1 Reply by B Douglas Slack

(2 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

You might also investigate the firm that produces editing software that is second to none in my estimation. I've been using ProWritingAid for over a decade and love it. The site is simply "prowritingaid.com" (without the quotes). They have a product that integrates with Word as an add-in. It contains a number of "tests" or reports you can run against your work on-the-fly if you so desire. It can also be used by choosing a report singly. Be aware it is payware, but definitely helps. They provide an on-site editor as well that is free to try out. There are size limitations involved if you use it, but it is fully functional. Their customer support is wonderful if you should need help. I've had a lifetime account there since 2014. This is, by far, the best option to guard against inflation. I am glad I did as the cost has doubled since I bought mine, but I retained my full privileges.

Bill

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2 Reply by B Douglas Slack

(4 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Interesting. In just under a month 80 people visited this thread but left not one comment.

Bill

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3 Reply by B Douglas Slack

(149 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

While you're at it, Sol,, perhaps you could also fix the "logout when deleting a spammer's account" bug. I had to log in SEVEN times this morning to get rid of seven spammers. If you want me to continue getting rid of these spammers, FIX THE BUG!

Bill

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4 Topic by B Douglas Slack

(4 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Second attempt. Was logged out before publishing this post and lost everything.

I would like some feedback on my current novel, “What Doesn’t Kill Us…” concerning the direction I should head. In the next chapter I’ll publish, I have Eileen and her hardy crew setting up for a trip to Proxima Centauri, and the home planet of the Zhikarese (Muk’ar).

On board with her and her immediate crew are such diverse groups as her friend the x-president, a diplomatic delegation from the UN, the families of the survivors from Eileen’s dad’s expedition, (and their children), various scientists of differing fields of endeavor, and the rest of the spaceship’s crew that deals with the mundane everyday activities.

Should I treat this trip as a festive cruise similar to a sailing cruise to the Caribbean, or make it much more somber and dedicated to finding more about where they’re headed? Or, a combination of the two?

I’ve introduced a method for larger spaces to have their gravity varied and this give me more fodder for games such as 3D dodge ball, 3D billiard and pool, gymnastics that are impossible on Earth, and so on. Give me some more.

There will be a stop at a way station (which doubles as a “border crossing” into Zhikarese territory) where everyone who wishes can leave the ship for a brief time (hours/days/??) and get to see/meet other galactic beings from other star systems. Need some ideas here. I already have one from a friend who loves dragons, so I’m including a whole family of them.

So think about this and see if you can come up with ideas I haven't thought of.

Bill

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5 Reply by B Douglas Slack

(149 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

RANT AHEAD:

I am really, really pissed off! I spent over fifteen minutes creating a post concerning my latest novel and when I went to post it, I found I was logged out! This random logging out issues needs to be found and FIXED! And, then I find out that when I was told "you don't have permission to post here" because of the logout, I CANNOT get back to the page I was working on. This stinks!
END RANT

Bill

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6 Reply by B Douglas Slack

(149 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Sol: The logout problem is still with us. Every time I delete or suspend an account, I get logged out. Please take a look at this.

Bill

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7 Reply by B Douglas Slack

(149 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

I've had it happen both ways - delete or suspend.

Bill

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8 Reply by B Douglas Slack

(149 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Kdot wrote:

I haven't been logged out in a few days. Did you guys stop kicking spammers for the holidays?

I check every morning, and once or twice during the day. If they're a spammer, they're gone. What happens is that for every spammer I erase, I get logged out. If there are three or more, then it gets pretty irritating to have to log back in each time.

Bill

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9 Reply by B Douglas Slack

(149 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Is anything being done concerning the logout problem?

Bill

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10 Reply by B Douglas Slack

(78 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

I agree, Vern. The two that hit me used exactly the same text on a couple of my oldest stories.

Bill

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11 Reply by B Douglas Slack

(78 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Dirk and I (and others) are moderators. We have a special access that lets cancel memberships.

Bill

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12 Reply by B Douglas Slack

(78 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Between Dirk and I we got them.

Bill

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13 Reply by B Douglas Slack

(149 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

SOL: could you please look into why we keep getting logged out every time we close an account? This has been an ongoing thing for quite a while and, frankly, become quite annoying! There were 5 accounts in a row I deleted today and after every one of them I had to log in again.

Bill

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14 Reply by B Douglas Slack

(149 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Repeat of my last post.

Bill

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15 Topic by B Douglas Slack

(0 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Does anyone like the new look at Booksie? I certainly don't. The layout is horrible. My major complaint is that the Site Forum seems to have gone away completely. Nowhere to be found.

I get it that the new format might be better for phones, BUT I am still using my trusty desktop and see nothing but wasted space on either side of narrow content. Perhaps some kind of software switch could be devised to allow desktop users to go back to the original layout.

Bill

EDIT: Managed to find the site Forum. You have to scroll WAY down, then click a link (as before) to get to the forum. That's far too much scrolling considering we didn't have to scroll before. At least now, I can complain there instead of here.

I also liked the "New Members" box being visible and NOT spread all the way across my home page using huge bubbles.

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16 Reply by B Douglas Slack

(81 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Keep on hamming is correct. I'm 83, and I agree that doing all that keeps me on my toes, and my brain firing on all cylinders. Publishing my two novels was great, and I fully intend to get the one I'm posting now out there--hopefully before Christmas. My latest programming direction is toward Android applications. I have a few of them on my phone that help me along without having to put up with hundreds of ads.

Bill

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17 Reply by B Douglas Slack

(81 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

I wave a WAC (Worked All Continents) award, so take your pick. My most favorite person to chat with was a ham in Vladivostok. He was a master at the key. I was hard-pressed to keep up with him. But he was also a great conversationalist. There were times we talked for over an hour on most every subject we could think of. The most interesting callsign I ever encountered was from Thailand. It was HS5IS. This call consists of nothing but dits, no dahs - a real challenge, even with a speed key.

As for voice, there was a ham in Australia who had an accent I could cut with a knife, but was always filled with stories. I loved chatting with him.

When you've been a ham as long as I have (1957 to 2025) there is hardly a country I haven't at least exchanged signal strength and readability with.

Bill

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18 Reply by B Douglas Slack

(81 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Still do. My mode of preference is CW (Morse code) I occasionally use voice (SSB) but CW is best for bad conditions on the airwaves. I was first licensed in 1957 and have been active right up to date. My antennas weren't massive, but they did cover a lot of my back yard. Now, all I have is a vertical mast about twenty feet tall on my roof. All my equipment is hand-built as a Heathkit kit, using tubes. My code speed isn't what it used to be in the Navy, when I was an intercept operator, but I can still copy around 35 words per minute.

Bill

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19 Reply by B Douglas Slack

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George FLC wrote:

I give up! Bill wins the ancient programming award...

George FLC

If we go by date, I first used a computer in 1962. Built a lot of Heathkit H-8's for friends who didn't know which end of a soldering iron to hold. The H-8 was built around an Intel 8080A. I built an interface between it and my ham RTTY machine.

Bill

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20 Reply by B Douglas Slack

(81 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Ah, maybe bits 9 through 15 are naughty bits, as the British say. Could be you could use them to make others do their bit, wait a bit, or take the bit in their teeth. In reality, this thing had a massive memory of 16K (that KILO, not MEGA or GIGA) bits in a wired core memory configuration. It ran at the amazingly fast rate of 12Khz (as opposed to today's CPUs which run at 3-5Ghz). It could handle 24 input TTYs and 36 Output TTYs. I drew about 7 Kilowatts of power, something that would make your head, as well as your power meter, spin since the circuitry was all discrete components--no integrated circuits. And, with all those terminals, you could give your animals a voice in their care and feeding, except those, of course, without any fingers (or toes, for that matter).

Bill

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21 Reply by B Douglas Slack

(81 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

UYK-3 Front Panel
Me sets switches for the first 16-bit octal (hi bit = parity) word then presses the SW to E, E to M, and enters the next word in the switches. This is a Burroughs D-82, or as the Navy called it, a AN/UYK3. For two years I was the only person in the world that was allowed to program it (in fact, the only one who KNEW how to program it).

The is a shot of the front panel of the emulator I programmed just for the heck of it a couple of years ago. It is fully functional.

And now I know I'm way off topic, so I'll show myself out.

Bill

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22 Reply by B Douglas Slack

(81 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

E Unibus Plurem

Bill

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23 Reply by B Douglas Slack

(81 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Dirk B wrote:

......

Little did we know the Commodore 64 would lead to this... :-)
......

I go back to punched cards and mag tape drives.

Bill

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24 Reply by B Douglas Slack

(81 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Randall Krzak wrote:

If members of TNBW are going to start relying on AI to do reviews, I think I'll bow out.

Same here, Randy. As was stated earlier, if I wanted an AI review, I'd do it myself. My sole aim when posting a chapter/short story is to garner suggestions and point out errors in grammar and such. Granted, AI can do that, but the human touch also helps because it IS human, and can be queried as to a given suggestion. I can't do that to AI.

Bill

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25 Reply by B Douglas Slack

(29 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Deep condolences, Alan. Welcome back. Take your time to ease back into the site.

Bill

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