. Information access by PC is one of the most underutilized but, potentially, valuable capabilities of computers. Once the sacred haunt of those skilled few sporting a Masters Degree in library science, information networks are constantly improving the ease with which "Joe Sixpack" - you and I - can pinpoint useful data. Rather than having to weed through stacks of journals, we can sit back, content in knowing that, when we need something, we can find it. Not only are the providers, themselves, moving away from stark, cryptic command-driven system to simple, menu interfaces, there is a growing number of communications packages that do most of the work for you. Offline, while the meter is not running. Lest you think I am howling at the moon, check these figures out. Based on a $1750 report filed by Frost & Sullivan, a New York-based consulting firm, online databases are "the premier glamour industry in the information field." They add that the industry should "continue to boom at an annual growth rate of 18 percent or more." The report outlines the industry's growth from overall revenues of $469 million in 1978 to an estimated $2.2 billion in 1986. "Assuming a moderate 18 percent average annual growth rate," it concludes, "projected revenues will exceed $4.2 billion in 1990." The point of all this is a simple one. Let me put it in computer terms: if your information input exceeds your processing speed, you need C.A.I.R. With a little study and dedication, you can start using your computer and modem for more than just a way to download software. You can use it as a magical library providing you with all the selectivity you need to stem the "Information Flood." Alan was convinced. I hope you are as well. Think about it. Oh yeah, I am still looking for Subway's best-selling sandwich. Nothing is perfect. Comments to this series are solicited. You can reach me on the following networks: Compuserve 75166,2473 GEnie RALBRIGHT Delphi INFOINC Services Discussed: DIALOG Services: DIALOG, DIALOG Business Connection, Knowledge Index Address: DIALOG Information Services, Inc. 3460 Hillview Avenue Palo Alto, CA 94304 1-800-334-2564 TELEX: 3344999 (DIALOG) TWX: 910-339-9221 BRS Services: BRS, BRS/After Dark, BRS/Colleague Address: BRS Information Technologies 1200 Route 7 Latham, NY 12110 1-800-227-5277 TWX: 710-44-4965 Dow Jones News/Retrieval Address: DJNR Service P.O. Box 300 Princeton, NJ 08540 1-800-522-3567 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The World Of MIDI by Keith Cahoon Part 1: MIDI History An Introduction To MIDI The Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) is a specification which enables various manufacturers to design equipment that is basically compatible with that of other manufacturers. This is most beneficial for the owner, whose equipment is thereby protected from obsolescence. As MIDI-compatible equipment is introduced, one will be able to freely choose keyboards, sequencers, and rhythm units from a variety of manufacturers with confidence that they will work together as one programmable system through which complete pieces can be composed and realized. The problem of instrument compatibility is not new. It can probably be said of any two keyboards, that someone has desired if not actually tried to interconnect them. Keyboard couplers were developed for both pipe organs and harpsichords. In the heyday of electric organ technology this interest occasionally led to the installation of thick cables wiring keyboards in parallel. The first synthesizers were easier to interface, because of the nature of the modular equipment. However modules from different manufacturers might have incompatible control voltage, trigger, gate and output levels or polarities. These differences have been promulgated in scores of synthesizer, keyboard and effect devices, ultimately giving rise to an entire industry devoted to modifications and interfacing. And though they provide the best opportunity for interface so far, even microcomputer-based synthesizer equipment has been developed along independent, incompatible lines. Like many other defacto "standards", the MIDI has risen primarily from the activities of those concerned that the incompatibility of current equipment discourages wider availability of the kinds of complex systems which can be envisioned utilizing even current technology. (The S-100 microcomputer buss evolved for similar reasons.) The popularity of the home computer has forced music manufacturers to finally address the issue of compatibility. For the musician, the keyboard interface to the computer terminal offers the possibility of multi-track sequencing and editing, score display and printing. In this light, the usefulness and need for a standard computer keyboard interface is obvious. Only with some such standard can these musical tools be developed. The following explains how the MIDI specification resulted from this industry-wide consensus. The MIDI specifications neither possesses nor claims any authority over equipment design. Rather, it is merely an informal agreement on some simple interface circuitry and the "grammer" of a non-proprietary language which can carry meaningful information between instruments. The incorporation or support of the MIDI facility in a product remains entirely a decision for each manufacturer. The SCI Digital Interface SCI first became interested in microcomputer interfacing in conjunction with the design of the Prophet-10 polyphonic synthesizer and it's internal polyphonic sequencer. The Prophet and its sequencer each were based on Z-80 microcomputers. To record, as notes were playing, every few milliseconds the Prophet would send its complete keyboard "status" to the sequencer. The sequencer had to figure out which notes were going on and off, and record these events in the reference clock count. On playback, the sequencer computer also sent the complete keyboard status every clock pulse, with events as counted out by the clock. The Prophet would play these notes just as if they came from its own keyboard. Later, this sequencer was made available as an accessory for the Prophet-5. The Prophet-5 Remote Keyboard was also developed which used this interface. SCI published the data protocol upon which this interface was based, in the hopes that the programming public would be encouraged to develop their own interfaces for the Prophet-5. This did not occur, apparently because in being conceived for a specific application, the interface was very fast but too clumsy for the general-purpose use. It was criticized as requiring too much programming "overhead", in the constant transmission of meaningless keyboard information. As a result of this experience, SCI resolved to pursue a more streamline interface that would be easier for programmers to work with. The Universal Synthesizer Interface In the meantime, occasional discussions between the president's of Sequential Circuits (SCI), Oberheim Electronics, and Roland also revealed a shared interest in the interface problem and development of an interface widely acceptable to the industry. Smith then outlined a specification for a "Universal Synthesizer Interface" (USI). It was developed with the assistance of SCI's Chet Wood and the president at the Fall, 1981 convention of the Audio Engineering Society (AES). The USI differed markedly from the earlier SCI Digital interface in that rather than being polled at the sequencer clock rate, information was only sent when an event actually occurred - for example, a note going on or off. The USI was proposed to be a serial, operating at 19.2 kBaud, with TTL levels, and connected through phone jacks. After incorporating changes in response to comments from AES, Smith sent a questionnaire to all manufacturers and industry consultants he could find, asking for their suggestions and any special requirements. There was a strong response to this initiative; some saying, for example, that it would not be possible to do it serially, that a parallel interface was necessary. Others thought the proposed serial speed too fast for operation with home computers. Many other issues were raised. All respondents were invited to a conference in coincidence with the January, 1982 Western National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) convention in Anaheim. This meeting was attended by representatives from SCI, Roland, Oberheim, CBS/Rhodes, Yamaha, E-mu, Unicord (Korg), Music Technology Inc., Kawai, Octave Plateau, Passport Designs and Syntauri. Other manufacturers seemed to be maintaining a "wait-and-see" policy. At this meeting the chief changes which occurred to the USI were to add opto-isolation to prevent audio ground loops, and to increase the speed to 31.25 kBaud. The Japanese Interface Proposal Following the USI discussions at Anaheim, an alternative specification was presented by some of the Japanese companies which had grown out of their own research. Whereas the USI was basically content to specify note on/off codes, this new proposal went on to define many more complex operations. It also offered a different data structure, with status and data bytes being flagged by bit 7 (1=status, 0=data). This greatly simplified the protocol by eliminating all the checks which were otherwise needed to distinguish the data category. With the most significant bit now defined as a "flag," data is thereby limited to 7 bits, but this is sufficient for most synth data, and when not, can simply be sent as multiple 4-bit nibbles. The MIDI After the Anaheim meeting, Smith and Wood integrated the USI and Japanese proposals, forming the first MIDI specification. This was sent to all of the meeting participants but, curiously, provoked no further comment from this continent. The final document was therefore arrived at after several exchanges between SCI and Roland, which is serving as liaison with Yamaha, Korg, and Kawai. The development of MIDI was first made public by Robert Moog, in his October, 1982 column in KEYBOARD magazine. In December of 1983, SCI began shipping the Prophet-600, the first commercially available instrument to include the MIDI. This is part 1 of a series. This section was about the history around the MIDI and it's development. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- FILE TRANSFER PROTOCOLS PART 2 by Tom Egan Sysop [Remote] America Online MEGALINK Megalink is a relative newcomer to the file transfer protocol scene. It provides several of the advantages of XModem, YModem, and ZModem in one package. It is not compatible with them, but does utilize several of their features. Megalink uses 512 byte blocks for transfer. This is 4 times the size of XModem, but only half that of XModem-1K and YModem. It is whats known as a FULL-STREAMING protocol, and therefore eliminates the back and forth hand-shaking required by XModem and YModem type protocols. Full Streaming means that it sends a block of data, then a CRC check block. If the data was received without error, nothing is done, and transmission continues. If an error IS received, then the receiving end sends a NAK signal back to the transmitter signifying a need to re-send that block of data that was in error. XModem and YModem require an acknowledge signal after each block, regardless of whether the transfer was successful or in error. Megalink also uses the CRC-32 error correction method used by ZModem, and developed by Chuck Forsberg, which is theoretically more accurate than either XModem or YModem CRC methods. JMODEM JModem is a very new protocol, the newest one I am aware of. JModem has several features that are of interest to the BBS user and others who communicate via computer. JModem uses 16 bit CRC error correction. It features variable size transmission blocks, as does ZModem, ranging from 512 up to 8192 byte blocks if few errors are detected, making it VERY efficient on clean and noise free phone lines. These are determined automatically by the program and changed as the need arises. JModem also supports communication Ports 1 through 4, while most of the protocols only support Com1 or Com2 ( if they support them at all, some rely on the program using them to set the Com Ports ). A surprising feature, JModem also has built-in data compression. Although I am not familiar with the method used, data compression is like what you get with ARC and ZIP compression programs. I don't know if JModem's compression is needed or used when transferring these type files, but is very useful when you need to send files that are not compressed already, saving much time spent on transmission. The stated probability of an error slipping through and getting into your file without being caught and corrected automatically is 1 error in 54,445,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes of transmitted data. By the way, if you get this in a CRC 16 bit mode, just think what CRC 32 gives you !!!!! I doubt that most of us would send this much data in a lifetime ( maybe 10 lifetimes even ), so effectively, these protocols are error-free when received. I've run short on time this month, 3 or 4 more protocols will follow next month. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- PRO FILE by Chris Mohney The Pro File is a short, half-serious biographical sketch given to various computer telecommunications personalities around Birmingham. Victims are selected randomly from a group of names put into the notorious Hat. Anyone who thinks himself brave or witty enough may petition for admittance to the Hat by leaving E-Mail to me (Chris Mohney, most boards around town) to that effect. Anyone who wishes to suggest more questions or sneakily nominate someone without their knowledge may take the same route .... PRO FILE: Gary Steven Godsey --------- Age: 36 Birthplace: Birmingham, Alabama Occupation: Funeral Director My hobbies include: Computing, Music, Watching TV, Safe Sex Years telecomputing: I bought my first computer in 1978 Sysop, past/present/future of: I would like to run a board that would use professional people to help others with emotional and spiritual problems. I said spiritual not religious. My oddest habit is: Touring cemeteries when I go on vacation My greatest unfulfilled ambition is: A trip on the Space Shuttle The single accomplishment of which I am most proud is: My work. It is most fulfilling to be able to help people in a time of true need. My favorite performers are: Micky Rourke, Kim Bassinger, John Lennon, Prince The last good movie I saw was: "Cannibal Women of the Avocado Jungle" The last good book I read was: "The Road Less Traveled" by M. Scott Peck, M.D. If they were making a movie of my life, I'd like to see my part played by: Micky Rourke My pet peeves are: Whiners. People that want to legislate my morality. When nobody's looking, I like to: Read "Mad" magazine. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- From The Kitchen by Chez Stephan Hello dudes and dudettes. It is thyme for the old round-up. Seems that some of you guys are wanting to sleep in on weekends rather than get out there and work in the yard or get in an early round of golf. Well hey, that's all right buckeroos. Just when you do get up let's have one hell of a breakfast. It's the most important meal of the day you know. Gets the body systems working and the brain in the go mode. Anyway here it is. Lets have French Toast: 2 Eggs beaten 1 egg yolk beaten 3/4 cup of heavy cream 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 tablespoon sugar 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves 1/2 teaspoon vanilla Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. If you can find it, use fresh baked un-sliced bread for toast. Cut bread in 1 inch slices. Heat an iron skillet over medium high heat. Melt 2 to 3 table spoons of butter in pan. DO NOT let butter brown. Dip bread slices in mixture and place in buttered pan and cook. Cook to desired crispness. Serve hot. What, breakfast without Ham??? Select a good country ham from your local grocer. There are usually packages back in the meat department somewhere around where they keep the 4 year old turkeys and frozen white fish. Make sure that you select ham that is of a deep red color as this shows the length of the curing process. The deeper the color the longer the curing process. Take the ham out of the package and wash under cold running water for at least 5 minutes. This washes the salt out of the ham. Cut all the fat away from the ham. Heat an iron skillet to hot and use the fat to release the grease needed to fry the ham. After the fat has been rendered, remove the fat and cut the heat down to medium. Place the ham in the skillet and brown. After the ham has been browned then add 1 cup of cold water to the skillet (PLEASE BE CAREFUL. IT WILL SPLATTER AND STEAM) and cover. Let cook 15 to 20 minutes on low heat. For those of you that want it; Red Eye Gravy can be made by removing the ham when done and adding a small amount of black coffee to the juices in the pan. This is good stuff over hot buttered homemade buttermilk biscuits. Poach a couple of eggs. Have a couple of glasses of fresh squeezed orange juice. Add the ham and the French toast to the plate. Grab the morning paper and have at it. After you've finished off breakfast have a couple of cups of good dark coffee and enjoy your day. Catch you guys and gals Later, Ciao and hearty eating. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- MESSAGE BOARD by Barry Bowden JULY 1989 S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 July 1 BIPUG July 8 BCCC July 11 CCS (C64) July 17 CCS (Amiga) July 21 BEPCUG July 22 BCCC July 25 CCS (C64) BEPCUG CCS Birmingham East PC Users Group Commodore Club South Jefferson Sate Jr. College Springville Road Library Ruby Carson Hall, Rm 114 2nd & 4th Tuesday (C64/C128) 3rd Friday, 7-9 PM 3rd Monday (Amiga) Paula Ballard 251-6058 (after 5PM) 7:30-10 PM Maurice Lovelady 684-6843 BCCC BIPUG Birmingham Commodore Computer Club Birmingham IBM-PC Users Group POB 59564 UAB Nutrition Science Blg Birmingham, Al 35259 RM 535/541 UAB School of Education, Rm 153 1st Sunday (delayed one week 2nd and 4th Sundays, 2 PM if meeting is a holiday) Rusty Hargett 854-5172 Marty Schulman 967-5883 If you belong to or know of a user group that is not listed, please let me know by sending E-Mail to me thru EzNet or on The Bus System BBS. Please leave the group name and a contact person/phone number. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Known BBS Numbers For The Birmingham Area NAME NUMBER BAUD RATES SUPPORTED MODEM TYPE America Online Nodes 1-4 323-2016 300, 1200, 2400 America Online Node 5 251-2344 300, 1200, 2400, 9600 HST *American BBS 674-1851 300, 1200, 2400 *Byte Me 979-2983 1200, 2400 *Bus System BBS 595-1627 300, 1200, 2400 *Channel 8250 744-8546 300, 1200, 2400 Club Phoenix 942-0252 300, 1200, 2400 *Crunchy Frog 956-1755 300, 1200, 2400 D3 Systems BBS 663-2759 300, 1200, 2400 Duck Pond BBS 822-0956 300, 1200, 2400 Gizmo's Atari BBS 854-0698 300, 1200 Fortress BBS 664-9040 300, 1200 I.S.A. BBS 995-6590 300, 1200, 2400 Jim's Place 787-5512 300, 1200, 2400 *Joker's Castle 744-6120 300, 1200, 2400 LZ Birmingham 870-7770 300, 1200, 2400 *Magnolia BBS 854-6407 300, 1200, 2400, 9600 HST ProSoft Systems BBS 853-8718 300, 1200, 2400 Radio Free TROAD 592-2545 300, 1200, 2400 *Role Player's Paradise 631-7654 300, 1200, 2400 Smitty's BBS 849-7349 300, 1200 Sperry BBS 853-6144 300, 1200, 2400, 9600 Hayes *ST BBS 836-9311 300, 1200, 2400 *The Connection Node 1 854-9074 1200, 2400 *The Connection Node 2 854-2308 1200, 2400 *The Outer Limits 969-3262 1200, 2400, 9600 HST The Islands BBS 870-7776 300, 1200 *The Professional's Board 856-0679 300, 1200, 2400 Twilight Zone 856-3783 300, 1200 Willie's DYM Node 1 979-1629 300, 1200, 2400 Willie's DYM Node 2 979-7739 300, 1200, 2400 Willie's RBBS 979-7743 300, 1200, 2400 Ziggy Unaxess 991-5696 300, 1200 Boards with a "*" before their name are members of our local network, EzNet, and public messages left in the EzNet Conferences of any of these boards will be echoed to all members.