April 1981 — Vol 3 No 4

Overview

Bernard Urban reelected to the IAC Board. Boris Levine (the early-1980 NEWSIG helper) named Volunteer Coordinator — a new role on the masthead. Major new advertiser: H&H Scientific (Pilloff's company at his home address) running multi-page Stock Market software ads. Charles N. Dow's "The Not Too Slow Apple /// Is Great!" — a member's enthusiastic Apple III review counterbalances Mark Cheren's March piece. Tony Violante reports from Apple Expo. Jay Thal launches a "Consumer Reports"-style Product Survey column. Thomas S. Warrick on right-justification + logical-expression tricks; Charles L. Philipp (apparently a relative of Charles C.) on Curriculum and Instruction Today. Pi previewing Applefest '81 (June 6–7 at the Plaza Castle in Boston, hosted by the Boston Computer Society's Apple group).

Table of contents

Articles

Editorial (page 5) — Bernard Urban

Thanks members for IAC Board reelection support. Discusses Pi's surveys: Jay Thal's "Consumer Reports" survey and Jim Eatherly's SIGAMES survey help identify article topics and meeting talks. No survey participant is in it for personal gain. Pleads for higher response rates — "I'm just as guilty as some of you."

Featured technical articles

• "A Product Survey" (page early) — Jay Thal: Pi's new "Consumer Reports"–style member-survey of products
• "The Not Too Slow Apple /// Is Great!" — Charles N. Dow: cover-highlight. A counterpoint to Mark Cheren's "Here, So Slowly, Comes the ///" from March — Dow's positive member review of the Apple III
• "A Terminal Emulation Program" — Michael C. Koss: software-only terminal for the Apple
• "Apple/Modem Switch for a Printer" — Sheel Raj: hardware approach to switching Apple I/O between modem and printer
• "Pascal File Dump Program" — Robert H. Beckley: cover-highlight. Pascal utility — likely a binary file dumper similar to Crosby's BASIC tools
• "Apple Expo" report — Tony Violante: special report on the Apple Expo (separate from Applefest)
• "Right-Justification and the Use of Logical Expressions in Calculations" — Thomas S. Warrick: cover-highlight. Math/programming tip using Applesoft logical-expression evaluation (which returns 1/0)
• "Another EAMON Bug?" — Davy Davis: bug report on the EAMON adventure system
• "Curriculum and Instruction Today: Prologue for Microcomputers" — Charles L. Philipp: cover-highlight. Education-policy think-piece (apparently a different Philipp from EDSIG chair Charles C., or possibly same with middle-initial typo)
• "DOS 3.3/3.2 Boot Switch" — Richard Landsman and Richard Horton (reprint): hardware mod to switch boot DOS versions

Masthead change: Volunteer Coordinator

Boris Levine (previously a NEWSIG helper and the secretary's typing-error subject) named Volunteer Coordinator — phone (301) 779-5730. The role was created at the February 11 Board meeting.

Club news / events / announcements

• Urban reelected to IAC Board
• Volunteer Coordinator role activated
• April Pi meeting: April 25
• May Pi meeting: May 30 (5th Saturday, Memorial Day weekend)
• NOVAPPLE April 11: Mike Cornblith of Apple Computer Inc. Q&A at Burke Lake Library — all WAP+NOVAPPLE invited
• Applefest '81: June 6–7, Plaza Castle, Boston, $3/day admission, sponsored by Boston Computer Society

Notable advertisements

• Applefest '81 ad (page 3) — Boston Computer Society
• Apple Orchard individual subscriptions: $10/yr (4 issues), $5 first-class addl, $10 overseas; PO Box 1493 Beaverton OR 97075
• H&H Scientific — Hersch Pilloff's company at 13507 Pendleton Street, Oxon Hill MD 20022, (301) 292-3100 — multi-program Stock Market Utilities:
• STK.1 (manual entry, 39 sectors) — alphabetized name storage, error trapping, file display
• DATA CORRECTOR (31 sectors) — general corrections + stock-split adjustments
• EVAL (22 sectors) — comparative performance vs NYSE index, HI-RES auto-scaled momentum/price displays
• MIROO (12 sectors) — convert downloaded CompuServe Micro-Quote data to STK files
• Electronic Stock Package with Dow Jones password + download utilities — $80
• Stock Market Utility Programs — $59.95
• "COMING SOON!! Black-Scholes Stock Option Evaluation Programs"
• Computerland Tysons Corner (page 2)

Key quotes

• "About our surveys. To my knowledge, no WAP member who is involved in soliciting information from our members through surveys is also involved in activities for his/her personal gain." — Bernard Urban (page 5)
• The Apple /// "Not too slow" — Charles N. Dow (article title rebuttal of Mark Cheren's March piece)

Entities

People: Bernard Urban, Genevie Urban, Rich Wasserstrom, Robert Peck, Dana Schwartz, Mark L. Crosby, Sandy Greenfarb, Hersch Pilloff, John Moon, David Morganstein, Bill Bowie, Howard Lefkowitz, Tom Jones, Boris Levine, Jim Rose, Charles C. Philipp, Paul Hoffman, Tom Woteki, Al Gass, Curt Robbins, Jay Thal, Jim Eatherly, Charles N. Dow, Michael C. Koss, Sheel Raj, Robert H. Beckley, Tony Violante, Thomas S. Warrick, Davy Davis, Charles L. Philipp, Richard Landsman, Richard Horton, Mike Cornblith Topics: Apple III Member Reviews, Pi Product Survey, Volunteer Coordinator Role, Boot Switch Hardware, Logical Expression Tricks, H&H Scientific Stock Software References: H&H Scientific, Applefest 81, Apple Orchard Subscriptions, Apple Expo, Plaza Castle Boston, Boston Computer Society, Dow Jones Stock Quote Reporter, CompuServe Micro-Quote

Connections to other issues

• Counterpoint to 1981-03 — V03 N03's Mark Cheren Apple III piece
• H&H Scientific ads operationalize Pilloff's January 1980 stock-data work (1980-01 — V02 N01)
• Volunteer Coordinator role from Feb '81 Board minutes (1981-02 — V03 N02)

Open questions

• Charles L. vs Charles C. Philipp — same person or two different Philipps?
• Was Dow's positive Apple III review widely echoed, or did delivery problems persist?
• Did Black-Scholes from H&H Scientific ship?