Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!ncar!hao!hull
From: hull@hao.ucar.edu (Howard Hull)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Clock problem
Keywords: Michigan Software, Insider Ram board, clock, hell breaking loose.
Message-ID: <1281@ncar.ucar.edu>
Date: 21 Jan 89 18:08:26 GMT
References: <463@csd4.milw.wisc.edu>
Sender: news@ncar.ucar.edu
Reply-To: hull@hao.UCAR.EDU (Howard Hull)
Distribution: na
Organization: High Altitude Observatory/NCAR, Boulder CO
Lines: 97

In Article 30751 of comp.sys.amiga duc@csd4.milw.wisc.edu (Duc Minh Tran) says:

>[ What are these line eaters I keep reading about? ]
While frequently encountered a few years ago, they are now nearly extinct.
The problem was caused by a bug in readnews or inews or some such utility.
The bug was manifested whenever the first character of the first line was
a tab or a blank.  The manifestation was in the form of the removal of about
the first 512 or 1024 characters of a submitted forward response.  The fix
was to whip 7178 sites into updating their news software, and in the meantime,
inserting

[some (usually) inane remark]

on the first line of any article that had been submitted from a troff or nroff
processor (which pretty-prints the text in indented all-the-same-length lines).

Now let's get down to business.

>Anyone out there with a Michigan Software Insider?
Yep.
>						     The clock on mine
>cannot seem to store the correct date; it always runs one day or 24hrs
>late.
Enter wise guy mode: If it can store any date from this century, it can
store the right date from this century.  Read on.
>                                        Here is how I set the Insiders clock:
>1) Use the Date command to set the Amiga's current date & time.

Allowably due to circumstances which are no fault of yours, this is nonetheless
your first mistake.
	2) Use RTClock -W to write the previous info to the Insider clock. 
That's what I do, too.
>When I use RTClock -R (read the date & time) off of the Insider, the
>info would be correct.

Yes, that's what happened to me on my first reboot, January 1, 1989, too.
>                         Now if I re-boot and then type RTClock -R again
>the date and time displayed would be 24hrs late.

Me too.  And a great circus of events at my house followed that.  Picture
me trying to determine the state of my sanity when I wasn't even sure I
had started the year sanely.
>                                                   I (going for a long shot)
>even used a clock virus dectector but Amiga does not recognize the Insiders
>clock.

And, lucky for us, neither do the virus codes.
>        I would appreciate any suggestions on a cure.

Ok.  Here's a pragmatic solution:
	1.  Invoke the AmigaDOS Date command in a fashion that sets the
	     AmigaDOS clock to a time 24 hours in the future.
	2.  Issue the command RTClock -w
	3.  If you have a line in your Startup-Sequence that reads
		RTClock
	     change it to two lines that read
		RTClock >NIL:
		Date
	     or
		RTClock >NIL:
		C:Date
	     or
		RTClock >NIL:
		:c/Date
	     or whatever correctly PATHs your AmigaDOS Date command.
Now you are OK until the _next_ time you need to set your clock from your
favourite/favorite standard.  But by then "you know the drill."
	4.  Write or call Michigan Software and ask for an update to your
	     RTClock binary that doesn't have this annoying bug.  Maybe we
	     can get them to post it (or a patch) to the net, maybe, huh,
	     pretty please, maybe?  Alternatively, suffer through until
	     Bush gets re-elected, and then you can add TWO days to the
	     clock-setting procedure (takes care of government induced
	     temporal inflation).  Here's an address and telephone number:

		Michigan Software
		43345 Grand River
		Novi, MI 48050
		(313) 348-4477

> ----------------------------------------
>|        I'm a schizophrenic!            | "Internet" duc@csd4.milw.wisc.edu
So also is your Michigan Insider RTClock software.  Which reminds me:
Your insider may some day need another dose of Lithium.  That is, after
Quail is elected pres, you will again need to get out your Insider documentation
and fix your eyes upon the following - "The INSIDER Memory board also features
a Real TIME CLOCK with a 10 year built in lithium battery, the battery is
non-replaceable and should give you trouble free service for many years."
Boy, is Michigan going to be surprised - `You have an Amiga WHAT?  Er, granpa
told me about those...'
>|  The opinions expressed are not mine.  | "UUCP" ihnp4!uwmcsd1!uwmcsd4!duc
> ---------------------------------------- 
Nor mine.  Maybe they are a transcendental expression from Michigan Software,
who, with the Insider, can be congradulated for one of the most successful
Amiga 1000 products for all time...
						Howard Hull
						hull@hao.ucar.edu