European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 24, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Learn How to increase your memory Jerry Kidder my Commodore 64 was a faithful companion for several years. It was sufficient for simple word processing had great games and truthfully i miss it. Its Only problem is described by the name. It Only had 64 kilobytes of memory. This meant changing diskettes when i wanted to do spellchecking or listening to the grinding noise of the disk drive As a game needed More information. There just Wasny to room to stuff everything you needed into the computer at one time. In our search through the Jungles of the computer stores and magazines we Are bombarded with bits and bytes and just How much memory is really necessary. First a Little terminology. A bit is one eighth of a byte and a byte is one half of a word. It takes one byte of information to describe a letter or digit and a kilobyte Kab is 1,000 bytes. With a Little math you can see that the bits and bytes add up in a hurry. Normally the computers in the it class which Are the most popular entry level computer Are supplied with 640 Kab of memory. However some have Only 512 Kab of memory and others have even less. This is not a permanent limitation because most can be upgraded however it will Cost you Money and in some cases headaches. The at class of computer supports More memory up to 16 million a or Mega a bytes my of memory on the Motherboard. Make sure that the computer you Are interested in is one of those that can be upgraded in Case you catch the Bug and really become a computer Freak. The computer specifications will normally mention How much memory can be added on the Mother Board without having to buy an extra interface. Memory chips come in Many multiple computers but the common chips offered most anywhere Are 64 Kab 256 Kab and 1 my. Once you have memory under control there Are other choices to be made when shopping for that first computer and deciding what you will want to add to it. There a that magic shorthand of serial ports and parallel ports game ports and clocks. These and other creatures Are lumped under the heading of input output interfaces and they support devices otherwise known As i of a. Every computer should have at least one serial port and one parallel port. The serial port will handle several devices modems mouse devices that Way i done to have to choose Between mice or mouse digitizing tablets trackballs some printers and so on. These ports Are called com 1, com2 and so on the com stands for communication port. Your software will look for a device connected to a com port. Some i of cards As these interfaces Are called also have game ports for your Joystick. The parallel port or ports is used for most printers the Standard is called a Centre sonics connection. All of these ports can be on one i of card or spread out on several. Some graphic cards which drive the Monitor have a parallel port included. This was a Quick rundown of what is inside the Box. There Are some other considerations such As How Many expansion slots Are still available. Also Check that the computer will accept interfaces from other suppliers. Some companies have used special setups which lock you into their line of products. This limits your ability to shop around and the Price you pay. We will go on with our shopping safari next time and look into the wild world of monitors and display standards. To those of you who use other systems done to get discouraged. We will get around to some alternatives to the ism world on Down the Road. A an Amiga club began in Augsburg West Germany in March. Club president Ronald Nielson said even though the club is in its Early stages it is finding ways to help its members understand and better use Amiga computers. Nielson can be contacted at Home on weekday evenings at 0821-404209 for More information. Lets hear from some More clubs and get some of the activities printed so beginners can find people with common interests and get help when it is needed. Jerry Kidder is a computer technician at the stars and stripes. Feedback what is your favorite local dish and have you tried to prepare it v amp Quot it 4 Seaman Amy Jacobs naval support activity photographer Naples Italy i like Gnocchi but you can to make food like that in the Barracks. If you can to nuke it you can to eat it. Diana love family member stationed with 497th recon technical group Wiesbaden Schierstein West Germany i love All the desserts they done to use As much sugar. Also the Brocken Are delicious. In be tried to make schnitzel but its not As Good As i can buy. Staff sgt. Reuben Whittington 487th missile defense so Comiso air station Sicily Spaghetti with mussels and the local Vino. In be never prepared it it has a special sauce that i done to think i can Ever master. But in be made Tortellini it was easy just follow the recipe. Capt. Larry Bird on temporary duty at Raf Mildenhall England crab and Cucumber sandwiches from nearby smokehouse inn. I go Over there a couple times a week to eat. I also like some of the lighter bitters Beer they serve there. Tammy Schneider military family member living in Gernshein West Germany schnitzel. Its about the Only thing in be had Here so far. In be never tried to make it. I done to drink any of the German Beers. Compiled by stars and stripes staff june 24, 1990 sunday c