Re: [ql-users] Why me
At 08:48 PM 12/24/2001 +, you wrote: >Centrally heated room Tim, no change in temperature only thing that has >happened really is I took the Q40 down to our last sub group meeting but >it has worked fine since then. >I'm beginning to suspect planned obsolesce (;-) I was more referring to Dilwyn's bit with his computer. He mentioned it was in storage. I thought it might have been in a cold garage or attic. Tim Swenson
Re: [ql-users] Why me
Dilwyn Jones wrote: snip > > Hard drive failures are not uncommon Bill, and not always total > failures. > So it's not just me then. Were looking at changing the PC, some of the sellers now will sell you just the box so that cuts the cost down a lot, if we do change it that will free up four small drives( typical 2 meg ) ideal for the Q40, so with four drives in the Q40 surely backing up would be a doddle and surely all four would not go at once. Tell me I'm right - - please all the best - Bill
Re: [ql-users] Why me
Timothy Swenson wrote: > > In the server world, you always let recently shipped servers come to room > temperature before turning them on. They are usually get cold during > shipment and firing them up right away could cause thermal stress, so they > are allowed to sit a number of hours in the computer room. > > Your HD might have needed some time to warm up. > > Tim Swenson Centrally heated room Tim, no change in temperature only thing that has happened really is I took the Q40 down to our last sub group meeting but it has worked fine since then. I'm beginning to suspect planned obsolesce (;-) All the best - Bill
Re: [ql-users] Why me
Al Feng wrote: > > Before you try anything drastic, you may want to try the drives in a > different PC case ... your power supply may be dodgey and not putting out > enough amperage -- a particularly plausible potential hazard with the > trim/slim profile cases which have a 150 watt or smaller PS. > Thanks Al, I did try a different feed and changed the cable, the drive powered up ok it just would not read. I have now formatted the drive - how does the Q40 do it so fast? All the best - Bill
Re: [ql-users] Why me
In the server world, you always let recently shipped servers come to room temperature before turning them on. They are usually get cold during shipment and firing them up right away could cause thermal stress, so they are allowed to sit a number of hours in the computer room. Your HD might have needed some time to warm up. Tim Swenson
Re: [ql-users] Why me
Oh, without stating the obvious, you should consider testing your cable connection, too -- at both the drive AND the motherboard. On Sun, 23 Dec 2001 15:40:56 + Bill Waugh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Anyone got any theories on multiple hard drive failures, two have > gone > west in the last two weeks. > The first was of little importance as it was merely used as a > transfer > device between my wife's and my own hard drives on our PC ( we have > our > own drives (C drive) in caddies). > The failure of the PC to recognise drive D was just an annoyance, > but I > decided to do something about it and tried to format it on the PC - > no > joy, I then attempted to format it on my Q40 - still no joy the > drive is > I think dead. > As a short term measure I decided to replace it with the Win2_ drive > in > my Q40, I use Win2 on the Q40 for backups mainly, I have some but > not > all of the Q40 Win1_ backed up on floppies, so today the Q40 fired > up > and wont recognise Win1_ - oh joy of joys. > No amount of win_drive dohickeying worked so in the end I was > resigned > to format Win1 and put Christmas holidays on hold while I load in > all > the stuff from the floppies. > I now have little faith in this drive ( 2.1 meg Cavier ). > Just wondered if anyone had any ideas why this could of happened. > The Q40 shares a printer and a monitor with the PC, no switching is > required as the printer has usb for PC and par for Q40, the monitor > a > Sony has dual input, two night ago the PC ( Windows 98 ) took it > upon > itself to switch resolution from 800x600 to something lower, however > I > have used the Q40 since then without problem. I did notice though > that > an archive file with a COUNT() of 92 now has a COUNT() of 0.00289... > or > something. > oh I'm running smsqe 2.98 > All the best - Bill > GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/web/.
Re: [ql-users] Why me
Before you try anything drastic, you may want to try the drives in a different PC case ... your power supply may be dodgey and not putting out enough amperage -- a particularly plausible potential hazard with the trim/slim profile cases which have a 150 watt or smaller PS. On Sun, 23 Dec 2001 15:40:56 + Bill Waugh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Anyone got any theories on multiple hard drive failures, two have > gone > west in the last two weeks. > The first was of little importance as it was merely used as a > transfer > device between my wife's and my own hard drives on our PC ( we have > our > own drives (C drive) in caddies). > The failure of the PC to recognise drive D was just an annoyance, > but I > decided to do something about it and tried to format it on the PC - > no > joy, I then attempted to format it on my Q40 - still no joy the > drive is > I think dead. > As a short term measure I decided to replace it with the Win2_ drive > in > my Q40, I use Win2 on the Q40 for backups mainly, I have some but > not > all of the Q40 Win1_ backed up on floppies, so today the Q40 fired > up > and wont recognise Win1_ - oh joy of joys. > No amount of win_drive dohickeying worked so in the end I was > resigned > to format Win1 and put Christmas holidays on hold while I load in > all > the stuff from the floppies. > I now have little faith in this drive ( 2.1 meg Cavier ). > Just wondered if anyone had any ideas why this could of happened. > The Q40 shares a printer and a monitor with the PC, no switching is > required as the printer has usb for PC and par for Q40, the monitor > a > Sony has dual input, two night ago the PC ( Windows 98 ) took it > upon > itself to switch resolution from 800x600 to something lower, however > I > have used the Q40 since then without problem. I did notice though > that > an archive file with a COUNT() of 92 now has a COUNT() of 0.00289... > or > something. > oh I'm running smsqe 2.98 > All the best - Bill > GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/web/.
Re: [ql-users] Easyptr 3
Dilwyn Jones writes: > OK, this won't mean a thing to those not conversant with Easyptr, QPTR > etc, but it's as well to get these facts about our programming tools > out in the open to be aired in case other QL programmers encounter the > same problems. I just hope I can persuade the author to address this > little problem with Easyptr (and upgrade it to better handle GD2 > facilities perhaps!) An upgrade to Easyptr would be highly desirable and I for one would be more than happy to fork out some real dosh for it. Any one programming for PE, whether in S*Basic, C or assembler, should consider adding this great tool to their kit. Highly recommended! Merry Christmas, and all that! Per
Re: [ql-users] Why me
Mr Dilwyn Jones of (West) Wales wrote - "I know from my audio technician past and working briefly at Peacock Electronics that motors in cd players for example tend to have their lubrication innards fail when they've been standing or very cold for some time. A fellow engineer used to put 2-3 times the normal voltage across the motor (in the case of little walkmen cd players a PP3 battery) for a few seconds on the grounds that OK it was already bust as far as the owner was concerned so if he burned it out, no extra problem, the m0tor had to be replaced anyway, but 9 times out of 10 it started ..." Just recently I nearly gave up on a CD deck which had never really behaved since it was a baby. It was temperamental - just like the HDs described. I'd tried cleaning the lens etc etc. SO! working exactly on the "Jones principle" [above], I carefully blocked out the lens and squirted bicycle synthetic lubricant aerosol down a very narrow tube at where I guessed the motor and traversing mechanism might be. All a bit ruff & redee. It's worked, perfect like, consistent, ever since. A good swan, two polos and a swan to everyone! Johh in (East) Wales
[ql-users] Christmas greetings from Switzerland
Hi QLers I wish you all merry christmas and a reflective time! I hope and wish that all of you start well in the comming new year. For some, resp. many of us it will be the 19th year with our "beloved" QL. I hope that you'll find some time for QL thinkering during this christmas/new years periode. Viele Grüsse aus der Schweiz / Best regards Urs König http://mypage.bluewin.ch/QLvsJaguar/
Fw: [ql-users] Easyptr 3
Earlier I wrote:
>Another tip came from Albin Hessler himself (author of Easyptr). As
it
>happens, I had got this right, but it's worth passing on. When
setting
>loose item justification, you need to think of where the sprite
origin
>will be. If the default of centre justification is used for the loose
>item and the origin is top left, the origin is drawn at the centre of
>the loose item and so the sprite cannot fit unless the loose item is
>proportionately larger than the sprite. As it happens, if the sprite
>is assigned by name MITEM #channel%,loose_item,-2,'spritename' you
>always get either an out of range error or invisible sprite, so this
>didn't help.
I slightly misunderstood this and got it wrong, as it's not this
simple, sorry. I have just tried putting 32x24 sprites (linked to
ptrmenr_cde resident, interpreted) into a loose item of the same size.
The origin of the sprites is top left, this would only work if centre
justified, not left justified sorry (I got this the wrong way round by
misreading the author's suggestion).
For those who like to probe such things:
I appended 3 test sprites (a1_spr, a2_spr and a3_spr) to ptrmenr_cde
then rebooted with this resident so the test program could find the
sprites appended in memory rather than from disk to get around the
name problem.
PRINT SPRA(1),SPRA(2),SPRA(3) gave the correct addresses in memory.
PRINT SPRA('a1'),SPRA('a2'),SPRA('a3') gave 'not found' error. I also
tried SPRA(a1) SPRA(a1_spr) and SPRA('a1_spr') etc permuations to
ensure I understood the naming conventions correctly. So, I am now
convinced Thierry is right and Easyptr has problems coping with
sprites referenced by name, but handles sprites referenced by address
or number OK. I guess this has not really become apparent before due
to the fact that you don't often want to assign sprites to loose items
in interpreted programs very often, it's just that my program allows
users to select preferred sprites for the icons in the program.
OK, this won't mean a thing to those not conversant with Easyptr, QPTR
etc, but it's as well to get these facts about our programming tools
out in the open to be aired in case other QL programmers encounter the
same problems. I just hope I can persuade the author to address this
little problem with Easyptr (and upgrade it to better handle GD2
facilities perhaps!)
--
Dilwyn Jones
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.soft.net.uk/dj/index.html
Re: [ql-users] Easyptr 3
Thank you. The best solution so far has been to avoid using the sprite
name in commands like MITEM and SPRA, as Easyptr does seem to have
difficulty handling sprites by name. If the sprites are appended to a
file and a command like SPRA used to refer to them by address or
number all seems fine (thanks Thierry).
I've passed this info on to the author of Easyptr in case it helps
sort this out.
Another tip came from Albin Hessler himself (author of Easyptr). As it
happens, I had got this right, but it's worth passing on. When setting
loose item justification, you need to think of where the sprite origin
will be. If the default of centre justification is used for the loose
item and the origin is top left, the origin is drawn at the centre of
the loose item and so the sprite cannot fit unless the loose item is
proportionately larger than the sprite. As it happens, if the sprite
is assigned by name MITEM #channel%,loose_item,-2,'spritename' you
always get either an out of range error or invisible sprite, so this
didn't help.
--
Dilwyn Jones
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.soft.net.uk/dj/index.html
-Original Message-
From: François Van Emelen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: 23 December 2001 23:15
Subject: Re: [ql-users] Easyptr 3
>Hi
>You can use the name of sprites instead of their number if you gave
them one
>in the application manager Easyspr (appman_obj).
> Once Lrespred, you can do something like this:
>100 outln
>120 mysprite=spra("xyw"): rem the name of the sprite
>140 wsprt 100,100,mysprite
>And you will see your "xyw" sprite on the screen.
>
>Does this help you?
>Francois Van Emelen
>
>Dilwyn Jones wrote:
>>
>> Thank you Thierry. I should have thought of directly addressing the
>> sprite like this. So if I just APPEND the sprites to a ptrmen_cde
file
>> for example that should work fine compiled. It may also work in
BASIC
>> I suppose. Pity about the MITEM bug, it would have been nice to
allow
>> the user to specify and load a sprite as an icon for those who have
>> the sprite editor and for me to release collections of sprites to
go
>> with this program (although I may be able to work around this by
>> appending a dummy sprite as a buffer to load a sprite into for
>> example.
>>
>> Still, thank you for the suggestion, which should
>> save me a lot of work. Looking at the manual, SPRA should also
allow
>> the name of the sprite to be specified in place of number, but I
guess
>> this might be a little bit slower if it has to search for the name.
>>
>> --
>> Dilwyn Jones
>> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> http://www.soft.net.uk/dj/index.html
>>
>> >There is a bug in MITEM that prevents it to load a sprite by its
name
>> >(or filename). The workaround is to place the sprite into an
appendix
>> >and to load it by its address with:
>> >
>> >MITEM #Channel,Item_number,-2,SPRA(Sprite_number)
>> >
>> >where sprite_number is the number of appearance in the appendix
file
>> >(this appendix has to be linked to the QLiberated program).
>> >
>> >QDOS/SMS forever !
>> >
>> >Thierry ([EMAIL PROTECTED]).
>> >
>
>
Re: [ql-users] Why me
I recently got my Minis-QL Aurora out of storage after the cursed building venture back of this house, and its hard drive wouldn't work. I left it until I had more time to experiment and tried again. It worked first time. Again, left it at that. Next time I tried, it wouldn't work again. Then it would. I suddenly realised that every time it worked, the room was warm. The Minisql had been in the attic (where it was fairly cold and damp). Then it was in the dining room, but we only realised why it was so cold in there when we discovered the builders hadnt sealed the window; put your hand by the frame and a strong cold draught. SO in a fit of temper my wife sealed it herself rather than wait for me or builder to do the job. All of a sudden, as long as it's comfortiable temperature for a human the MinisQL hard drive works consistently, though I'm still reluctant to commit anything important to it. My hard drive failures (as opposed to straight forward crashes) always seem to have happened when the equipment is cold, I don't know if it's down to any lubrications inside not working well when cold (like me) or condensation or something like that. Boy am I glad I didn't reformat that MinisQL drive! I would hazard a guess that as drive capacities get higher and denser that the mechanisms get more and more delicate and it takes less to tip them over the edge. I know from my audio technician past and working briefly at Peacock Electronics that motors in cd players for example tend to have their lubrication innards fail when they've been standing or very cold for some time. A fellow engineer used to put 2-3 times the normal voltage across the motor (in the case of little walkmen cd players a PP3 battery) for a few seconds on the grounds that OK it was already bust as far as the owner was concerned so if he burned it out, no extra problem, the m0tor had to be replaced anyway, but 9 times out of 10 it started up the motor (worryingly fast!) and released the insides and miraculously got it to work. Needless to say, we never told the owner what we'd done! Oh, and to show the mentality of that engineer, he used to test the PP3 9V battery first by putting his tongue across both contacts... Hard drive failures are not uncommon Bill, and not always total failures. -- Dilwyn Jones [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.soft.net.uk/dj/index.html -Original Message- From: Bill Waugh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: 23 December 2001 15:47 Subject: [ql-users] Why me >Anyone got any theories on multiple hard drive failures, two have gone >west in the last two weeks. >The first was of little importance as it was merely used as a transfer >device between my wife's and my own hard drives on our PC ( we have our >own drives (C drive) in caddies). >The failure of the PC to recognise drive D was just an annoyance, but I >decided to do something about it and tried to format it on the PC - no >joy, I then attempted to format it on my Q40 - still no joy the drive is >I think dead. >As a short term measure I decided to replace it with the Win2_ drive in >my Q40, I use Win2 on the Q40 for backups mainly, I have some but not >all of the Q40 Win1_ backed up on floppies, so today the Q40 fired up >and wont recognise Win1_ - oh joy of joys. >No amount of win_drive dohickeying worked so in the end I was resigned >to format Win1 and put Christmas holidays on hold while I load in all >the stuff from the floppies. >I now have little faith in this drive ( 2.1 meg Cavier ). >Just wondered if anyone had any ideas why this could of happened. >The Q40 shares a printer and a monitor with the PC, no switching is >required as the printer has usb for PC and par for Q40, the monitor a >Sony has dual input, two night ago the PC ( Windows 98 ) took it upon >itself to switch resolution from 800x600 to something lower, however I >have used the Q40 since then without problem. I did notice though that >an archive file with a COUNT() of 92 now has a COUNT() of 0.00289... or >something. >oh I'm running smsqe 2.98 >All the best - Bill >
