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SHAREWARE
To All Atari User Groups: As we are all aware, there currently exists a wealth of superb programs for our favorite machines available under the concept of shareware. Many of these programs are truly of commercial quality and offer outstanding value for the minimal contribution requested by their authors.
Equally obvious, however, is the fact that not every user of such software will make that small donation. Therefore, in an effort to provide encouragement to shareware programmers to continue supporting the Atari user community, ACE of New South Wales, in Sydney, Australia, has initiated a "Shareware Author of the Month" program.
Under this scheme, we select one shareware programmer each month to whom we will make a small donation. This is not intended to register each of our members as official users of the software but rather serve as a simple "thank you" for a job well done. We will continue to encourage our members to individually register with the authors of shareware programs they frequently use.
We are challenging all other computer user groups to follow our example. The proposed monthly donation may be as much as your organization deems appropriate or can afford, but we suggest the minimal amount be whatever the shareware author requests from each user. It is equally important to send a letter of congratulations to each "winner" thanking them for their efforts and encouraging them to continue. It is our hope that this scheme meets with success to ensure that shareware remains a viable concept.
If each user group adopts this program, together we can make a sizable donation which hopefully will ensure we continue to enjoy the benefits of quality software at a reasonable price through shareware. Please consider this concept and discuss it at your next meeting. Support the Atari Revolution by supporting your favorite shareware author.
John L. Hutchinson
ACE of New South Wales
Sydney, Australia
VKILLER TO THE RESCUE
I'm writing to let you know how much I appreciated the VKILLER program on the May 1990 disk. Little did I know that over 15 percent of my software had a virus on the disk! Of all the infected disks, all but one had the Kubold virus. The exception was a demo disk from Sonic Access, which had the Key virus on it. I've traced the source to a "friend" who loaned me some disks with games on them.
My thanks to George Woodside for writing an easy-to-use and informative program to detect and kill viruses. Are you sure I don't have to worry about my hard disk? The article mentioned that a virus on a hard disk for the ST has yet to be detected.
Thomas Prossima
Redwood City, CA
The Kubold and Key viruses spread profusely but have no harmful effects. They are also restricted to floppy disks and do not spread to hard disks. VKILLER author George Woodside is aware of a Link virus that affects hard disks in Europe, but as of press time, it has not been reported in the United States. --START Ed.
PC-DITTO II SAGA... CONCLUDED??
I have been following the pc-ditto II saga closely as I was one who ordered the board when the first announcement came to the owners of the software version.
I am happy to report I have mine up and running (WordPerfect 5.0, Plan Perfect and Data Perfect) in a 1040STF, with the board outside the radio-frequency shield. I had to write two letters to Avant-Garde before it worked, but their responses were prompt and comprehensive. I was fortunate enough not to need the new chips on the board. I followed their recommendation to solder the connector clip to the 68000 chip. I question the capability of any clip to stay attached with just a friction fit. But apparently, the sponge-rubber insulating material supplied was not thick enough to prevent contact with the shield when the cover was installed.
Personally, I think Atari has to share the blame with Avant-Garde. Atari has built a plethora of machines with differing internal designs and have not been very helpful with information for anyone outside the company. I may have bought my last Atari computer.
Ken Springer
Bettles, AK
For further details on pc-ditto II, see the review in the July 1990 issue of START.-- START ed.