Computer Corner II #10

The Computer Corner Take II (#10) by Bill Kibler

To see more Computer Corner articles look here: CCII page or check out the Home Page .

My last two months scanning issues of TCJ

This project has been years in the making!

It is nice to be back writing and not scanning pages. The last two months, I have been doing something I promised many people as well as my self to get done for a very long time. It all started due to a lack of contract jobs and getting an email looking for a copy of a certain article from an old TCJ. Being the last publisher of TCJ still active on the net, it is not unusal for me to get requests. I found the issue and scanned the article, only to reconsider what I had done some days later. It turned out I don't think I should have done it that way. Let me explain.

Copyrights are a tricky business even for those who work and study the problem. I had clear rights to everything while publisher, but I never had long term rights to the articles. You see Art orginally obtained only the first publishing right for articles, the author retains all right after that. As I understand what that means, as Publisher I can print and distribute the magazine in its entirety but can not reprint separate articles as those rights remain with the author. So I believe I can legally scan an entire issue and distribute the complete PDF of the magazine as a whole ( articles and ads, and anything elese within the two covers). Publishing an article separated from the whole, however I can not do.

Once I cleared up what I felt leagaly I could do, I decided I had the time and it was now or never to do the scanning. I did all the scanning using xsane under linux, which went very fast even with over 4000 pages to do. I had problems with alignment of the scan since the magazines are trimmed after binding and that trimming is not always square with the page. Some pages came out great, others didn't do so well, as they were copies of copies. It seems I have a compelete set, two to be exact, but neither set includes an orginal issue #12, just copies of it. So I did my best for now, figuring if something is a miss, I will hear about it and at that point try and fix it.

What I saw while Scanning

Scanning was actually enjoyable, as I got to read bits and pieces of past articles. Let me say that there are lots of really great articles still of importance in the old issues. We had great writters and covered some very difficult topics extremely well. Although much of the hardware has changed drastically since then, the knowledge is still important to have about how it all works together. I think of recent projects using the more complex SiLabs parts that are actually nothing more than the 8051 with all the support chips embedded in the part. You still need to do all the things we talked about in articles explaining how to program the 8051 in the real world.

It is important to note that the section "Reader-to-Reader" contains mini articles or just very long letters. these mini articles contains lots of great facts and help tips. The problem is finding them - there is no cross reference of these small discussions. The Table of Contents PDF is just the front cover of early issues, and later when a true listing of what was in the magazine was done, that page is included. The TOC will help find some of the articles, but otherwise your need to just read each issue to see what is really there. I suspect after a few cover to cover reads, you see what I mean and enjoy doing it that way.

Other files

I have several disks of files and BBS collections that were part of TCJ production. Some of this is copyrighted still and can't be uploaded. However there is some which is already public and probably on a system somewhere else that I was planing on placing in a TCJ Files location. I consider the more important act was getting TCJ into PDF form, and without inpput from viewers will put loading files on a back burner. Hopefully I will get some contracting jobs soon to help pay for all this fun, but for now I do have some time free. For those wanting to read about embedded linux, those projects are higher in the queque than anything else..

I can see that the back issues are already being downloaded long before I finished scanning them all in. I plan on watching this for a while and see if I get more requests for some other files or support items. By that I mean, I have some 8 inch and 5 inch disks with lots of legal software I want to get rid of. You see several years ago I was planning on moving and thus started clearing out my stash of old stuff. I still have a few items yet to get rid of, and will be trying to sell them ( or give them away) soon. The object is to get down to a few items that can fit in file boxes and thus if we do move as was planned some time ago ( before the economy took a dump) I need far less stuff than I currently have. So check out my for sale items and maybe you can score a few good old items from TCJ's past.

Summing up

I spent the last few weeks scanning old issues and that was fun. I enjoyed seeing what was in thoes old issues. I tried to get some old files off of 8 and 5 inch disk for loading on the web, only to decide it was already there and getting it off was way too difficult to spend time on. Lastly, I reconsidered if anyone even wants what I got, so decided to sell it all and let some one else decide the files fate. So if you looking for something you think I might have - email me and I will consider looking for it. I have some orginal cpm68K/SD/xerox boot disks and more. Anyone need the San Francisco South Bay Kaypro Users Group collections of disks? How about needing some old europe BBS files for say a ????

Well that is about all I can say about scanning in TCJ and looking through my old files. There is some pretty great stuff in those old back issues and check out my for sale section as I continue to find old items I no longer need or want. Enjoy.