How to be useless

[Petari]

Conversion from sts to flux image
This is old idea. I worked on STX image support with HxC emulator coder some 10 years ago. We both stated that STX format can not hold all informations needed for writing to real floppies - in case of some harder copy protections and special formats. Or in other words, it is good for emulators.  Or: conversion is possible in many cases, but not in all. As is possible to covert STX to ST format - myself made program for that . Of course, not everything is possible to convert 100% .
Ijor could write all it in that thread, but simpler was to not go in details, because that would be saying something negative about STX format, and that's insult ! 
Well, my goal was not to insult but to explain things, to write facts, experience.
And to add: of course that Aufit can convert SCP to STX, but not opposite. SCP just holds more information than STX .

[Petari]

And new thread at atariage: "Net to floppy"
At moment last post there says: "Usually complaining about how "stoopid" people at AtariAge are. "
That would be me, of course.
Let's see what is the reality:  First of all, I started this thread not with goal to call people stoopid, shallow. Goal is to give proper answers to questions. To point on mistakes, wrong claims. And yes, when you see something very stupid may happen that you say it openly. Why people tend to write things in them when self are not sure ? I mean, can see lot of post where says: "I think ..." . Maybe to not write in that thread ? There is already enough confusion about all it.
So, here are my answers about questioned in that thread, but first I need to correct thread title:
It is called not 'convert', conversion . And not "programs from the net" . Distribution of SW originally on floppies started before Internet era. Yes, first way was to send copies to customers. But little later BBS way was used too - and that needed image files of floppies (their content) . Or some archiver what contained all files on floppy.  So, the proper question would be: how to write files, floppy images for usage on Atari ST with PC ?
Of course, that's old thing, need for it was present from beginning, and especially since Internet era.
ColecoGamer got useful answer very soon: link to my FloImg page. There is lot of things explained - so the reasons why USB floppy drives are not good, with details on linked page: Floppy Mistery.
But ColecoGamer obviously did not read it at all. He went with his USB drive. 
So, I need to write it again:  USB floppy drives are not useful, or better said not usable for Atari ST usual formats. They have limited geometry support - will not work with very common 800 KB format. Some work only with 1440 KB format (not used with Atari ST(E), only with Mega STE, in very rare cases) .
Later answers in thread were about how to transfer files on floppies, with PC. That's useful, but I think that in most cases it will be floppy image files what people can DL on Internet - that's the usual way of preserving Atari ST SW , and that's good. In some cases it must be in that format to work at all.

If just writing files on floppies is goal: format DD (720KB) floppy on PC, or with my formatting program for Atari ST, set to PC compatible format (DL on FloImg page). Then copy files on it. It will work with Atari, any TOS version. Better said, will be readable with any TOS version. Work may be TOS version dependant.
Well, it may be that some SW will not fit on 720 KB. Because needs 800 KB floppy. That's the case when you need FloImg. And that's the reason why I went in hard work of making it - did not say 'programmed' because there is much more in all it - research, plenty of tests, doing WEB pages, etc ...  Yet, some people don't care about all time and effort, they care only about own ego, and to solve something with minimal effort. Well, not everything is possible to solve simple and in short time. Trying it may be just waste of time.
I know that people likes simple explanations, but there is no such in this case. Ad no in many cases. Simple explanation is just not enough, and will cause more confusion than help. That's what I want to prevent - and then may come some 'insulting' words:  'shallow', 'stoopid' . I do that not often, usually when it is really over the line. Of course, there are such ones who will remember it for whole life, and pull it over and over again - because they care only about own ego, not about how to be useful, how to solve technical problems.  Surely, banning is one of the solutions - to make those with good knowledge, experience with Atari ST, SW, HW for it away from forum - all problems solved ! Now forum will be so nice, polite and like ... and that's most important ! Not efficiency, getting proper answers in short time, being able to solve things. No, those like PLM are doing only harm. They think that just because made some SW they can write everything ! No, they should not correct people, saying that what wrote was shallow ! That's worst thing. Not wasting lot of time because of stoopid answers ! Yes, efficiency is evil ! I'm evil persona, because I wrote all that SW for Atari ST, supporting SW for PC. That's pure evil ! I should instead it waste my time in old lady fashioned sweet talk on forums. Much more useful spending of time. Thank you for your time reading this.

[Petari]

 I could start new thread with what's following, but in some way it fits here.
So, let's see atariage and what is welcome there, what is not. What cretenism can read on some sites, and what is reason for that ...
 AA admin Albert posted thread about his cousin's retro stuff collecting - in ST section. While it belongs in general section, since there is most of it not Atari ST related. But of course nobody dared to ask him to move it in other section. Or at least I did not see such post :-) Was my little ironic reply there reason for my ban or not - not really relevant. Surely there were others who asked for it - like C.J. , Tillek ...
Ban self was not by rules. I did not get any explanation. Plus, I did not see on other forums that after ban under member's nick writes 'banned'. So, they banned member, but their posts remain there - while the reason for ban is certainly something written in them. Did not see that any of my posts was deleted there. It seems that marking people makes some feeling good ... New McCarthy time ?

Let see examples of blatant lies:
The only CDs worth their space
LOL - even tag for page is insult - so all others are worthless ?  Morons.
On page 'Extras', near to bottom can read "Note: There is a program called FloImg that claims to be working perfectly and can read/write disks on the PC. D-Bug strongly discourages the use of this program, as it is known to wipe out whole Windows partitions without any sort of recovery!!!  "
Big words, 3 exclamation marks . While what writes is not only insulting, lie, but just impossible. This is floppy SW, not accessing any hard disk related Windows function, therefore it can not damage any hard disk partition. Everyone with little better computer knowledge is aware of that. And yet, whole bullshit is there over 10-15 years. Do Atari forum admins care ? Of course not. They are same as D-Bug - care only about own fame, momental interests. So, how many people was discouraged from usage of FloImg because this bullshit ? Will never know.  What can know that it comes up, and is recommended. Surely now, 17 years after I started with it is little harder to find PC, motherboard with built in floppy drive, controller for it on MBO . But there is still millions of them in good condition. Other way is to have some Flash card adapter for Atari ST, copy Atari ST floppy image files on SD card, then write it on floppies with Atari self.
Or now: do not use floppies at all with Atari - some are right about it, because their drive or HW part for it in Atari ST is not functional.  In any case I have solutions for all this cases. And guess what ? Nobody reported any data loss to me.  What is btw. possible with SD cards - in most cases right because low quality ones on 'market' .
Other D-Bug, or better C.J. nonsense:  ULS related. He wrote right at atariage that I 'copied ULS byte by byte ...' for my hard disk 'patching' system. Huahahahaha ... Another case of big words, and 0 truth.
Of course, moron admin did not react on it, not moderators - are they at all present at AA ? That would be right proper reason for ban.
So much. All what happens is so low, shallow, and shows that ego, vanity, selfishness, not thinking ahead is what prevails more and more this years. Not only in Atari forums. I see ridiculous cases of e-mail rejecting by some really big e-mail servers/SMTPs :  just because file extension IMG e-mail will be rejected. Regardless from content of file. I usually sent it ZIPped. So, all what checking SW does is that opens ZIP, and if finds there file with extension ZIP, or ASF (couple days ago e-mail with it was rejected, and I even don't know where it is used with modern computers - I just used it for 'Atari screen format' :-) ) And even funnier case:  ZIP was rejected because there was one file what was very good packable 
Sure it was, because most of content was zeros, and my intention was to be good packable, because it was hard disk partition with only few files, so most of it was empty, so with same bytes .
Everyone with little better .... repeating self - yes, this filters are done so lazy, unprofessional that it is pathetic. So, I can send to someone virus, just need to take care about file extension ? Or there is check for know viruses, but as they are not sure that it will detect all them they added extra measures ?
File extension ? Sooo stoopid. And they are paid for it.  While viruses being spread with more efficient ways.
Then, marking some sites as harmful, just because some reported them, asked for it ? Without any proof. Again, McCarthy time . This is not democracy but rather anarchy.

[Petari]

And this about writing on Atari ST floppies comes up again and again ...
AF thread
What seems as typical is that those who ask for help have some serious problems with attitude. Lot of it is answered on my WEBsite, on pages linked at FloImg page.  Obviously reading it all is too much for some. But not too much to read all answers on forums, from which 95% is really not useful - may see mentioning of Mint,
"I use a greaseweazle"     - that's for sure right answer . What's next - letting adverts in replies in forums ?
If those forums would be administrated by responsible people there would be for long time already FAQ section. But those who lead it have no good technical knowledge, can not judge which WEB sites are good, with reliable content, experience ... Not to mention lazyness, don't care attitude.
So much time wasted on things which are clarified over decade ago.  There are no floppy controllers on new PC motherboards right about so long time. And then FloImg is culprit - does not work with USB drives 
I really 'like' way of shallowness, and that often becomes insulting. But who cares if I'm insulted. Nothing and nobody from Eastern Eu. Luckily there is people who prefer e-mail way of communication. That can say even word 'thanx' - unlike smartheads on forums.

[Petari]

And more:  Game enh. with 1 MB RAM
I know about plenty of games using extra RAM (above 512 KB) for diverse enhancements. Probably most common is using extra RAM for disk cache, so must not reload everything from slow floppies. Then, sample base audio playback - samples are longer, so take more RAM - so by some games they will play only if there is 1 MB RAM min. It's usually in intro stage. And even game play can be better with more RAM. I saw cases when different exec loads when it is min 1 MB RAM . I would say that probably some 5-10 % of games, especially later ones has some improvement when 1 or more MB RAM is detected.

[Petari]

This is 'best' so far:
AA thread
What to say ? Well, if I would be still on that forum this would be when certainly abandoning it - unless moderators, admin do something with such pile of lies and nonsense.

[Petari]

And more of shallowness:
BlueSCSI with Mega STE
It seems that some just don't want to learn, to read related details. They using ICD extended driver version from me with Atari Mega STE internal adapter. And are not aware about known limit of 1 GB of that adapter.
 Slow folder creation ? Huh, that's less problem. It will be very soon useless, as data is not written properly on disk/SD card.  Similar case as what was with MugUK-s thread at atari-forum. He tested some DOS compatible partitions with Atari ST . And it worked well for him - sure, because he did not wrote there much data, and did not go over (again: known) limit of 32 MB. After it data corruption happens - new files file be written to begin of partition, so overwriting what is there.
 I have all it explained on pages on my site.

[Petari]

Really pathetic:
Thread at AA
Talk about PSU (in some 33 years old computer), and nobody mentioned need to change electrolyte capacitors. That's elementary.
Then 1 GB partitions - sure that needs BigDOS - more drivers active at once, and lot of programs will not work well. While there is UltraSatan and TOSDOS compatible partitions up to 512 MB size - surely enough for ST(E) SW, and can have 14 of them.

[Petari]

Mega ST vs STE
Well, whole idea to start talk about diff-s between 2 machines from which one is launched in 1987 and other in 1989 is just bad - in those years development was strong. And everyone can look about it by checking main machine specs - how ? I'm not sure about it, but maybe, pardon MAYBE by using some search :-) Ah, but who am I ? Intelligent people will not use own brain, time, no - there are others to do it. And yes, WEB forums are made for it ! So, whole thread is just complete - yes, usual shallow blah - typical for AA (atariage).
 My answer to question: for sure STE is better. Why ? Because all extra features of Mega ST are not relevant today. It was good for professionals in 1987++ , but really - how much people dealt professionally with Atari ST machines then ? Now ? I'm sure you know the answer.

[Petari]

Typical AA thread
People asks practically basic questions - well, often not well formulated, but level of answers is really pathetically low.  First thing: driver - that will work only with images which are with partitions (filesystem), master boot record (MBR) compatible with them. Hddriver has it's demo, but it is practically useless - user can not do partitioning because no partitioning program. Whole demo is just to show how driver installer works.  Or in other words: what I did is much more useful: I supplied images with driver - and image here means that it is with partitions, MBR . And with TOS/DOS compatible partitions. So, usable with Atari ST(E), TT, Falcon. And with modern computers - PC (Windows, Linux), Mac ... Or (again) in other words - you don't need emulator to access files, partitions on such image - they are accessible - need just USB reader - first write image to SD card (or CF card), then reinsert it, and will see partitions, files ...

[Ronald J. Hall]

I've not had any problems exchanging data between my ST's and a Kubuntu Linux laptop and a Windows 10 desktop. I use Mtools (command line) on the laptop and just pop a TOS/DOS compatible SD card into the Win10 box and it works fine. Blows up 4 windows, because I've got 4 partitions on the card but that's not a problem. 

[Petari]

Thread at AF, what I started in 2008 : Generally about incompatibility
Well, as usual, some care more about propagating own SW than the problem about what is thread - like EmuTOS man.
 I write now because last couple post there, where STX image conversion to ST/MSA is asked. Is is old thing, and after 10 days no any answer about conversions and using STX images with Gotek or other HW floppy emulator. While is is known thing over decade and more.
 So, can not convert every STX image to ST, MSA format. Only those with regular format, without any little complexer copy protection can be converted. Because Atari ST SW, and mostly games used really wide range of diverse special formats, copy protected parts (what means that can not write it with usual floppy drives) .
 I worked little on STX format support for HXC HW emulator, with it's designer. At the end we concluded that it is only partially possible. STX format just does not have all info needed for writing to floppies. It is good for emulators on modern computers - in read only mode in big parts.
 Same stays for usage with Gotek, of course.
I wrote program for conversion of STX to ST format - and it is good for regular disk formats.
 So, the answer is:  can convert only some STX images - those with regular floppy format and without copy protection. ST, MSA have no place for anything extra over regular tracks and sectors.
 And of course my Image Runner can not run STX files.
Someone should point to ftovar where to DL unprotected games.
 

[Ronald J. Hall]

Thanks for the explanation.

I've mentioned your web site I couldn't tell you how many times Peter.

Sometimes, the message just doesn't get through. 

[Petari]

AA thread

Just one sentence from it: "I'm surprised that a 32GB card works in your UltraSatan, I was only able to get what I wanted with an old 4GB card.

(edit: it's a 4GB card, not a 2GB one.) "

 Typical lack of knowledge - well, how else could it be for people following 'popular' Atari ST forums ?
What is the case is that UltraSatan can handle very large capacity cards too - like 64 GB.
 I bought 32 GB card couple years ago, and it worked not with US. Then swapped it with card in my camera (32 GB too), and it worked, new card works in camera.  So, what it is about ?  New cards are just faster, with faster HW logic - and that may work not well with slower one in UltraSatan (or some other adapter) .
 Old different speed logic interfacing problem. Therefore I recommend to people to take care when buying SD cards - not to get some very high speed ones.
 And to add : capacity limit of 4 GB is ridiculous. Even TOS can more - 7 GB (1.04 and higher), TOS 4.04 can 14 GB .

[Petari]

And atariage still 'delivers' : Connecting 4 drives at once
 Huh - I was writing already 10 years ago that avoid connecting 2 or more hard disks on 1 port of Atari ST(E) machines - because they are old, and extra load may cause unreliable work, or even some failure by components (in adapters too).  And now, when it is old some 35 years 4 drives ...  Why doing it at all ? Only clever thing with so old drives is to save/copy valuable data from them to some newer storage (someone said SD card ?), and then put them aside, in museum.