Thank you for reading the ticalc.org newsletter! From now on, this newsletter will now reference the following month instead of the previous month. Because of this change, this is the last issue of the newsletter this year. Next year, expect to see some new "gizmos" in the newsletter that I have developed. If you have anything that you would like to have published in this newsletter, please send it to newsletter@ticalc.org. Each month I will print one letter that I choose in the "Letter to the Editor" section. You can send letters regarding just about anything as long as they are constructive. Send your letters to the editor to newsletter@ticalc.org.

Kirk Meyer

I would like to respond to the recent controversy regarding Bryan Rabeler's a pology for erasing the TI-Files server. I feel that although his actions were ba d, they were not without reason. Although his reasons did not justify the crime committed, I think that Bryan should be forgiven. I also think that one thing we have learned through this incident is that there is much too much competition a mong the major TI sites and that it needs to stop.

First of all, I must s ay that I do not know all the motives for Bryan's actions. As many of you know, I was the person who supplied Bryan with the password which enabled him to erase the site. I know my reasons (which I will not go into detail about now), but I do not know his. There has always been a great deal of competition among the TI-Files and ticalc.org, and I'm sure that this was a cause for Bryan to erase their site. But I must also point that erasing the TI-Files was not as malicious and evil as some people think it was. I knew, and I'm sure Bryan knew, when the event occured, that they had a full backup of the site. I, for one, would not have done something like this if I was not sure they had a backup. I would also like to point out that it was brave and just for Bryan to admit his actions on ticalc.org and to apologize for them. It seems that everyone was upset because he apologized, not because he erased the site. Nobody cared until he apologized. Few people would have even known of the event until he apologized. It seems that people are punishing Bryan only for apologizing.

It seems clear to me now, as it should to most people, that something needs to change. Although Bryan is sorry, there is no guarantee that he, or another member of one of the major TI sites, would not do something like this again. I can't guarantee that I wouldn't. Competition is what drove Bryan and I to do this, and the competition is still there. Possibly the best solution is to merge the major TI sites. I have always believed that competition helps all sites, for it keeps them working hard. But now I realize that a merge is probably a good idea. However, it would probably be hard to convince the three sites to do this. If we cannot accomplish a merge, there needs to be at least some kind of "truce", in which the sites agree not to hurt the other sites, and possibly even agree to share resources. There needs to be some end to the competition, for we cannot keep erasing each others' sites.

Adam Berlinsky-Schine

Not too much happened in the calculator community this month. Kirk Meyer has ported The Quest III to the TI-86. This game is an RPG game and was originally written for Usgard, by Mikel Blanchard of Macross Software. Additionally, Josh Morris of Macross has released a demo of his upcoming game, Final Fantasy: The Calling for ZShell.

In other news, Texas Instruments has released version v1.13 Beta of the TI-Graph Link software for the TI-89 and TI-92 Plus. These versions are for Windows 3.1/95/NT 4.0 and support English.

Many people do not realize the built-in capabilities of their graphing calculators. For example, the TI-85 and TI-86 have the built-in capabilities to solve polynomial equations and systems of first-order equations.

To solve polynomial equations, go into POLY. Enter the degree of the equation (the highest power present). Then enter each coefficent as it prompts for them. For example, if the equations is 3x^4+x+2=0, then you would enter the following numbers into POLY: 4, 3, 0, 0, 1, 2 and then solve the equation. Note that you enter 0 if that particular term does not exist. This method has one drawback; answers are given and decimal format and are generally useless on math tests. In many cases, however, the answers are integers. In these cases POLY is a very valuable tool.

SIMULT solves systems of equations by using matrices. Before using this solver, arrange your equations so that all of the variables are on the left and a single number is on the right, e.g. 4x+2y=3 not 4x=3-2y. Then make sure that the variables in each case are in alphabetical order (this is the easiest way to do it). First enter the number of variables present. Then enter the numbers in the order they appear. For example, 4x+2y+3z=5 would be entered as 4, 2, 3, 5. IMPORTANT! If a variables is missing in an equation, enter its coefficient as 0. After you have entered all of the equations, tell the calculator to solve. As with the POLY solver, results can be useless since they are given in decimals.

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