Digest Articles Re: Alphaworks by compass@xxxxxxxx From: compass@xxxxxxxx Subject: Re: Alphaworks Date: Fri, 20 Jun 1997 09:23:00 -0600 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In-Reply-To: <33A9F47D.2E6E@xxxxxxxx> On Thu, 19 Jun 1997, sharriso wrote: >I saw your note to the Poqet PC list about Alphaworks. If my memory >serves, this is an integrated program with word processor, spreadsheet, >etc. > >I would be very willing to pay Lotus $10 if it works on my Poqet >classic. If you can find the time, could you also send a copy to my >e-mail address? I would REALLY appreciate that. > >I took a look at the Compass website. Looks like you've had the >experience of several ordinary folks in a variety of fields. Is the >off-grid energy stuff a hobby of yours? I think the idea of >self-sufficiency appeals to a lot of folks, even if they'll never >actually do it themselves. > >Steve Harrison >Waukesha, Wisconsin > > > ================================================================================ REPLY -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hello Steve, Yes, I will send you a copy of AlphaWorks when I get it ready to send to Al. It will probably be a couple of weeks (early to mid July). Regarding off-grid energy. I have pioneered several times in my life. In my twenties, I lived out in the mountains and my father and I built an ore processing mill. I blasted the ore from the mines in the mountains. We hauled it to the mill where we crushed, milled, concentrated, and refined the precious metals out. This life style of mountain living required some ingenuity as water was scarce. In my late thirties, I bought a house several miles from the power grid and had to pioneer all over. This time, it was electricity that was scarce. I learned to use solar electricity and maintain gasoline and diesel generators. I learned about pressurizing water in a tank with air to provide water to the house, a trick I wish I had thought of in my twenties at the mine. Although, at the mine, water pressure really wasn't a problem because I lived on the side of a mountain and only needed to elevate the water tank to provide pressure to the house. Necessity really is the mother of invention. The house I now own has two sets of electric wall plugs, one set has 120 volt AC house current and the other set carries 12 volt DC from the solar panels, battery chargers, and batteries. The lights in the ceiling are all 12 volts and I use RV lites in the sockets. This way, there is light even when there is no power generated. I have a voltage inverter which takes electricity from the batteries and converts it into 120 volt AC house current. This way, I do not need to run the generator all of the time just to watch TV or run my computer. It was nice to meet you, Steve. I need to go now. I will send AlphaWorks as soon as I get time. Cordially Yours. Ron W. Hardy Compass Consulting Co. 775 South Sunset Drive Cedar City, UT 84720 voice: 801-865-7000 cell: 801-559-8000 fax: 801-586-5248 email: compass@xxxxxxxx web: http://www.tcd.net/~compass/ Data Compression by compass@xxxxxxxx From: compass@xxxxxxxx Subject: Data Compression Date: Fri, 20 Jun 1997 10:35:43 -0600 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hello Anna, Your remarks were in Digest poqetpc.v1.n123 so I won't repeat them here. You want to compress data and still be able to search it, such as for using a dictionary or thesaurus that you wish to compress. (Note: dictionaries and Thesauruses are usually already in a compressed proprietary format.) In essence you want to have your cake and eat it too. The good news is that you probably can. I found a way several years ago to fool DoubleDisk into thinking that the Poqet PCMCIA cards (PC cards) were really hard disks. This allows you to compress and still read your data. As I recall, there was some non-essential part of the commercial package that I had to leave out such as the help files, to make room for data. I will contact the DoubleDisk folks to see what they say about distribution and licensing. Norton Utilities also is able to compress data and still read the files using it's Norton's file viewer program. However, it cannot extract on-the-fly which is what you need. In this category are also such programs as ARC and PKWare's PKZIP/PKUNZIP, both available as shareware. There are undoubtedly others. There is also a program called SuperStor written by AddStor which compresses floppy disks and adds the necessary drivers right to the flopy kdisk so that you do not need to distribute the full SuperStor package to share your data with others ( or yourself ). This would also probably work on the PC cards. I don't remember if I tried it or not on the PC cards, but I do remember that it worked well on the floppies. This is the same technology that is in MS-DOS 6. Microsoft licensed both DoubleDisk and SuperStor and incorporated them into DOS. If you have MS-DOS 6 or better, you might try making a compressed floppy with MS-DOS 6+. Then, connect your Poqet to your desktop computer through a network that will allow you to address the PC cards on the Poqet as floppy drives (the VNA Poqet network would probably do the job). Copy the compressed floppy that you just made on the desktop to the Poqet. You may need to change the attributes of some of the files before you copy and then change them back afterward on both the floppy and the PC card. Usually the compressed disk volumes are really normal disk files that have the hidden and/or system attributes set. You may need to clear the attributes so that your copy program can see the files, copy the files, then set the attributes again to avert the danger of corruption or inadvertent erasure. Poqet has the ATTRIB command built in. You are not going to do this for each of the copmressed files, but only for the Compressed File Volume (a single file that holds all of the compressed files) and it's accompanying support files. None of these files should normally be compressed. R Read Only H Hidden S System file A Archive - clears an attribute (turns it OFF). + sets (activates) an attribute (turns it ON). 1. Just type ATTRIB *.* to get a listing of all files in the current directory, showing the attributes that are set. Print this out or make note of the setings of all files. 2. ATTRIB -R -H -S PATHNAME (where pathname is the name of the file and if necessary the path to the file) to clear the Read-Only, Hidden, and System attributes prior to copying. Do this for all of the files, making note of what the attribute settings were before you changed them, so that you can restore them to their original settings later. 3. Copy all files on the disk to a BLANK, FORMATTED PC card. It may be important that the PC card be completely empty before starting, in case the compression program seeds to store something in the System area of the PC card (which it sees as a disk). 4. ATTRIB +R +H +S PATHNAME for each of the files as appropriate to return it to it's original settings. Note, leave out any of the settings R, H, or S that were not set originally. If you have a version of DOS that includes compression, I would recommend attempting that first because the price is right. It may or may not work depending mostly on whether the MS-DOS compression program checks to see what version of dos it is running under. This shouldn't be a problem if you have created a "MOUNTABLE FLOPPY DISK". If you can't get that to work, let me know and I will see what I can do about providing you with DoubleDisk or SuperStor, depending on what the manufacturers say. I hope this has helped, Anna. Cordially yours, Ron W. Hardy Compass Consulting Co. 775 South Sunset Drive Cedar City, UT 84720 voice: 801-865-7000 cell: 801-559-8000 fax: 801-586-5248 email: compass@xxxxxxxx web: http://www.tcd.net/~compass/ Help any way I can get it & Question by bmoy@xxxxxxxx From: bmoy@xxxxxxxx Subject: Help any way I can get it & Question Date: Fri, 20 Jun 1997 17:03:16 -0400 Hey! just got a used Poqet Classic to replace the one that was pick-poqeted from me during the Memorial Day weekend -so I'm back in business (so to speak...) Anyhow, can anyone advise me where I can purchase the cheapest (ahem, I mean most inexpensive) Type I SRAM cards that is compatable with the Poqet? Or does anyone have used ones for sale? 1 or 2 Mb cards. One more question: Does anyone know of a program that can inverse the colors on a CGA screen? FS: Poqet Lotus 123 by Yujin Nagasawa From: "Yujin Nagasawa" Subject: FS: Poqet Lotus 123 Date: Fri, 20 Jun 1997 17:30:46 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-2022-JP Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit For sale: Lotus 123 for The Poqet PC----$20 (Shipping Included) E-mail me. Re: Alphaworks by compass@xxxxxxxx From: compass@xxxxxxxx Subject: Re: Alphaworks Date: Fri, 20 Jun 1997 19:41:57 -0600 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In-Reply-To: On Fri, 20 Jun 1997, ddv wrote: >On Fri, 20 Jun 1997 compass@xxxxxxxx wrote: >> On Thu, 19 Jun 1997, sharriso wrote: >> >I would be very willing to pay Lotus $10 if it works on my Poqet >> >classic. If you can find the time, could you also send a copy to my >> >e-mail address? I would REALLY appreciate that. >> Yes, I will send you a copy of AlphaWorks when I get it ready to send to Al. >> It will probably be a couple of weeks (early to mid July). > >I hate to be a me-tooer, but could you please include me in that mailing? > >Thanks in advance. > >Domingo > > > ====================================================================== REPLY ====================================================================== Hello Domingo, Yes, I would be happy to include you in the AlphaWorks mailing. Cordially yours, Ron W. Hardy Compass Consulting Co.