137 lines
7.5 KiB
Plaintext
137 lines
7.5 KiB
Plaintext
MiniSport Laptop Hacker - Vol 6A 14 Dec 92
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You folks have been great! The incoming information is cascading. I am
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anxious to assemble some of the ideas and send the next volume out. Every-
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thing from using kids' foam blocks for briefcase padding to add-on jumper
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mods to the back of the circuit board. I have all the back volumes avail-
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able to copy onto disk, too. I've had several inquiries. Send me a disk
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(3" or 5") and I'll get it back to you. Please include a SASE to keep this
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low-cost for me.
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The unexpected news, however, is related to my real job. I fly for the Air
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Force and I'll be departing tomorrow for you-can-guess-where. The plan is
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to be back the first week in February. That's why this issue is manually
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typed in as 6A. 6B will be the "real" Volume 6 by the time I get back.
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Not the least of folks to thank is Chuck, WB7NNF, who hosts me as my home
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BBS. I just was reminded that he has been manually forwarding my ALLUSA
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bulletins. I think his outbound links are running automatically again, but
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you sure might send him (or your own home BBS sysop) a thank-you for the
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custom work.
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73, Brian, ka9snf@wb7nnf.#spokn.wa.usa or Internet ka9snf.spk.wa.us
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------------------ original MLHacker series divided here ----------------
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MiniSport Laptop Hacker - Vol 6B
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8 Feb 93
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Thanks to KA9SWW, N8LUF, KA9CAP, N7FTM, N8NUY, WJ8T, and N9KRS for sending
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me information (I don't know it all) or queries (I know what people are
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interested in). Special thanks to WB7NNF (my home BBS) for taking care of
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the inbound mail while I was out of town!
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>>> CULTURE
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Boy, is it great to be back! Even with all the trouble we have as a coun-
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try, I am again convinced there is none better. Be glad you live here! My
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trip to Saudi Arabia was educational. I got to refuel the F117 Stealth
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Fighters pre- and post-strike on the January raids and got to see real
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capital punishment in action. The Saudis execute criminals in the downtown
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square by kneeling them down and slicing their heads off with a huge sword.
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That is something that I needed to witness only once.
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>>> ADMINISTRATIVE
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MLH Volume 6A was notice saying that I would be gone for a couple of
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months. Volume 6B resumes the normal style, and from here they will con-
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tinue to be numbered sequentially.
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.
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I've received a number of requests to provide back issues of ML Hacker. I
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don't want to inappropriately burden the packet networks, so I've hesitated
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sending back issues to everyone that asks. I could see this getting out of
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hand when somebody sees Volume 23 and asks me to send the preceeding 22!
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Pending recommendations from my local host sysop, I'll go with the follow-
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ing policy. If you're a sysop (your callsign is the first in the message
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routing), I'll send back issues through packet so you can post them to be
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downloaded locally. For other individuals, I've got three options. I'll
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1) send them to you on disk through the mail or, 2) via packet to your host
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sysop if he/she asks, or 3) over landline Internet. If you use the disk
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method, send me a disk and postage to get it back to you. My address is
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Brian Mork, 6006-B Eaker, Fairchild, WA 99011. I moved in fall '92, so
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older callbook addresses are now obsolete. If you use the Internet method,
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query me via ka9snf@visual.spk.wa.
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>>> ACQUIRING YOUR OWN
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I started the MLH series as a forum for owners. This was an incomplete
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goal. A number of folks are reading the series to determine *if* they
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should buy one! The general concensus is that the ML is serving a lot of
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people well. The pros are definitely out weighing the cons.
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.
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My 2Mb ML accompanied me to Saudi Arabia and survived 2 months of being
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banged around in a soft case briefcase. I provide some cosmetic barrier by
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putting it inside of a lawyer legal size fanfold folder. I carry extra
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disks (2" and standard sizes), null modem cable, male/female cable conver-
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tors, power supply, and parallel printer cable. This has to be the essence
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of the laptop. With a "software" TNC and small handheld, you can't have
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much more of a portable packet station.
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.
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In September, I made an 18-hour non-stop car trip from Merced, CA to Spo-
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kane, WA. I had a PK232, an FT-290, and the MiniSport on the passenger
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seat. Boy did I have fun! I used a 5/8 wave whip on top of the car and had
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range enough to log onto several BBSs while passing through. It was a bi-
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zarre feeling to be linked into the amateur networks while travelling down
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the road. That day, the Shuttle happened to have just launched into orbit
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and I listened to status updates on local 2M repeaters. When I got into
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Oregon, word was out that they were up on packet. I tuned up my mobile
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system and listened. I heard two orbits overhead, although the signal was
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too weak to copy. With planning, you could do mobile packet into outer
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space. What technology we have at our finger-tips!!
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.
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By far the biggest problem with the Minisport is with power supplies. The
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Li batteries cause a lot of grief. Weak or dead batteries have causes se-
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rial ports to fail and have caused AC power supply output problems. If you
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have mysterious problems, pull both the NiCad and the Li batteries for sev-
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eral hours. Buy new Li batteries (RS 23-166) and fully charge the NiCads.
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.
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Prices are between the buyer and the seller. For guidance, I'll throw out
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a few numbers. I was fortunate to buy my MLs from a primary source. Work-
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ing computers were $50 or $100 (1 or 2Mb). Non-working were $30 or $75.
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Power supplies were $30. No docs. No guarantee. No returns. Cheap, but
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harsh! I spent an entire Saturday (5:30am to 9:30pm) driving to Benton
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Harbor, MI and back home. In following weeks, car loads of people were
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dropping in on Surplus Trading Corp. I've been informed they have no more.
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.
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A secondary level of surplus dealers is offering them in the $200 range
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with a 90-day warrantee. One of the first dealers in Michigan to sell them
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at hamfests was selling them for $100 or $200 with no power supply. They
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were dumped on the surplus market in Michigan and seem to be most plentiful
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in the Midwest. Current prices hover around $150 to $200. The 2" floppy
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disks are expensive: minimum $4 before postage, etc. Try Rex Television
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(Worth, IL, 708-448-5558) or R&R Computers (Bellbrook, OH, 513-848-4681).
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>>> SIMPLE HELPFUL INFORMATION
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Your contributions to the MLHacker don't have to be complicated or techni-
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cally superior. I knew that CTRL-ALT-DEL would reboot the system and allow
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access to SETUP if the ESC key was pressed. I now know that CTRL-ALT-INS
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will bring up the Zenith monitor (pre-boot) program without having to
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pounce on the ESC key. Little things like this help those of us without
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manuals.
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.
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Does anybody have a Tech Ref Manual (Zenith part 595-4354)? How much did
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it cost? Several people have indicated they have other manuals. Is it ok
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to pass your name onto others so they can contact you?
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.
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I will transfer information from/to the 2" disks for people if you make it
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a no-cost operation for me. Send me the necessary disks & return
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mailer/postage, etc.
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.
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If you let the NiCad batteries drain, your Lithium batteries will be
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drained in a very short time. Use the NiCads until you get the red light
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blink & beep, then charge it up all the way! From experience, I know that
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2 months of inactivity will drain the NiCads and the Lithium batteries.
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>>> UPCOMING
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COMM & PARALLEL LINKS, SHRINKING YOUR FAVORITE SOFTWARE, MINIMUM BOOT
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FILES, BOARD REVISIONS, and more DISASSEMBLY and PINOUTS.
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..
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73, Brian, ka9snf@wb7nnf.#spokn.wa or Internet ka9snf@visual.spk.wa
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