Sam Paper 14

Welcome after a long break. It resulted from two reasons - one was independent and the other was annoying. The first one was that my computer, and specifically the power supply, was damaged. At the service center I found out that the power supply cannot be repaired because the transformer is damaged and the only thing I can do is buy (at this service center! ) a new power supply for only (! ) PLN 550 . Faced with such an alternative, I had to rise to the occasion and think about what to do with the power supply. Check the meter, hold the soldering iron down and after an hour it turned out that one tunnel diode had burned out (!) .

The next couple of days were spent looking for an equivalent of this diode in Szczecin. I ended up putting 2 diodes in series - if this junk works, we'll see how long... The second reason is more serious and it affects all of us.

There are VIRUSES on SAM! It took some time before I realized that the reason for deleting my drives (eight of them, to be precise) was a virus.

The author of the first SAM virus is (whatever his name is) Ralph Timms. The virus does not work with SAMDOS (but who else uses this system) and is relatively dangerous. Every now and then - about 64 loads of the directory irreversibly destroy the disk. In the meantime, they attached themselves to every bootblock.  According to my experience and Murphy's law, erasing usually takes place when we have the most important disks in the drive.  In my case, 2 system disks were erased, 1 disk with games and 5 (!) disks with my programs. there are 2 disks 2. You have a mini antivirus program on the disk (for an ambitious name...), which recognizes whether a given disk is infected and, if so, allows you to kill the virus.

I warn in advance those who will send begging letters to cover the infected disk that it will not work - we cannot allow a situation like on Amiga to arise on our own, therefore we should not let anyone did not knowingly transmit the virus (either for research or any other purposes).

A new version of the PCX converter is being created, marked with the number 1.12. The disks will be sent only from May 7, but if you, dear reader, spend money now, you will be ready to pay the promotional price (details in advertising section).  In addition, there is a limited demo version of the PCX converter on this disk. You can see only the front panel and only with 4 menu groups (normally there are more options). Operation is simple, e.g. QAOP Space, E key to switch Menu.

Active 3 buttons - Menu, About and Exit. You won't have to work much with this demo, but at least you can see the new SAM program. 9 You will also find in this issue 2 source codes of resident programs - one is a 'warm start' of the system (Reset by pressing the Caps+Cntrl+Edit keys simultaneously) and the second programmer (only available in MBasic) is for y to simulate SAMBus, specifically the system time (I showed how to change the system date in one of the last issues).  I think that after looking at the source code, everyone will know what's going on.

Aha, I'm sorry that there won't be cheating in this episode, but the text was on one of the damaged disks and I didn't have the strength to write it again. In the next magazine there will definitely be another part about looking for rooms.
M.A.R.S.

Good morning to all readers. Actually, at this point I could blame Rafa for the magazine not being published for so long, but that's simply not the case.  Unfortunately, most of the blame rests on my shoulders. If I remember correctly, the last SAM Paper was published in January. It so happened that in February I started my studies and, fortunately, I became the owner of a CB radio, which meant that I spent most of my free time talking, and that was not the activities I conduct.

If by chance any of you have such a radio and would like to contact me, you can look for me on channel 17 of the basic forty (frequency 27.160 MHz).

My range is about 90 km when there is no traffic on the radio (i.e. practically from 3:00 a.m.) or the whole of Warsaw during the busiest hours (evenings). Of course, this applies to those of you who have stationary antennas.  In the case of "window sills", the range is drastically reduced, but to the point. At the beginning of April, I had the opportunity to go to Prague for the 1st International Meeting of SAM Coupe Computer Users. it's a really great event and you can read about it in the "News" section under the slogan SAMCON. There I also purchased several programs, which you can read about in the "What do we have?" section.

It was during SAMCON that I managed to meet the editors of the Czech magazine KAPSA.  These are really great guests and this is where I would like to thank them very much for the wonderful reception and all the attractions in which I was able to participate. I would also like to thank Milan Czarnowski, who made me present at SAMCON. 'Let's keep eating.'

In this issue you can also see (and listen) what the new music program PROTRACKER written by Jarosław Burczyński looks (and sounds) like.  This program was announced in our magazine quite a long time ago and I have good news for you: THIS PROGRAM IS ALREADY WORKING! It's a really great tool.  With a good star system, the test should appear in the next issue.

What else is interesting?  You can also find the game SittingDuck, which comes from KAPSA magazine.  I would like to thank the editors of this magazine once again, this time for making their materials available to me. To avoid jinxing you, please do not write when the next SAMPaper will be published, but for now I do not intend to change the name of the monthly to a quarterly.