~04/1995
There were a few errors in last months Acorn Customer Hotline column which I would like to correct. Firstly there is no extra's disc available from Acorn Direct. The RISC OS extra's disc can however be obtained from your local Acorn Authorised Dealer. The version number of some of the modules are incorrect for the latest versions. The correct version numbers are as follows: NetFS 5.53 NetPrint 5.30 Econet 5.48 Last months article also documents the version number of !65Host as being 1.40, the correct version number for the application is 1.60 and the modules version number is 1.19. To find out what version number of the module you have is, is to run the !65Host application, exit the emulator back to the desktop by typing *QUIT followed by RETURN, then pressing function key f12 to get the star prompt(*) to appear and then typing *HELP MODULES followed by RETURN. To RETURN to the desktop press return at a the next star prompt. If you need to contact Acorn please do not phone us if at all possible. We would prefer people to write: The full address to contact Acorn at is: Acorn Computers Limited Fulbourn Road Cherry Hinton Cambridge CB1 4JN We have a number of enquiries regarding the use of the BBC A3000 and Archimedes range with Open University Courses. Acorn have spent sometime with the Open University and the PC Emulator on is now approved for use on various courses. The Open University in Milton Keynes should be contacted by any users wishing to use the PC Emulator for any particular course. On the various Bulletin boards that are mentioned in the BBC Acorn User's Communications article there are now a number of 1st Word Plus printer drivers which users have modified for their own printer types if different from the printer drivers supplied with 1st Word Plus (The printer drivers for 1st Word Plus can be found on the 1st Word Plus utilities disc in the directory '1wp_print.config'). You will of course need a modem and a serial upgrade for the BBC A3000 plus suitable driving software if you wish to contact these bulletin boards. Acorn has been dedicated to the area of computers in Special Needs for many years. With the launch of the Acorn Special Access system (announced in BBC Acorn User) Acorn has included a disc with a number of utilities, some of which are public domain and some that have been written by Acorn. The utilities include such things as screen modes providing larger screen sizes, !Flasher which makes the caret (The red cursor which is used when entering text) flash so that it can be seen more easily, !BigPointr which provides a larger pointer. There are also a number of other utilities which meet the needs of a wide range of special needs users. Companies such as Norwich Computer Services who run a bulletin boards often issue the public domain software on either their Careware or Shareware discs through a mail order service. I would be extremely interested to hear from any users that have ideas of what topics can be put into the Acorn Customer Hotline column. Please note that the ideas can only cover Acorn software or hardware products on any of Acorn computers. I am not permitted to cover third party hardware or software products. Users who have ideas can contact me by writing to Customer Services at the above address. In between the BBC Model B and the BBC Master 128 Acorn produced the BBC Model B+. We have a large number of enquiries from users who believe they have a BBC Model B when they actually have a BBC Model B+. The BBC B+ can be recognised a different from the BBC Model B on switch on. The BBC B+ will report the following message: Acorn OS 64K (or 128K), also by typing *FX0 followed by RETURN, if you have a BBC B+ the operating system version number displayed will be 2.00. If you have a BBC B+ with 64K only fitted it is possible to add 64K of Sideways RAM to the system using the Acorn upgrade product ANB27 which costs £40.82 inc. VAT (@17.5%) and the upgrade price includes fitting by your local Authorised Acorn Dealer.