ADAMCON 01 
Sunday, October 8, 1989 
 
After a fine breakfast, Monte introduced Faye Deere.  Faye informed us that the Computer Shopper had been sold and the offices moved to New York.  The bad part is that they are dropping the ADAM columns!!  The columns that Faye has already submitted will be run (expected to last thru January).  A number of people stated that that would be the last issue they would accept before they cancelled their subscriptions.  
 
The morning general session was on ADAM basics and upgrades.  Phil Kosowski displayed the different parts of the ADAM and explained their functions.  Phil also told us of the names Coleco used: Delta is the stand-alone ADAM, Gamma is the Colecovision add-on.  He also said that the center slot inside the unit was originally intended for a language board so that ADAM could be used in other countries. 
Tony Morhen then talked about hardware upgrades.  Coleco had planned to release 2 external Digital Data Drives, (Wow!  2 more ways to go slow!), an 80 column display, and a 10 meg hard drive.  Of course 3rd party developers beat them to the punch with parallel and serial interfaces for dot matrix printers, modems, etc. Then came to memory expanders.  64k was considered a big item in the early days.  Then 256k, 512k and the current 1 meg memory expanders.  Disk drives from Coleco were only single sided 160k drives.  Our 3rd party developers came up with 320k, 360k conversions, then 720k 3-1/2" drives! The latest is 1.44 meg 3-1/2" drives and a way to drive two disks from the same controller board.  We also have Hard drive interfaces. 
Tony talked about how to decide what hardware add-ons would be best for you.  
If you use ADAM for:  Best add-on would be: 
Data Base work Hard drive or 
                                   memory expander 
Printing (Text or graphics) Dot matrix printer 
Word Processing 80 column display 
Telecommunications 80 column display 
 
Tony felt that ADAM compatibility to MS-DOS was not the way to go. 
 
Workshops 
At this time we broke out into smaller groups to attend the three workshops.  Each group would spend about 1/2 hour in each. 
 
A. CP/M Basics - John Vilillo + Ron Collins 
John presented some basic information about CP/M. Digital Research wrote CP/M in 1975.  It is the forerunner to MS-DOS. Some terms: TPA = Transient Program Area, CP/M = Control Program / Moniter.  He talked about the limited TPA in CP/M and how TDOS (a new version, I think) will overcome some of these restrictions.  John had a couple of sheets of paper and said the this was all the important information from the manual, which was very wordy.  
John and Ron reviewed many of the Control and transient commands. 
 
B. Developing New Hardware - Mark Gordon 
Mark went thru some of the steps required when developing new hardware and for that matter, software.  Questions that should be asked up front include; Is there a real need?, How many can be sold?, Can you recover the development cost?.  A crucial thing to remember is that we are in a home market, not a business market.  People have less money to spend on hardware additions.  Mark used the Powermate 2 he developed as an example.  
After deciding to go ahead with a project, more questions present themselves.  What parts are available on the market that could be used?  Is it better to use a shelf part or custom design one?  A simple example is the enclosure for the Powermate.  Custom designing one would have added cost in the form of design, minimum runs, lead time.  An off the shelf enclosure, while it may not be exactly what you need, could be purchased as needed, keeping development costs lower. 
A hardware project is useless unless software is available.  If you are not able to write the software yourself, it's another cost to have it done. 
Mark wrapped it up with a short demo of the Powermate.  A more complete demo would be available in the afternoon. 
 
C. Telecommunications - Alan Neeley + Terry Cairns 
Alan and Terry talked about using a modem to log-onto a Bulletin Board System (BBS).  Alan owns the copyright to the A-Net BBS software used by 8 ADAM BBS's.  Terry stated that many BBS's are going as high as 2400 baud and that 300 baud may become outdated.  Coleco put out modem software which has since been greatly improved. 
ADAMlinkI Ability to log-on to BBS 
ADAMlinkII Adds the ability to download ASCII files. 
ADAMlinkIII Adds X-Modem which works with CP/M. 
ADAMlinkIII+ Adds more options

 
 
The afternoon general session was a discussion of ADAMCalc by Ed Snow.  Ed is a new ADAMite and has worked with spreadsheet programs on many computers.  He rated ADAMCalc very high compared with other packages.  One thing that is common to most spreadsheet programs is poor documentation.  
Ed reviewed the steps to prepare a spreadsheet: 
     1. Define the purpose.  
     2. Define procedures.
     3. Layout the spreadsheet.
     4. Code spreadsheet.
     5. Test procedures with small numbers.
     6. Use the spreadsheet. 
The ability to name cells in ADAMCalc and use those names in formulas is a big plus.  Another tip is that the controller joystick will move the cursor faster than the arrow keys.

 
 
The afternoon was wrapped up with a number of product demonstrations. 
Syd Carter wowed the crowd with the unveiling of a sound digitizer for the ADAM.  This unit inserts into the cart slot on top of the CPU.  It will capture sound from any source and store it.  You can then playback this sound without the hardware.  This will allow the use of sounds in programs.  Included with the digitizer is a clock/calender.  The built in 10 year battery eliminates the need for resetting the clock.  After running a short program, this will add the current date when saving programs.  The date can be read with some file utilities. 
 
Jim Walters and his twin brother Bruce demo'ed their cart version of SMARTDSK.  A pull of the cart reset presents you with a full range of utilities that support all sizes of memories and disk drives.  They also showed LABELWORKS and the new game VASE OF TURR.  
 
Mark Gordon Showed off his POWERMATE2.  This is a nice stand-alone hard disk drive with interface.  The interface fits in the center slot and includes 2 serial ports and 1 parallel port.  The hard drive cabinet has it's own power supply and can house two drives, either hard or floppy.  The POWERMATE4 can house 4 drives.  The drives can be 10, 20 or 30 meg hard drives, or 360k 5 1/4", 720k 5 1/4", or 720k 3 1/2" floppy drive. 
 
Other demo's included The BBS that Alan Neeley set up.  The news about the sound digitizer was out on the A-Net BBS within minutes of it's introduction.  This shows the speed that we can get information out.  Terry Cairns was showing some of the games he is adding to his BBS.  These games are to be played on-line.  Also during this time, Ed Snow was giving more info on ADMCalc. 
 
Monte Neese wrapped up the day with a few announcments.  The ADAMCON 01 T-shirts were selling like hot cakes.  Of the original 50 shirts, only 3 were unsold at 4:30.  The E+T special on MegaRAM Expander Card ($115.00) would remain on special price thru the end of the year.  M.W. Ruth will honor orders on the special AC01 form at 30% off until October 31st. 
 
After most of us went our seperate ways, the hardware developers all sat down together.  In light of the ADAM wars of late, it was very encouraging to see them talking.  They met for quite some time and all walked away under their own power, so hopefully the wars are over.

          Dean Roades
          463 ADAM 
Alan Neeley set up.  The news about the sound digitizer was out on the A-Net BBS wit
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