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[HEA]
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_____________________ ___ _
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|___ ______________| | | | |
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| || | | | ____ _ _ _ _ ______ | |
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| || | | | / __ \ | | / \_/ \ | ___ \ | |
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| || |__ ____ | | / / \ | | /\ /\ \ | | \ \ | |
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| || _ \ | _ \ | | \ \__/ | | | |_|| | | |__/ / | |
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| || | | || |_|| | | \___/|_| |_| |_| | ____/ |_|
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| || | | || |__ | |____________________ | | _
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|__||_| |_|\____/ |________________________| | | |_|
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Lighting Your Apple II Path | |
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-----------------------------------
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>>> WELCOME TO THE LAMP! <<<
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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THE BEST OF THE A2 BULLETIN BOARD ON Syndicomm Online
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AND THE BEST OF THE DELPHI A2 AND A2PRO MESSAGE BOARDS
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"Teaching the Apple II user how to fish since 1998"
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::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
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The Lamp! An Onipa'a Software Production Vol. 7, No. 3
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::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
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Publisher................................Ryan M. Suenaga, M.S.W., L.S.W.
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Editor.....................................................Lyle Syverson
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Internet Email, Publisher.........................thelamp@sheppyware.net
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Internet Email, Editor................................lyle@FoxValley.net
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::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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March 15, 2004
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HIGH ABOVE THE ROCK RIVER---------------------------------------------[OPN]
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Going Out for Lunch
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Going Out to Dinner
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A2 FORUM AT Syndicomm Online (A2Central.com) DISTILLATIONS------------[DAS]
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Batch Deletion of Email in Pine----------------------------------[BDE]
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BoxWorld Available in Library------------------------------------[BWA]
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LocalTalk on the ROM 3 Apple IIgs--------------------------------[LGS]
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Managing Web Sites-----------------------------------------------[MWS]
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Port the SCI Engine to the IIgs?---------------------------------[SCI]
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Build Your Own Mach II OR Mach III Joystick----------------------[JSK]
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The Cheese Box - VGA Monitors on the Apple II--------------------[TCB]
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Recipe for Joystick----------------------------------------------[RJS]
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Dead Battery Harmful to IIgs?------------------------------------[DBH]
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Linux on a PC Transporter?---------------------------------------[LPT]
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Current Status of GW-FTP-----------------------------------------[CGF]
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Enhancement to Orca/Pascal---------------------------------------[EOP]
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8-Bit Driver for the LANceGS Ethernet Card-----------------------[EBD]
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Backing up Bank Street Music Writer------------------------------[BMW]
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AppleWin Emulator------------------------------------------------[AWE]
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Another Challenge Using KEGS-------------------------------------[ACK]
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KEGS for UNIX With Solaris 9 Workstation-------------------------[KSW]
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ActiveGS Updated to v2.0-----------------------------------------[AGS]
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Developer Contact Information------------------------------------[DCI]
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Juiced.GS V9I1 on the Way----------------------------------------[OTW]
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ILLUMINATING THE LAMP-------------------------------------------------[ITL]
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An overview of GEnieLamp A2 and The Lamp!
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2000
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ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM SYNDICOMM------------------------------------------[ANS]
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To Sign up for Syndicomm Online----------------------------------[TSU]
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR-------------------------------------------------[LTE]
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No Letters to the Editor This Month
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An Invitation
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KFEST 2004------------------------------------------------------------[KFF]
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KansasFest 2004--------------------------------------------------[KF4]
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Registration is Now Open for KFest 2004--------------------------[KFR]
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EXTRA INNINGS
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About The Lamp! ------------------------------------------------ [INN]
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[*] [*] [*]
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READING THE LAMP! The index system used by The Lamp! is designed to make
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""""""""""""""""" your reading easier. To use this system, load this
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issue into any word processor or text editor. In the index you will find
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something like:
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EXTRA INNINGS
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About The Lamp! ------------------------------------------------ [INN]
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To read this article, simply use your search or find command to locate
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[INN]. There is a similar tag at the end of each article: [EOA].
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[OPN]-------------------------------
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HIGH ABOVE THE ROCK RIVER |
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------------------------------------
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From The Editor
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"""""""""""""""
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by Lyle Syverson <lyle@FoxValley.net>
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Going Out for Lunch
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Early morning observation High Above The Rock River reveals a deep
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blue sky and budding of the trees... a promise that Spring will soon burst
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forth. A great day for a drive in the country with lunch at a favorite
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restaurant as a destination.
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Highway 2 meanders south along the Rock River. We stop every few
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miles at one of the turnoffs to get a close view of the river. A climb to
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the top of Castle Rock is especially inspiring.
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Twenty some miles to the south we stop at Maxon's Riverside
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Restaurant.
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John Maxon established Maxon's Manor in a beautiful old house fifty
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some years ago. The large enclosed porch, which faced the river, served as
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the dinning room. This afforded the diners a fabulous view. The
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centerpiece of the view was a statue of Chief Blackhawk standing on a cliff
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High Above The Rock River. By adding great food and great service to this
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atmosphere, he established a large and loyal base of customers.
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When Mr. Maxon reached retirement age he sold the restaurant.
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Business went well for the new owners. Then one night tragedy struck...
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the house which provided the special atmosphere of the restaurant burned to
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the ground.
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Eventually another building was built. It is a rustic building that
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goes well with the site. The dinning room is built on two levels, one
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about four feet above the other. The riverside wall is almost all glass.
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This takes full advantage of the same great view the original house
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provided.
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Add great food and great service to the present building and you have
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a winning combination.
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Going Out to Dinner
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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KFesters go out to dinner a couple of times during KFest. Dinner at
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the K.C. Masterpiece is quite enjoyable. They have an uncanny ability to
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provide seating at this busy restaurant for all of us Apple II enthusiasts.
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Seating is at tables of four to six. This provides a nice sized group of
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people for you to become better acquainted with. The food is great. Your
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glass of iced tea will never run dry.
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Come join us at KFest this year. Registration information is
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available now. Drop by the KFest Home Page at: http://www.kfest.org/
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and follow the registration link.
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[EOA]
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ASCII ART BEGINS
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_________ _ _ _
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|__ __| | | | | | |
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| | | | | | | |
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| | | |___ ____ | | _____ __ ___ _ _ _____ | |
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| | | ___ \ / __ \ | | /____ \ | v v | | v ___ \ | |
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| | | | | | | /__\ \ | | ____| | | /\ /\ | | / \ \ | |
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| | | | | | | _____| | | / ___ | | || || | | | | | |_|
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| | | | | | | |_____ | |____ | |__| | | || || | | \___/ / _
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|_| |_| |_| \______| |______| \____^_| |_||_||_| | |\____/ |_|
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ASCII ART ENDS
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[EOA]
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[DAS]----------------------------------------------
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DISTILLATIONS FROM The A2 FORUM at Syndicomm.com |
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(A2Central.com) |
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---------------------------------------------------
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by Lyle Syverson <lyle@foxvalley.net>
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[BDE]
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BATCH DELETION OF EMAIL IN PINE
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"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
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I'm getting more spam every day! I was using Pine to delete all my email
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before Eudora downloaded it, but I finally just quit letting Eudora get my
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Syndicomm email.
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Is there any way to do a delete of all email, rather than deleting each
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individual email? (in Pine)
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Thanks,
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Cindy
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(CINDYADAMS, Cat 2, Top 3, Msg 134)
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>>>>>
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"""""
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From your Pine inbox index, type this string of commands to delete all
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messages:
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;AADXY
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Translation:
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; = select the following range
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A = all
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A = apply the following command
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D = delete
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X = expunge
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Y = yes
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-Ken
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(KGAGNE, Cat 2, Top 3, Msg 137)
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>>>>>
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"""""
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>;AADXY
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Thank you!!
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Now I can keep my spambox empty!
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Cindy
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(CINDYADAMS, Cat 2, Top 3, Msg 138)
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[EOA]
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[BWA]
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BoxWorld AVAILABLE IN LIBRARY
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"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
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There is a new upload in the games/strategy/prodos8 directory:
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File: boxworld.bxy
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Size: 27520
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Date: Feb 26
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BoxWorld is a puzzle game. You have to replace several boxes situated at
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various places in the world to complete each level.
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Freeware.
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Tony Ward, A2 Librarian
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(A2.TONY, Cat 2, Top 37, Msg 27)
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[EOA]
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[LGS]
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LOCALTALK ON THE ROM 3 Apple IIgs
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"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
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I thought I'd spend a few minutes here and talk about my recent adventure
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with Localtalk on my ROM 3 Apple IIgs.
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I have a LANceGS in my IIgs and have been using that for file transfers and
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it works pretty well. It is better now since Geoff has released
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GW-FTP v1.1b4 and also upgrading Spectrum to v2.5.3 so that I can run SAFE.
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However after reading Ryan's article in Juiced.GS V8I4 about setting up a
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Localtalk bridge on a Mac, I decided to try it out using a Macintosh
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7200/90 as a Localtalk Bridge and a Windows 2000 Advanced Server for a file
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server that I'm using for a course I'm taking. Win2KAS has Macintosh
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File/Print Services available so I though that would give me a nice central
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place to store files that would be accessible by my entire home network.
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Setting up File/Print services was easy enough on the Win2KAS box. The
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only thing not obvious was how to set up a shareable folder for Appletalk.
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After poking around the help files, I found a CLI based utility called
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"Macfile" that was able to create a share for Appletalk. Initially I was
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pretty disappointed that there wasn't a GUI interface but I think I found a
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way to do that afterwards.
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The next step was setting up Localtalk Bridge on the Macintosh 7200/90.
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Re-reading Ryan's article made it real easy. I was also able to test that
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the Mac could see and mount the Win2KAS volumes so I knew that was working
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fine.
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The last step was setting up Appleshare on the Apple IIgs and it was here
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that I started to run into problems. On my ROM 3, setting slot 2 to
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Localtalk, installing the Appleshare software from System 6.0.1 and
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connecting the cable between the Mac and the IIgs was easy enough. Once
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that was done I was able to see the Mac with the IIgs's Chooser, but not
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the Win2KAS box. I thought this was strange since the Mac could see the
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Win2KAS box but for some reason wasn't passing that over the Localtalk
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Bridge. I had the feeling that I might be cooked. :/
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Playing around with the Mac I found out that if I rebooted the Mac that the
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Win2KAS did show up in the IIgs's Chooser for a few seconds before
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disappearing. If I was quick I could select it and attempt to log in.
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However doing this resulted in a "unknown login sequence" error from the
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IIgs. This didn't look good so I decided to Google it and see if anyone
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else had similar problems.
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The best information I got was from Google's usenet archive. What I found
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out was that I actually had two problems not related to each other.
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1) The Win2KAS box not showing up in Chooser.
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2) The "unknown login sequence" error.
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The first item ended up pretty easily addressable. The problem was that
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Localtalk Bridge, for whatever reason, didn't pass Win2KAS servers
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properly. The work around for this was to configure Win2KAS to enable
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Appletalk routing and set up an Appletalk zone. Once I did this the
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Win2KAS server was able to be seen by the IIgs all the time.
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The second issue was a little more difficult to determine what to do.
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However after searching around I discovered that a lady named Marsha
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Jackson had run into the same problem accessing her Linux box running
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Netatalk. What she did, to my amazement, was to disassemble System 6.0.1's
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Appleshare CDEV and debug it. She identified the problem, fixed the CDEV
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and posted it on her website. I downloaded it and tried it out. Bingo!
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After all of this I can now use Windows 2000 Advanced Server as a central
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file repository accessible by everything. I'm so happy that I'm writing a
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big, long post to Syndicomm's BB for posterity. :)
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Mark Percival - Apprentice
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Delivered by Spectrum v2.5.3 & SOAR v1.0b11
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The Apple ][ Fanatic and Wednesday Night RTC Host
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"Midweek Madness!" from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM Pacific Time
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(MARK, Cat 10, Top 6, Msg 45)
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>>>>>
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"""""
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Very interesting Mark. I've put on my list setting something like that up,
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I just have never had all the correct hardware pieces.
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Does using Appletalk add much in the way of overhead to a system? Cause
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more crashes make things run more sluggishly etc? I've used LocalTalk
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before, I just haven't used it much.
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Thanks,
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Dain
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(A2.DAIN, Cat 10, Top 6, Msg 46)
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>>>>>
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"""""
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Appletalk is an interrupt based process so it does require a little bit of
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processing power when it is active. Under normal accelerated GS use such
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as the Finder, editing files, etc., there is no noticeable difference when
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it is running compared to when it is not.
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It is most noticeable when running another highly intensive interrupt based
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processes such as Marinetti. TCP/IP will slow down significantly, but
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still be usable.
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Running Appletalk software on the GS will not directly make it more
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unstable to use. If you are using buggy software that stomps on memory
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that it shouldn't, then having Appletalk around is another potential area
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that can get affected resulting in a system crash.
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Apple engineers were always running Appletalk so I would trust its overall
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stability. And for a network architecture that was built into the GS
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almost 18 years ago, it is cool to see that it not only works, but works
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great.
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Geoff
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(GEOFF, Cat 10, Top 6, Msg 47)
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[EOA]
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[MWS]
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MANAGING WEB SITES
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""""""""""""""""""
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As determined uptopic, the web server I employ supports ASP, but not PHP.
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I asked someone to write me a routine in ASP. He gave it to me in
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JavaScript. Are there any advantages or disadvantages to this method?
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If I decided to use the JavaScript version, is there a way to include the
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definition routine in the header of all my HTML files, without manually
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inserting it into each one? Can it perhaps be listed in a .css file which
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is already being called?
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Thanks,
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-Ken
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(KGAGNE, Cat 11, Top 29, Msg 86)
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>>>>>
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"""""
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If ASP works like PHP, there should be an ASP command to include a file as
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part of your HTML.
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I don't know how CSS engines would like Javascript passed to them. What
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does the CSS documentation say?
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Geoff
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(GEOFF, Cat 11, Top 29, Msg 87)
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>>>>>
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"""""
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You can include a javascript file with standard html like this:
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<script language="JavaScript" src="site.js">
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</script>
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where site.js is a file of javascript code. However, you will need to edit
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every file where you wish to include it.
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Javascript is run on the client machine, not the server machine, so if the
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user has javascript turned off, or a buggy browser, it might not work as
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expected.
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Kelvin
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(KWS, Cat 11, Top 29, Msg 88)
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>>>>>
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"""""
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Geoff & Kelvin,
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Thanks. As Tony showed me in message 10 of this topic, I've used
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<!--#include virtual="filename.html"--> statements before, and was
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wondering if something similar could be done with JavaScript. Ideally, I'd
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include the JavaScript file reference in a file already being included, but
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the only such file in my HTML header is a .css file, which probably won't
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accept JavaScript.
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To create the site.js file you suggested, Kelvin, I had to remove the first
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and last lines of the JavaScript routine, which were
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<!--
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and
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// -->
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Now the script works - most of the time, in Safari. It always works in
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iCab and MSIE. Odd.
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I wonder if it is better to go with ASP. That's my main concern, before
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I figure out how to implement either version.
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-Ken
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(KGAGNE, Cat 11, Top 29, Msg 89)
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>>>>>
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"""""
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If there is a choice between letting the server do all the work or the
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client--always choose the server. Users with slow devices such as a
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modems, slower systems, etc. will see a decrement in page generation when
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it has to retrieve separate pieces. Web servers should be considered fast
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so they can do that processing much more quickly.
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As you noted already, the Javascript solution can be flaky--so if the
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information is important, you probably don't want to use the Javascript
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method. You can probably find the ASP solution that you are looking for by
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using google with a search of: "asp reference" "include file"
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Geoff
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(GEOFF, Cat 11, Top 29, Msg 90)
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[EOA]
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[SCI]
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PORT THE SCI ENGINE TO THE IIgs?
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""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
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I found an Open Source SCI engine at http://freesci.linuxgames.com/ . What
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is SCI you ask? It is the engine which the newer (1989 and later) Sierra
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Online adventure games used. Word was that Sierra was working on an engine
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for the IIgs at one time, but stopped development due to poor IIgs sales
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and that the IIgs hardware was not fast enough to run a common platform
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engine.
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Now that we have accelerators and emulators which speed up the IIgs,
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running the newer Sierra Online games should not be an issue. Are there
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any takers who would want to port the SCI engine to the IIgs?
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Geoff
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(GEOFF, Cat 14, Top 2, Msg 68)
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>>>>>
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"""""
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In the past, I have thought about attempting to port one of the SCI engines
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to the IIgs, or one of the AGI engines (AGI was used for KQ 1-4, SQ,
|
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goldrush, and other sierra games that were available on the IIgs).
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I think they had 2 generations of SCI. The first only allowed 16 colors,
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but the 2nd allowed more, so the IIgs experience would be diminished.
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I still think it would be neat to do.
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Kelvin
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(KWS, Cat 14, Top 2, Msg 69)
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>>>>>
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"""""
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I'd sure like to see that done, but I'm pretty swamped. :)
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Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
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Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
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Building communities, bit by bit.
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|
|
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 14, Top 2, Msg 70)
|
|
[EOA]
|
|
|
|
|
|
[JSK]
|
|
BUILD YOUR OWN Mach II OR Mach III JOYSTICK
|
|
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
|
|
See my post in the Hardware forum under Joysticks. You can build your own
|
|
brand-new, factory quality Mach II or Mach III using OEM components from CH
|
|
Products. Cost is about $140, but we could make it considerably less by
|
|
buying in bulk.
|
|
|
|
(GPH_II, Cat 14, Top 3, Msg 16)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
I already have a CH Apple II joystick. It's the platinum model with the
|
|
button on top of the stick. It's a really nice one, and building one would
|
|
be a neat project.
|
|
|
|
One thing I've wondered is if one could build an arcade quality stick.
|
|
I know they were pretty much a different kind of stick though since the
|
|
sticks that the Apple II used were more of an analog device and I think
|
|
arcade sticks were more of a digital device (on/off) versus some range of
|
|
values.
|
|
|
|
Seeing Apple II stuff built is always fun:)
|
|
|
|
Dain
|
|
|
|
(A2.DAIN, Cat 14, Top 3, Msg 17)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
That wouldn't be too hard. Atari sticks worked the same way, and many
|
|
Apple games (pre-GS, pre-Prodos) offered an "Atari Joystick" option. Not
|
|
sure what the wiring was like; I assume that bottom-right made a
|
|
PDL(0),PDL(1) value of 255,255, and top-left, 0,0.
|
|
|
|
I've got a CH Products joystick too - a Mach I, and I love it. It was
|
|
originally for PC, but I ripped out the PC cord and replaced it with the
|
|
one from my previous Apple II stick, a nice 3-button Kraft that broke.
|
|
I played several games of Archon II and BoulderDash 2 today with it :-)
|
|
|
|
Actually, what inspired this project were two things. 1) a desire to play
|
|
Apple II games on my PC emulator (since I've already got a Mach I on the
|
|
][e), and 2) a backup. Joysticks do wear out over time, and I don't want
|
|
to be caught in a position where I can never use the type of joystick I
|
|
grew with again. The Mach II is almost identical to the Mach I but with
|
|
superior internal components (this from CH Products' Director of Sales and
|
|
Marketing, who was good enough to e-mail answers to my questions today).
|
|
|
|
If anyone else is interested (hint hint) we could order in bulk and get
|
|
that $127 price way down. If you order 100 of them, it's only $43 per
|
|
unit. Even 20 would provide a significant savings.
|
|
|
|
Greg
|
|
|
|
(GPH_II, Cat 14, Top 3, Msg 18)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
I'm curious to see how many people you could get in on this. The problem
|
|
is that even at that quantity 100 level, it's awfully expensive for a
|
|
joystick, and then there's the fact that they have to be assembled, which
|
|
most people can't do, and would just jack up the price even more.
|
|
|
|
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
|
|
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
|
|
Building communities, bit by bit.
|
|
|
|
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 14, Top 3, Msg 19)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
Yes that's true. Sometimes being a diehard Apple II fanatic means you feel
|
|
like you're being discriminated against. We pay many times what PC users
|
|
pay for hard drives, Etherenet, etc.
|
|
|
|
It might be best to have a queue of people needing new joysticks, and when
|
|
it reaches a certain threshold, everyone sends their money to someone they
|
|
trust (like you) who could do the ordering and then ship the pieces to the
|
|
recipients. Just one idea. I could do the assembly for a nominal cost for
|
|
anyone who didn't feel comfortable doing it themselves.
|
|
|
|
(GPH_II, Cat 14, Top 3, Msg 20)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
I think it would be important first to find out what price point at which
|
|
people become willing to buy one.
|
|
|
|
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
|
|
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
|
|
Building communities, bit by bit.
|
|
|
|
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 14, Top 3, Msg 21)
|
|
[EOA]
|
|
|
|
|
|
[TCB]
|
|
THE Cheese Box - VGA MONITORS ON THE Apple II
|
|
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
|
|
Doesn't anyone know about the Cheese Box? Used VGA monitors can be had for
|
|
cheap, and you get all the benefits of color on any Apple II (IIe, IIc,
|
|
IIgs) without the hassle of having to have special "Apple" hardware.
|
|
Cheese Box sells for about $60, and worth every penny. Has switchable
|
|
VGA/composite inputs.
|
|
|
|
(GPH_II, Cat 17, Top 17, Msg 6)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
I do, I just didn't find the quality of the video acceptable when I have
|
|
some fine working GS monitors as is. :)
|
|
|
|
Ryan
|
|
|
|
(A2.RYAN, Cat 17, Top 17, Msg 7)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
The Cheese Box doesn't look like you can plug it into the Apple IIgs RGB
|
|
port, but only the composite port, which isn't as good.
|
|
|
|
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
|
|
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
|
|
Building communities, bit by bit.
|
|
|
|
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 17, Topic 17
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
This is absolutely correct, and is the one downside: I'm constantly
|
|
switching in the control panel between color and monochrome. For my IIe,
|
|
it's excellent.
|
|
|
|
In our case it's a space issue. I've got four computers in this room where
|
|
I work:
|
|
|
|
Windows 2k Desktop PC
|
|
Windows 95 PC (works great with ApplePC's Mockingboard emulation and sound)
|
|
Apple IIGS
|
|
Apple IIe.
|
|
|
|
There are three VGA monitors. One is on the IIe, which is on the floor for
|
|
access by our 1-year-old daughter. It's just a space issue.
|
|
|
|
The perfect solution would of course be VGA output from the GS RGB, but
|
|
there isn't anything that does this. I try to stay away from Apple's
|
|
proprietary stuff like the monitor where possible, as I believe the Apple
|
|
II's future will be with inexpensive PC hardware...
|
|
|
|
(GPH_II, Cat 17, Top 17, Msg 11)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
How does it work with a IIe?
|
|
|
|
(MARGARET, Cat 17, Top 17)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
I expect it would work great with a IIe.
|
|
|
|
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
|
|
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
|
|
Building communities, bit by bit.
|
|
|
|
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 17, Top 17, Msg 10)
|
|
[EOA]
|
|
|
|
|
|
[RJS]
|
|
RECIPE FOR JOYSTICK
|
|
"""""""""""""""""""
|
|
(Posted on Applefritter.com, by yours truly.)
|
|
|
|
RECIPE FOR A BRAND-NEW, FACTORY QUALITY, OLD-STYLE APPLE II JOYSTICK
|
|
|
|
Remember your Apple II joystick? I am not talking about the huge toy
|
|
luggers sold today, the ones that require you to use your whole arm to
|
|
control them.
|
|
|
|
Rather, Ibm talking about the old ones that offered high precision because
|
|
the stick was small enough to control with the thumb and forefinger. The
|
|
one you used playing Archon II, BoulderDash, and Stellar 7. The ones that
|
|
haven't been sold for about a decade. Those joysticks.
|
|
|
|
So, where are they today? Wanting to get a brand new backup to my aging
|
|
Mach I (a 10-year old PC joystick converted to work on the Apple II), as
|
|
well as a similar style joystick for the PC, I had to search long and hard.
|
|
It turns out, all the parts for these old-school joysticks are still made,
|
|
and in fairly large quantities. Nowadays, they are just used for high-end
|
|
medical applications and to fly jet fighters. Imagine that! While kids are
|
|
enjoying Combat Flight Simulator their toy "fighter sticks", many real jet
|
|
fighters are using the same type of joystick many of us grew up with.
|
|
(Personally, I prefer a yoke to a stick for PC flight sims, but that is
|
|
another topic).
|
|
|
|
Here is the poop: you can build your own Mach II or Mach III replica for
|
|
the Apple II for about $140. The casing and assembly is still made, and
|
|
available from CH Products. Together, they will cost you $127. Here is the
|
|
recipe for a brand new Mach II:
|
|
|
|
Ingredients:
|
|
|
|
* 1 OEM component, part # C100B0J-CJ from CH Products.
|
|
* 1 old serial cable with male (pins, not holes) connector.
|
|
* Cord sheath OR hot glue gun.
|
|
* Soldering iron w/ solder.
|
|
* Volt Meter/Continuity tester.
|
|
* Wire stripper, or sharp knife
|
|
|
|
1. Order a C100B0J-CJ from CH Products. You can visit their OEM website,
|
|
and click the "Traditional" link at the left. You should see some
|
|
familiar-looking sticks. This model will give you the assembly and housing
|
|
for a Mach II.
|
|
|
|
2. Get yourself an old serial cable with a male connector (meaning with
|
|
pins, not holes). You may want to try to get a base sheath to protect the
|
|
rubber at the point it enters the joystick casing. Hot glue will work, but
|
|
it can be messy. Apply the sheathing to the cord, leaving enough slack in
|
|
the wiring to get to the various connector points.
|
|
|
|
3. This is the most effort-intensive step. You will need to strip and
|
|
solder the appropriate wires to the correct terminals. At this point, it
|
|
helps to have a reference Apple II joystick, as you can simply open it up
|
|
and test continuity between the terminal pins that plug into the CPU and
|
|
the various connection points on the joystick potentiometers and buttons.
|
|
Wiring diagrams are also available on the web.
|
|
|
|
4. Put the housing back together. This should consist of tightening four
|
|
screws.
|
|
|
|
Voila! One brand new Apple II joystick, for years of enjoyment.
|
|
|
|
As a variation, you should be able to build a Mach III replica exactly as
|
|
above, with one extra button to connect. You would need to decide whether
|
|
it is to be Button 0 or 1.
|
|
|
|
If enough people were interested in this, we could order the CH Products
|
|
parts in bulk and reduce costs considerably&
|
|
|
|
(GPH_II, Cat 17, Top 20, Msg 1)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
Looks pretty cool, but which stick did you put in the housing?
|
|
|
|
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
|
|
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
|
|
Building communities, bit by bit.
|
|
|
|
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 17, Top 20, Msg 2)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
I did this years ago, when it was much cheaper. It's a Mach I, originally
|
|
for the PC. It is still in service after all these years.
|
|
|
|
(GPH_II, Cat 17, Top 20, Msg 3)
|
|
[EOA]
|
|
|
|
|
|
[DBH]
|
|
DEAD BATTERY HARMFUL TO IIgs?
|
|
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
|
|
My ROM 01 GS has had a dead battery for four years now. I currently have
|
|
no desire to replace it. Will there be any long term ill effects if I
|
|
leave the dead battery in the system (i.e. battery corrosion, chemical
|
|
fires, etc.). If I cut the battery out and leave it out, will any normal
|
|
GS operations fail?
|
|
|
|
The nice thing about having a dead battery is that I don't have to worry
|
|
about the GS time rolling over in 2040 :)
|
|
|
|
Geoff
|
|
|
|
(GEOFF, Cat 17, Top 23, Msg 14)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
I don't think so, but I've not cut out any of the batteries before. You'd
|
|
need to restore your clock and other settings, but that's not something
|
|
that anyone who doesn't have a UNIX box with a dead battery (me) has to do
|
|
when there's a power outage.
|
|
|
|
Ryan
|
|
|
|
(A2.RYAN, Cat 17, Top 23, Msg 15)
|
|
[EOA]
|
|
|
|
|
|
[LPT]
|
|
LINUX ON A PC TRANSPORTER?
|
|
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
|
|
Has anybody installed Linux on a PC Transporter? Is it even possible?
|
|
I think that would be really cool if that was accomplished.
|
|
|
|
Geoff
|
|
|
|
(GEOFF, Cat 17, Top 29, Msg 43)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
I assume Linux would require a machine that can support virtual memory.
|
|
Can an 8086 PC do that?
|
|
|
|
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
|
|
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
|
|
Building communities, bit by bit.
|
|
|
|
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 17, Top 29, Msg 44)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
Everything I've ever seen indicates that Linux requires a 80386 32-bit
|
|
processor. Of course you never know if small parts of it could be ported.
|
|
(I know nothing about this, so I'll shut up now:)
|
|
|
|
Beside..SCO would get you if you tried;)
|
|
|
|
Dain
|
|
|
|
(A2.DAIN, Cat 17, Top 29, Msg 45)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
The minimum specifications are a 386 proc for linux but the AT&T 6300+
|
|
http://www.trailingedge.com/~dlw/comp/texttemp.html?att6300p Could run Unix
|
|
|
|
(TECHNERD, Cat 17, Top 29, Msg 46)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
Linux 2.6 (the recently released kernel) has microController
|
|
support--allowing Linux to run on systems without MMU support. I thought
|
|
I heard that there was 8086/80286 support with that, but I am unable to
|
|
verify that now.
|
|
|
|
I did find ELKS ( http://elks.sourceforge.net/ ) which is a ported version
|
|
of Linux for the 8086/80286 processor level. Its FAQ even mentions that
|
|
the NEC V20 should work with this kernel.
|
|
|
|
Geoff
|
|
|
|
(GEOFF, Cat 17, Top 29, Msg 47)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
I think the PC Transporter used the elusive 80186. Minix was designed for
|
|
8086 computers with 5.25" drives, so that might work better.
|
|
|
|
Kelvin
|
|
|
|
(KWS, Cat 17, Top 29, Msg 48)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
The PC Transporter used the NEC V20.
|
|
|
|
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
|
|
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
|
|
Building communities, bit by bit.
|
|
|
|
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 17, Top 29, Msg 49)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
The NEC V20 was made to be pin-compatible with the Intel 8088, the CPU
|
|
found in the original IBM PC, XT, and other clones. The 8088 is an 8-bit
|
|
bus version of the 8086, resulting in less efficient operation.
|
|
|
|
The NEC V20 was 30% faster than the Intel counterpart due to its better
|
|
designed microarchitecture.
|
|
|
|
It does include additional instructions found in the 80186/80188. The V20
|
|
could also emulate the Intel 8080.
|
|
|
|
That was probably more than you wanted to know :)
|
|
|
|
Geoff
|
|
|
|
(GEOFF, Cat 17, Top 29, Msg 50)
|
|
[EOA]
|
|
|
|
|
|
[CGF]
|
|
CURRENT STATUS OF GW-FTP
|
|
""""""""""""""""""""""""
|
|
Geoff,
|
|
|
|
What is the current status of GW-FTP? Like what is the latest version?
|
|
What works and what doesn't? And of course, is it available for download
|
|
anywhere currently?
|
|
|
|
Thanks,
|
|
Dain
|
|
|
|
(A2.DAIN, Cat 20, Top 13, Msg 62)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
I'd like to make gwFTP Open Source, but it is a pain to do everything that
|
|
is required:
|
|
|
|
* modify source
|
|
* add GPL notices
|
|
* write documentation to assemble, install, and use
|
|
* create a Web site
|
|
* write a press release
|
|
* etc.
|
|
|
|
It is just much easier to hand it off "as-is" to be put on a disk. So it
|
|
is more or less copyrighted freeware at the moment. And since it really is
|
|
a beta releases (there are known crashing and hanging problems), I see no
|
|
reason for a limited distribution method.
|
|
|
|
All copies of gwfTP have been made available this way. It should be noted
|
|
that none of proceeds of disk sales with gwFTP go to me.
|
|
|
|
Version 1.1b4 was announced and released at KFest 2004. I gave a copy to
|
|
Andrew to put on the Marinetti 3.0b1 CD, but I heard reports that it wasn't
|
|
to be found. It is available on the Marinetti 3.0b1 disk that is sold by
|
|
Syndicomm (and at $4.00, it is cheaper than the $5.00 disks sold by
|
|
Shareware Solutions II and Juiced.GS).
|
|
|
|
If gwFTP is used enough, memory gets all messed up resulting in a crash (at
|
|
least on my system). Most of the code was written during a time when
|
|
I had no idea what I was doing.
|
|
|
|
gwFTP also doesn't handle error conditions well. It can do anything from
|
|
ignoring them gracefully to hanging.
|
|
|
|
gwFTP doesn't handle file globbing. I have no desire to write that code.
|
|
|
|
gwFTP does do what it promises: uploads and download files by passive mode
|
|
FTP as binary or text. It operates like the ftp program that you find on
|
|
Windows, Mac, and UNIX systems. But unlike those, it doesn't handle stdin
|
|
and stdout to be used within a script (again, that was because I didn't
|
|
know what I was doing when I wrote it).
|
|
|
|
Much of the code within gwFTP needs to be scrapped and rewritten (let's
|
|
just say that it was a coincidence that earlier released versions actually
|
|
worked for anybody).
|
|
|
|
At some point, I'll probably put a copy up on to Syndicomm for download,
|
|
but it would require a lot more work that just ftping a copy of itself.
|
|
|
|
Geoff
|
|
|
|
(GEOFF, Cat 20, Top 13, Msg 63)
|
|
[EOA]
|
|
|
|
|
|
[EOP]
|
|
ENHANCEMENT TO Orca/Pascal
|
|
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
|
|
I've coded up an enhancement to Orca/Pascal others might be interested in.
|
|
|
|
It's a patch to allow forward declaration of objects, eg:
|
|
|
|
Type
|
|
|
|
forwardObject = object; (* forward declaration *)
|
|
|
|
myObject = object
|
|
count: integer;
|
|
procedure init;
|
|
function createForwardObject: forwardObject;
|
|
end;
|
|
|
|
forwardObject = object (myObject)
|
|
procedure init; override;
|
|
procedure doThis;
|
|
procedure doThat;
|
|
end;
|
|
|
|
This is the same syntax as delphi/turbo pascal for forward definitions
|
|
(they use class instead of object, but they're otherwise equivalent).
|
|
|
|
The code changes are available here:
|
|
http://www.syndicomm.com/~kws/pascal/
|
|
|
|
Kelvin
|
|
|
|
(KWS, Cat 22, Top 6, Msg 15)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
Kelvin,
|
|
|
|
I'm going to try that, once I actually get back in coding shape.
|
|
|
|
Ryan
|
|
|
|
(A2.RYAN, Cat 22, Top 6, Msg 16)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
One of these days I'm going to have time to roll together these patches
|
|
into something I can deliver somehow. Not sure how yet. :)
|
|
|
|
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
|
|
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
|
|
Building communities, bit by bit.
|
|
|
|
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 22, Top 6, Msg 17)
|
|
[EOA]
|
|
|
|
|
|
[EBD]
|
|
8-BIT DRIVER FOR THE LANceGS ETHERNET CARD
|
|
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
|
|
So, Some initial 8-bit work on the LANceGS card is being done.
|
|
|
|
It would be kind of neat if there were some kind of text based AIM chat
|
|
client for my IIe:)
|
|
|
|
One can dream.....
|
|
Dain
|
|
|
|
(A2.DAIN, Cat 27, Top 2, Msg 67)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
A telnet client and a FTP client would do it for me :)
|
|
|
|
Ryan
|
|
|
|
(A2.RYAN, Cat 27, Top 2, Msg 68)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
Yeah... I'd sure like to see some software. I've got a request in to
|
|
Joachim for a copy of the driver. I'm curious to see just how much stuff
|
|
the developer will have to do to actually make it usable. I'm betting
|
|
lots.
|
|
|
|
Joachim says the driver's been done for "ages" and is surprised nobody
|
|
asked for a copy before. I pointed out that it helps to tell people. :)
|
|
|
|
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
|
|
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
|
|
Building communities, bit by bit.
|
|
|
|
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 27, Top 2, Msg 69)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
I was wondering if anybody has seen the Prodos8 drivers for the lanceGS and
|
|
if they could be adapted to be used in the Apple port of Contiki.
|
|
|
|
(TECHNERD, Cat 27, Top 2, Msg 70)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
I've signed up to get them, but haven't yet.
|
|
|
|
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
|
|
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
|
|
Building communities, bit by bit.
|
|
|
|
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 27, Top 2, Msg 71)
|
|
[EOA]
|
|
|
|
|
|
[BMW]
|
|
BACKING UP Bank Street Music Writer
|
|
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
|
|
ImageMaker:
|
|
|
|
I have a particular 140K disk called Bank Street Music Writer. There's an
|
|
investment of hundreds of effort-hours of music I've composed using it.
|
|
I've never been able to successfully back it up. Can Imagemaker make raw
|
|
images of copy-protected 140k disks? How should I solve this problem?
|
|
|
|
(GPH_II, Cat 29, Top 5, Msg 19)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
No, ImageMaker really isn't good for doing 140K images, although I plan to
|
|
add that capability in the future.
|
|
|
|
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
|
|
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
|
|
Building communities, bit by bit.
|
|
|
|
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 29, Top 5, Msg 20)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
BSMW uses a proprietary OS and cannot be copied, even by Nibble copiers.
|
|
It must be cracked. I'm working on this as time avails. It will end up
|
|
being an entirely NEW program, runnable from ProDOS but necessitating a
|
|
reboot when finished (because the crack involves overwriting all of lower
|
|
64k, incl. P8). It will still save to its proprietary format, so I'll need
|
|
140k disks. It would be nice to get it reclassified as Public Domain so
|
|
everyone could have a copy.
|
|
|
|
Then, it would be even nicer to add a "GS" option, whereby all of its songs
|
|
could play on either Mockingboard or GS. Then, add a "wave maker" (similar
|
|
to its existing "voice editor") to make a simple 256-byte looped-wave for
|
|
each of the six voices in GS mode. You'd be amazed at the complexity that
|
|
can be achieved with simple looping waves instead of huge one-shot samples.
|
|
SynthLab is a prime example.
|
|
|
|
It is probably the best music program I've used, and a great teaching tool
|
|
as well.
|
|
|
|
(GPH_II, Cat 29, Top 5, Msg 21)
|
|
[EOA]
|
|
|
|
|
|
[AWE]
|
|
AppleWin EMULATOR
|
|
"""""""""""""""""
|
|
AppleWin 1.12.3 is quite nice.
|
|
|
|
http://www.tomcharlesworth.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/
|
|
|
|
Full source code is available. I fixed the Mockingboard tone and volume
|
|
emulation (noise, envelope, and speech support are still not there).
|
|
Ultima III, IV, and V music now sounds almost EXACTLY like it does on the
|
|
Apple IIe, without the nasally SoundBlaster tone. This is a first on a
|
|
Windows-based emulator. Sent the code to the (new) author, Tom
|
|
Charlesworth. Hopefully, he'll incorporate it into the next release.
|
|
|
|
Greg
|
|
|
|
(GPH_II, Cat 29, Top 14, Msg 1)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
Are there screen captures of the Color TV emulation mode anywhere to be
|
|
found?
|
|
|
|
Geoff
|
|
|
|
(GEOFF, Cat 29, Top 14, Msg 2)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
I can send you one, but it would be simpler to just try it (unless you
|
|
don't have access to a PC). It does seem to work as advertised, as you see
|
|
solid yellows and grays on standard HiRes displays. You can turn it off,
|
|
too, for the old color-monitor look.
|
|
|
|
(GPH_II, Cat 29, Top 14, Msg 3)
|
|
[EOA]
|
|
|
|
|
|
[ACK]
|
|
ANOTHER CHALLENGE USING KEGS
|
|
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
|
|
Thanks for the link!
|
|
|
|
I now have KEGS running under FreeBSD 4.9-STABLE. The POOF1 HD I created
|
|
won't let me install, though, GSOS says it's write-protected, but Unix says
|
|
its chmod777 all the way. Are there any prebuilt (empty) ProDOS formatted
|
|
2MG harddrive files available? Or maybe I missed something... I did see
|
|
some mention of write-protected volumes in another thread in another
|
|
category, but I didn't find the original posts or replies.
|
|
|
|
Tim Kellers
|
|
|
|
(KELLERS, Cat 29, Top 31, Msg 18)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
The A2Romulan CD has a bootable 32-meg system 6 image on it.
|
|
|
|
I've used it with kegs and it works great.
|
|
|
|
Kelvin
|
|
|
|
(KWS, Cat 29, Top 31, Msg 19)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
>> The POOF1 HD I created won't let me install, though, GSOS says it's
|
|
write protected, but Unix says its chmod 777 all the way. <<
|
|
|
|
Don't run KEGS as root. I've never had to_pro produce a bad disk image.
|
|
|
|
Geoff
|
|
|
|
(GEOFF, Cat 29, Top 31, Msg 20)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
UNIX shell commands to turn on and off write protection with KEGS disk
|
|
images is easy.
|
|
|
|
Write protection on: chmod u-w <image-filename>
|
|
Write protection off: chmod u+w <image-filename>
|
|
|
|
Geoff
|
|
|
|
(GEOFF, Cat 29, Top 31, Msg 21)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
>> Unix says its chmod 777 all the way <<
|
|
|
|
It's pretty hard to get more "write-enabled" than that!
|
|
|
|
I don't suppose it's something silly like the permissions of one (or more)
|
|
of the directories in the path?
|
|
|
|
Peter peterw@syndicomm.com
|
|
Palm OS Community Bulletin Board Manager
|
|
|
|
(PETERW, Cat 29, Top 31, Msg 22)
|
|
[EOA]
|
|
|
|
|
|
[KSW]
|
|
KEGS for UNIX With Solaris 9 Workstation
|
|
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
|
|
I built a new Solaris 9 workstation (Yay, finally get to use GNOME!).
|
|
I copied my Solaris 7 binaries over and they worked fine (there is no
|
|
native Solaris sound support with KEGS, but everything else was ok). KEGS
|
|
was running around 28 MHz on a 750 MHz native host. I noticed that KEGS
|
|
(and the system) would be intermittently sluggish so I decided to increase
|
|
the RAM to 256k. The sluggishness went away and KEGS screamed along at
|
|
38 MHz. I think I was more surprised to see how much a little RAM would
|
|
help with performance.
|
|
|
|
Geoff
|
|
|
|
(GEOFF, Cat 29, Top 31, Msg 23)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
It turns out that there is some code available to have sound available in
|
|
KEGS from Solaris. See
|
|
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=kegs+solaris+sound&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm=Pine.GSO.4.31.0104031022360.1252-100000%40sockmonkey.thoughtwave.net&rnum=2
|
|
|
|
Of course, I found that posting after I wrote similar code to do the same
|
|
thing. A little modification to the provided code would also allow SunOS
|
|
and *BSD systems to have sound as well.
|
|
|
|
Geoff
|
|
|
|
(GEOFF, Cat 29, Top 31, Msg 24)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
Well, rolling your own code is more fun anyway. ;)
|
|
|
|
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
|
|
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
|
|
Building communities, bit by bit.
|
|
|
|
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 29, Top 31, Msg 25 )
|
|
[EOA]
|
|
|
|
|
|
[AGS]
|
|
ActiveGS UPDATED TO v2.0
|
|
""""""""""""""""""""""""
|
|
As posted on the a2central home page, ActiveGS has been updated to version
|
|
2.0. The new feature which I like in this version is the ability to show
|
|
how fast the emulated megahertz that the GS is running at.
|
|
|
|
To my surprise, I found that the ActiveGS 2.0 runs around 25% faster than
|
|
KEGS 0.85. Running Platinum Paint, ActiveGS clocked in at 51 MHz which
|
|
KEGS on the same machine ran at 41 MHz. This test was run on a 850 MHz
|
|
Pentium III PC.
|
|
|
|
I couldn't believe that ActiveGS was that more efficient than KEGS.
|
|
I didn't spend too much time to determine all the difference between the
|
|
two GS emulators, but I did notice that ActiveGS doesn't emulate border
|
|
effects exactly the same way as KEGS. When ActiveGS runs the Split Demo as
|
|
part of the Christmas Demo, an area in the lower border does not get drawn.
|
|
KEGS reproduces the GS screen with accuracy.
|
|
|
|
Are there any other obvious differences between KEGS and ActiveGS which
|
|
explains the speed difference? Or is ActiveX just more efficient than
|
|
applications (I Would have thought that ActiveX would be less efficient
|
|
than applications).
|
|
|
|
Geoff
|
|
|
|
(GEOFF, Cat 29, Top 41, Msg 18)
|
|
[EOA]
|
|
|
|
|
|
[DCI]
|
|
DEVELOPER CONTACT INFORMATION
|
|
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
|
|
Greg Hedger
|
|
1248 Cork Elm Dr.
|
|
St. Louis, MO 63122
|
|
hedger@sbcglobal.net
|
|
http://pages.sbcglobal.net/hedger
|
|
|
|
Developed Adventure Alive, Artillery King, and working on AA2.
|
|
|
|
(GPH_II, Cat 50, Top 1, Msg 5)
|
|
[EOA]
|
|
|
|
|
|
[OTW]
|
|
Juiced.GS V9I1 ON THE WAY
|
|
"""""""""""""""""""""""""
|
|
Juiced.GS V9I1 mailed to US subscribers today. It should arrive over the
|
|
next week or so.
|
|
|
|
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
|
|
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
|
|
Building communities, bit by bit.
|
|
|
|
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 23, Top 2, Msg 527)
|
|
[EOA]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
[ITL]------------------------
|
|
ILLUMINATING THE LAMP |
|
|
-----------------------------
|
|
|
|
An overview of GEnieLamp A2 and The Lamp!
|
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
|
|
|
By Steven Weyhrich
|
|
|
|
|
|
A WHOLE NEW WORLD
|
|
|
|
Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) was a prolific writer of non-fiction and
|
|
science fiction during the 20th century. One of his most popular fiction
|
|
series told stories of a galactic empire in the far distant future, one
|
|
whose duration spanned many thousands of years. In a three-book set
|
|
published in the early 1950's, "Foundation", "Foundation And Empire", and
|
|
"Second Foundation", Asimov told of a time in which this empire was in
|
|
decline, heading to an unstoppable regression into barbarism. A
|
|
mathematician named Hari Seldon had devised the science of "psychohistory",
|
|
a complex set of equations that helped him make this prediction of decline
|
|
and fall. His equations furthermore forecast that it would take thirty
|
|
THOUSAND years until things improved and a new galactic empire rose again.
|
|
However, Seldon also found that by manipulating events in just a small
|
|
fashion here or there it was possible to alter this impending disaster,
|
|
much as making a slight adjustment in steering a car on a highway could
|
|
minimize or avoid an accident. If he could arrange the right conditions, he
|
|
found that it would be possible for the interregnum between the first and
|
|
second galactic empires to be reduced to a mere ONE thousand years. He
|
|
planned for a small group of scientists to be placed on a resource-poor
|
|
world at the edge of the galaxy, isolated from most of the rest of the
|
|
events happening at the central galactic capital world. As this center of
|
|
power for millions of worlds deteriorated and fell to nothing, his
|
|
Foundation would grow and flourish, the predetermined events pushing them
|
|
along to the desired future.
|
|
|
|
What I enjoyed about these stories was seeing how events would
|
|
progress for the small group of people Seldon had placed on Terminus, the
|
|
planet at the edge of the galaxy. Problems would arise, they would find
|
|
their choices of action constricted to the point where only one possible
|
|
path lay ahead of them, and that path pushed them along to the next step on
|
|
the road back to that new galactic empire. And after the crisis would pass,
|
|
a holographic recording of Seldon himself, made before the Foundation was
|
|
established, would appear in the Time Vault he had placed on Terminus. His
|
|
recording would tell them about the events that had just happened, events
|
|
which he had already predicted many years earlier. It was satisfying seeing
|
|
how events didn't just "happen", but happened in a way that Seldon already
|
|
had known and anticipated.
|
|
|
|
Although I do not have the use of Seldon's psychohistorical equations
|
|
to predict a FUTURE Apple II historical path, I do have the benefit of
|
|
reading the events of the PAST through the eyes of those who wrote about
|
|
and recorded them in each issue of GEnieLamp A2 and The Lamp! And my
|
|
reading tells me that there was just something about this year 2000 that
|
|
seemed to be a turning point. It was a transition from the state of being
|
|
moved here or there by powers over which we had no control (Apple Computer,
|
|
GEnie/Genie, America Online, CompuServe, or even Delphi) to a state of
|
|
taking control and determining the future ourselves. As with any event, it
|
|
took the actions of leaders who had a vision, but also the cooperation of
|
|
many others to make the vision a reality. And the reality was of a place
|
|
where the creative minds that still guarded the legacy of the Apple II
|
|
could meet and share ideas to keep the platform alive and functioning.
|
|
|
|
But I am getting ahead of myself. As the new century opened on January
|
|
1, 2000, and the world was relieved to learn that all civilization had not
|
|
come crashing down in flames due to the Y2K bug, the Apple II had continued
|
|
to chug merrily along. It was not directly affected by the calendar change
|
|
any more than it had been during the prior twenty-three years. Those who
|
|
used AppleWorks for their word processing, ProTERM for telecommunications,
|
|
or Print Shop for greeting cards and posters barely noticed the new
|
|
millennium, at least as far as their computers were concerned.
|
|
|
|
|
|
ROCKIN' PNEUMONIA AND THE BOOGIE WOOGIE FLU
|
|
|
|
World events that shaped the year 2000 included the crash of the
|
|
Concorde jet near Paris in July, killing 113 passengers. Yugoslavian
|
|
president Slobodon Milosevic was ousted from power by a national uprising.
|
|
Terrorists attacked the U.S. naval destroyer Cole while it was in Yemen.
|
|
The stock market, after the boom of the 1990's, began to turn around and
|
|
start a decline. The U.S. presidential election results were delayed for
|
|
weeks, awaiting recounts done by hand in Dade County, Florida. Eventually
|
|
George W. Bush was declared the winner, amid much controversy. America
|
|
Online, riding high on the Internet boom, bought media giant Time-Warner
|
|
for $165 billion, creating AOL Time-Warner.
|
|
|
|
In the computer world, Bill Gates turned over his title of CEO to
|
|
Microsoft president Steve Ballmer. Microsoft Windows 2000, a blend of their
|
|
network and personal versions of the operating system, was released in
|
|
February. Bill Clinton made the first-ever webcast of a presidential
|
|
speech. The first 1 GHz AMD and Intel Pentium processors began to appear on
|
|
the market. "Denial of service" attacks on major web sites begin to be a
|
|
problem.
|
|
|
|
Apple Computer's iCEO (interim CEO) Steve Jobs announces at the
|
|
MacWorld Expo in January that he was taking on the job of CEO on a
|
|
permanent basis. The "Pismo" PowerBook made its debut in 400 and 500 MHz
|
|
versions, and was the first PowerBook to be released without a SCSI port.
|
|
The Power Mac G4 Cube was released mid-year, and new dual processor Power
|
|
Macintosh G4 desktop units became available. The iMac colors were changed
|
|
to ruby, indigo, sage and snow, at similar 400 to 500 MHz processor speeds.
|
|
The long-promised next generation operating system, Mac OS X, appeared in
|
|
September in the form of a public beta.
|
|
|
|
|
|
THE LAMP! INFO
|
|
|
|
The year started with a new editor, Lyle Syverson, as mentioned in
|
|
this article last time. Syverson was an Apple II veteran of over twelve
|
|
years. He got his start with the Apple II through his position as a
|
|
chemistry lab tech at Rock Valley College in the city of Rockford in north
|
|
central Illinois. When he started there in 1987, one of his
|
|
responsibilities was to manage an inventory of over seven hundred
|
|
chemicals. This was done on an Apple IIe running AppleWorks 1.2. He liked
|
|
using the program so well that he eventually purchased a Laser 128 for his
|
|
own use at home.
|
|
|
|
To supplement his knowledge of his new computer, Syverson started
|
|
reading Apple II magazines. Their enthusiastic reports of the wonders of
|
|
the online world prompted him to invest further in a 2400-baud modem, which
|
|
he bought by mail order in 1993. It came "complete with cable and
|
|
software", but refused to work properly for him. He decided to purchase
|
|
Talk Is Cheap (TIC) by mail order, and was finally able to connect to a
|
|
local bulletin board system. That was enough to hook him, and after one
|
|
evening online, he sent in his shareware fee for TIC. He then tackled GEnie
|
|
and learned of the significantly improved 4.0 version of TIC that was soon
|
|
to be released. The author allowed him to apply the shareware fee to the
|
|
updated version.
|
|
|
|
GEnie was a fun experience for Syverson, further increasing his
|
|
knowledge of the Apple II. He found it great to be able to post a question,
|
|
then log back in an hour later and already find two or three answers. He
|
|
found it somewhat of a challenge to keep up with the volume of traffic on
|
|
the A2 Roundtable, and used to keep a pile of 5.25-inch disks on hand to
|
|
use in saving the TIC message buffer when it got full.
|
|
|
|
At the time of the release of System 6.0.1 on GEnie, he was able to
|
|
upgrade to an Apple IIGS. With some effort, he downloaded the six disks (at
|
|
2400 baud, 75 minutes per disk image) one at a time to a RAM disk, which he
|
|
then unpacked to a 3.5-inch disk.
|
|
|
|
With the 1996 transition of GEnie to Genie, and its significant price
|
|
increases, Syverson escaped to CompuServe's APPUSER forum, and was able to
|
|
stay there until early 1999 when its text access was terminated. He then
|
|
made the move to Delphi A2, where many Apple II faithful were migrating as
|
|
the shakeouts in the online world continued.
|
|
|
|
Though he had not previously had any experience with newsletters,
|
|
Syverson had been a regular reader of GEnieLamp A2 and The Lamp! He had
|
|
noticed Ryan Suenaga's request for an editor to take his place, and with
|
|
his impending retirement in the summer of 1999, he wrote and asked to be
|
|
considered for the job. Ryan accepted his offer, and with the January 2000
|
|
issue, the newsletter was Syverson's.
|
|
|
|
He started his first issue with the same editorial column title
|
|
"Opening Pitch" that Suenaga had used during his run as editor. By the
|
|
second issue, however, Syverson settled on a more personal title. At the
|
|
time, he was living in the Skyrise Apartments in Rockford, which was
|
|
located on the west bank of the Rock River that ran through town. This
|
|
inspired him to make his own editorial title, "High Above The Rock River".
|
|
|
|
The new Lamp masthead read as:
|
|
|
|
________________________________________________________________________
|
|
| |
|
|
|::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::|
|
|
|The Lamp! An Onipa'a Software Production Vol. 3, No. 1|
|
|
|::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::|
|
|
|Publisher................................Ryan M. Suenaga, M.S.W., L.S.W.|
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|Editor.....................................................Lyle Syverson|
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|Internet Email, Publisher.........................thelamp@sheppyware.net|
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|Internet Mail, Editor.................................lyle837@delphi.com|
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|::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::|
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|________________________________________________________________________|
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By the end of the year, the only change of note in the masthead was
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Syverson's address change to "lyle@FoxValley.net", apparently to reduce
|
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dependence on Delphi for his e-mail.
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Starting as new editor of The Lamp!, Syverson took the opportunity to
|
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make some modifications to the format. Whereas Suenaga's layout had been a
|
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close copy of the classic GEnieLamp A2 format, renaming the columns, but
|
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otherwise using them the same way, Syverson made some further adjustments
|
|
to suit his own style. Instead of "A Funny Thing Happened", where the
|
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messages from Delphi were reprinted, he chose to call this section first
|
|
"The Innings" (staying with the baseball motif), and then in his second
|
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issue "A2 Distillations". Another change was a more frequent use of the
|
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three-letter index symbols. Where previous editors used these only for a
|
|
specific article, and had only a single index code for ALL of the reprinted
|
|
forum messages, Syverson made these codes more specific by assigning a
|
|
different one to each individual topic, even in the A2 Distillations
|
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section. The advantage of this was the ability to specifically find an
|
|
article by its index code (when in the future an index might finally be
|
|
made).
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In August it was announced that The Lamp! back issues now had an
|
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additional home on a subdomain of the Sheppyware.net server.
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DELPHI A2 FORUM
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|
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Joe Kohn continued his weekly Monday Night Chat events, sadly reduced
|
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in size from the multi-system events of past years.
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Delphi, the last of the old-style online services to still offer
|
|
text-based access was making changes that it was hoping would help it
|
|
survive in the Internet tidal wave that had swept away other services. In
|
|
the new digital world where web access was THE way to do things online,
|
|
Delphi had successfully been adding access to its forums via a web-based
|
|
interface, attempting to modify itself to appeal to both the old and new
|
|
online computer user. The management was trying various ways to maintain
|
|
income, but was apparently finding it to be a struggle. They had a "Premium
|
|
Plan", but it was no longer available beginning in May. Technical glitches
|
|
were also becoming more of a problem, with the service being unable to
|
|
consistently keep the text and web sides of the forums reliably in sync
|
|
with each other.
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Finally, there was a good news/bad news announcement by Delphi
|
|
management in August. The good news was that as of November 1, 2000 Delphi
|
|
services would no longer be billed. The bad news was that after that date
|
|
their "legacy services" (which included text-based access) would continue
|
|
but would not be supported. For those who connected to Delphi by telnet,
|
|
this meant that any day after the end of October the access to this latest
|
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A2 home could be threatened.
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GENIE INFO
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After January 1, 2000 arrived, the old text-based Genie was completely
|
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gone, and the "new" Genie was running. This new service was completely
|
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web-based. It still offered some dial-in options (though not to the extent
|
|
that it had in the past), and that now at speeds up to 56K. According to a
|
|
usenet post on alt.online-service.genie by Andy Finkenstadt (who had been
|
|
with GEnie from the beginning), there were many problems with the new
|
|
service. Any e-mail from the old system was completely gone; the content
|
|
had been ported "imperfectly and haphazardly" to www.genie.com, and even
|
|
then did not completely function there. Users who DID go to the web site
|
|
did not see any announcement of the end of the old service, and found that
|
|
some of the links (such as the one for e-mail) did not even work.
|
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|
|
Several people found themselves continuing to receive bills on their
|
|
bank statements for Genie Online, even though they were not using (and
|
|
could not use) the new service. One person who posted his story on the
|
|
above-mentioned usenet newsgroup tried calling the customer service number.
|
|
He was told that an e-mail had been sent in April 1998 (!!) and on December
|
|
27, 1999 telling about the changes in the service, and offered to get him a
|
|
username and password for the new service. He had previously tried to send
|
|
them e-mail at the end of December asking about the changes; the customer
|
|
service representative told him that they would have to look for it before
|
|
any of the new charges on his account could be refunded. Days passed
|
|
without any contact from Genie about his question, and when he finally WAS
|
|
able to talk to them again, he was told that since his e-mail did not
|
|
specifically ask for cancellation of his account he would not be issued a
|
|
refund. Although he finally DID cancel his membership, he was unable to get
|
|
a refund on the charges that had been already been collected.
|
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A2CENTRAL.COM / SYNDICOMM
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Syndicomm had originally been founded by Tom Weishaar to manage the
|
|
Apple II Roundtables on GEnie. Around 1992, when it began to branch out to
|
|
some of the non-Apple II online areas (the Macintosh and PowerPC
|
|
Roundtables), Weishaar sold the operation to Dean Esmay and Gary Utter. At
|
|
its height, Syndicomm was responsible for the management of ten to twelve
|
|
forums each on GEnie and Delphi, two on America Online, and had contracts
|
|
to administrate online helpdesk services. Over the years, of course, the
|
|
AOL and GEnie connection faltered and failed, and during 2000 Delphi was
|
|
looking shaky as well. By this time, Esmay had not been active in the
|
|
business for a while, and Utter was having health problems that limited his
|
|
involvement. He was looking for an opportunity to get out of direct
|
|
operation of Syndicomm.
|
|
|
|
Delphi, which had been hailed as a safe haven from the long, slow
|
|
death spiral of Genie, was itself showing disturbing signs of instability
|
|
(as mentioned above). Its long-term plan was apparently to change from a
|
|
service that itself hosted specific, moderated forums to one that was more
|
|
member-based, where ANYBODY could start a forum if they wished. More
|
|
importantly, the end of support for text-based access on November 1, 2000
|
|
had the potential to be a big problem for those Apple II users who still
|
|
needed text access.
|
|
|
|
In June of 2000, Eric Shepherd had started his own Apple II-related
|
|
web site, www.A2Central.com. He had picked the name because of some other
|
|
sites that he had seen on the Internet, such as MacCentral.com and
|
|
BeOSCentral.com. It occurred to him that an A2Central.com web site was
|
|
needed, and registered the domain as soon as he thought of it. It was not
|
|
until later, when he was beta-testing the site that a comment came from
|
|
someone on Delphi that it might be confused with the newsletter
|
|
"A2-Central" started years earlier by Tom Weishaar. Regardless, Sheppy
|
|
liked the name and decided to keep it.
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|
|
|
When Sheppy first started the A2Central.com web site, its purpose was
|
|
to be a collection of articles, reviews, press releases, suggestions and
|
|
tidbits of use to Apple II users. Within a month of the launch of the site,
|
|
he was envisioning a broader role for it, including the addition of a
|
|
message board, chat room, and an area for files accessible via FTP. While
|
|
at KansasFest in July, Sheppy discussed the A2Central.com expansion in
|
|
private with Gary Utter and Dave Miller. Utter enthusiastically supported
|
|
his plans, and went so far as to ask Sheppy to take over Syndicomm. At that
|
|
time, however, he declined the offer.
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After the event was over, and Sheppy was back home in California, he
|
|
and Ryan Suenaga discussed Gary Utter's offer. As they considered the
|
|
possibilities, he decided that it made sense to accept it. However, he
|
|
realized that in order to make it work as a business it would be necessary
|
|
to widen his vision beyond the Apple II. Out of this came the concept of
|
|
hosting a variety of forums dedicated to several different computer
|
|
platforms or topics -- in actuality, creating an online service that
|
|
emulated the best of GEnie and Delphi at their prime. Making this work as a
|
|
business would require a good business name; "Syndicomm" worked well, and
|
|
had favorable recognition within the Apple II community. Additionally, it
|
|
provided the benefits of an experienced and dedicated volunteer staff.
|
|
Sheppy contacted Utter and Esmay and began to negotiate the purchase of
|
|
Syndicomm. The deal was completed on November 1, 2000.
|
|
|
|
Sheppy chose a DSL connection to the Internet for A2Central.com and
|
|
Syndicomm.com, as it was less expensive than a T1 type of connection, and
|
|
could have its bandwidth adjusted as the customer base changed. When he
|
|
first started the A2Central.com web site in June, it ran on a BeBox Dual/66
|
|
computer, using the BeOS R3 operating system, on his own personal DSL
|
|
connection. Within two weeks, the traffic had increased to the point where
|
|
the hardware had to be upgraded to handle the load, so he changed to a
|
|
refurbished Pentium 133, this time using Red Hat Linux 6.2 as its operating
|
|
system. Another older PC functioned as a firewall. With further growth of
|
|
the system and his Syndicomm expansion plans beginning to take shape, he
|
|
moved the system to its own dedicated DSL connection by the fall of 2000.
|
|
|
|
The design of the A2Central.com web site had been done entirely by
|
|
Sheppy. In order to make an online service that would act like GEnie or
|
|
Delphi a different approach was required . Dave Miller, using the Perl
|
|
language and MySQL databases, designed a front end for the multi-forum
|
|
Syndicomm.com site that would allow web access to forums, but would also
|
|
have text-based telnet access to satisfy most Apple II users needs. In the
|
|
first part of October, he designed chat rooms that worked like GEnie's
|
|
"Real Time Conference" rooms. During the rest of October and into November,
|
|
Miller worked on creating the bulletin boards (forums).
|
|
|
|
All of this was happening behind the scenes. A press release in
|
|
December finally announced the sale of Syndicomm to Sheppy, and further
|
|
stated that Dean Esmay and Gary Utter planned to continue to be involved in
|
|
the operations of the company under its new ownership. By December 8, 2000,
|
|
the Syndicomm.com service was ready for an open beta test, which ran
|
|
through the end of the month. The open-beta launch of the service was
|
|
accompanied by "door prizes" for those who first entered some of the Real
|
|
Time Conference rooms. After the start of the new year, membership would be
|
|
priced at $15 per month, which included 10 megabytes of personal disk space
|
|
on the Syndicomm server.
|
|
|
|
A2Central.com continued to exist as the web-face of Syndicomm A2.
|
|
During September, the cost of improvements to the web site was supplemented
|
|
by income from an eBay auction of a never-used RamWorks III card. Sheppy
|
|
also got the site officially licensed by Apple for distribution of Apple II
|
|
system software, and was also authorized to make the software available in
|
|
archive formats useful to Apple II users (not just the Macintosh Disk Copy
|
|
format as it would be found on the Apple Computer FTP site). By November,
|
|
the web site was offering Apple II system and starter kit disks, and had an
|
|
online store that worked through the Kagi ordering system. Items sold
|
|
initially were ComputerEyes GS video capture cards (still available today
|
|
in 2004!), and the A2-Central Font Collection.
|
|
|
|
As Syndicomm.com started operations, A2Central.com continued to exist
|
|
as what it was originally designed to be -- a web site with articles,
|
|
reviews, etc., while the real interactive experience was on the Syndicomm
|
|
forums.
|
|
|
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|
|
HARDWARE NEWS
|
|
|
|
Most of the hardware news that appeared in The Lamp! during 2000
|
|
involved re-education of new users about old hardware.
|
|
|
|
o February saw discussion of available RGB monitors that could be used as
|
|
replacements for the Apple IIGS monitors if they went bad.
|
|
|
|
o March posts reviewed RamFAST cards and ways to get them updated. Various
|
|
large-capacity floppy disk alternatives (floptical and magneto-optical
|
|
drives) were also discussed, as was the Laser 128 and its various models.
|
|
The care of cables for the ZipGSX was presented in the March issue. Also
|
|
fielded were questions about the PC Transporter.
|
|
|
|
o April saw Tony Ward explaining distinctions between and uses of the Apple
|
|
II Super Serial Card and the Turbo ASB baud rate generator. Mitchell
|
|
Spector described modifications that could be made to the Apple IIc.
|
|
|
|
o In May, the hot topic of discussion was how to create a "SuperGS"
|
|
computer, with the pros and cons debated back and forth.
|
|
|
|
o June reviewed the Apple IIGS battery and its replacement.
|
|
|
|
o August discussions involved the use of hard drives on an Apple II Plus,
|
|
and available models of CD-ROM drives for the Apple IIGS. In addition, the
|
|
No Slot Clock resurfaced as a topic (as it had previously in The Lamp! in
|
|
1998).
|
|
|
|
o During September, Ryan Suenaga wrote an article that described the Apple
|
|
IIc modem cable, and how to build one. The Forum discussed faster CD-ROM
|
|
drives.
|
|
|
|
o October's big news was the release of more information about a new piece
|
|
of hardware. An Ethernet card for the Apple IIe and IIGS was released by
|
|
///SHH Systeme, the creators of the BlueDisk and TurboIDE cards. This
|
|
Ethernet card, called "LANceGS", made it possible to connect an Apple IIe
|
|
or IIGS to an Ethernet network. Full file-sharing in GS/OS was not possible
|
|
with the card as was possible with an AppleTalk connection, since the
|
|
operating system had not been designed to support it. However, file
|
|
transfer could be done via FTP with terminal software, and connection to
|
|
the Internet was possible using Marinetti.
|
|
|
|
o November's messages highlighted various models of sound cards for the
|
|
Apple IIGS.
|
|
|
|
o And in December, Ryan Suenaga wrote a followup to his September article
|
|
about modem cables. This time the topic featured the Apple IIe with a Super
|
|
Serial Card.
|
|
|
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|
|
EMULATOR NEWS
|
|
|
|
Sheppy updated the Sweet16 Apple IIGS emulator to v1.3, then quickly
|
|
to 1.3.1 and 1.3.2. Version 1.5 was released in May, and 1.5.1 by
|
|
September.
|
|
|
|
F.E. Systems updated their Macintosh-based IIGS emulator Bernie ][ The
|
|
Rescue to v2.6. This version added "CataDog", a Finder-like disk-cataloging
|
|
feature that made it easier to browse ProDOS disks outside of the emulated
|
|
computer. This was soon followed by a 2.5.9 version, as it had been
|
|
discovered that v2.6 was not compatible with some older versions of the Mac
|
|
operating system (those prior to Mac OS 8.5). At KansasFest 2000 an upgrade
|
|
to v3.0 of Bernie ][ The Rescue was announced.
|
|
|
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|
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SOFTWARE NEWS
|
|
|
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:: COLLECTIONS ::
|
|
|
|
A common announcement to appear during 2000 was that of yet another
|
|
collection on CD-ROM of Apple II software of one type or another. Ryan
|
|
Suenaga announced at KansasFest a collection called "Time In A Bottle", a
|
|
two-disc CD collection of Syndicomm's A2 and A2Pro libraries from the
|
|
now-defunct Genie. Juiced.GS got into the act with a CD-ROM called "The
|
|
Compleat Lamp!", which contained all issues of GEnieLamp A2, GEnieLamp
|
|
A2Pro and The Lamp! in every format in which they had ever been released.
|
|
Joe Kohn announced a two-CD-ROM collection from France, "DeluxeWare" and
|
|
"Le CD-ROM", both from Brutal Deluxe.
|
|
|
|
Mike Westerfield inquired as to whether or not there was sufficient
|
|
interest in a CD-ROM containing all of The Byte Works products. Having
|
|
received a positive response, he decided to move forward with the project.
|
|
By December, "Opus ][" was ready to ship, containing every Apple II program
|
|
ever released by The Byte Works, including sixteen never-released
|
|
applications. The Lamp! that month included two long articles by
|
|
Westerfield describing the collection.
|
|
|
|
|
|
:: PRODUCTIVITY SOFTWARE ::
|
|
|
|
Gareth Jones put together an FAQ (which is still available) about
|
|
WordPerfect IIe and IIGS at
|
|
http://www.intergate.ca/personal/gslj/wp.faq.html.
|
|
|
|
Howard Katz as Lost Classics Project coordinator was busy during 2000.
|
|
He was able to announce the release of Will Nelken's Marin MacroWorks
|
|
products, as well as TimeOut Graph and other TimeOut products and the
|
|
BeagleWrite word processor. Uploaded in June was Beagle Graphics, and in
|
|
August extra graphic patterns for Beagle Graphics, and Diversified
|
|
Accountant Job Cost System. ZBASIC, an 8-bit BASIC compiler for the Apple
|
|
II, was also made available through this project.
|
|
|
|
Geoff Weiss released another Spectrum script called SCAP ("Spectrum
|
|
Create A PDF"), which converted AppleWorks Classic, Teach, Text, or Source
|
|
files into PDF format files.
|
|
|
|
|
|
:: TELECOMMUNICATIONS SOFTWARE ::
|
|
|
|
Crock 'O Gold was updated to v3.3. Don Elton released the source code
|
|
for Talk Is Cheap on his FTP server; it was also posted on the Delphi A2
|
|
library.
|
|
|
|
Kim Howe contributed a short article about Arachnid, his Apple IIGS
|
|
web browser, and had his first preview release up in May. By August,
|
|
Preview 2 was available for download.
|
|
|
|
Spectrum was updated to v2.2, then to v2.3, and by November was up to
|
|
v2.4 and was being sold through Shareware Solutions II. Ewen Wannop also
|
|
introduced SAM (Spectrum Automated Mailer) in April. Requiring at least
|
|
v2.3 of Spectrum and v2.0 of Marinetti, it was an e-mail message management
|
|
program for the IIGS, using Internet protocols. Shareware Solutions II was
|
|
chosen as the publisher of the program.
|
|
|
|
Richard Bennett announced that Marinetti was changing to open source
|
|
status as of August 2000, and further development by any interested parties
|
|
was welcomed.
|
|
|
|
|
|
:: UTILITY SOFTWARE ::
|
|
|
|
The Lost Classics Project was also busy in this category. Diversi-DOS
|
|
by Bill Basham and ProntoDOS by Tom Weishaar was released into freeware
|
|
status, thanks to the efforts of Gareth Jones and Howard Katz. Also
|
|
released were Beagle Compiler and Program Writer, as well as System.II from
|
|
Kitchen Sink Software.
|
|
|
|
Sheppy released ImageMaker 1.2, a bug fix revision, and then in
|
|
September released v2.0.
|
|
|
|
For those wishing to WRITE utility software routines, the tricks to
|
|
reading multiple keys down on the Apple IIGS were explained by Sheppy in
|
|
March. In August, one topic of discussion was the use of a Macintosh server
|
|
and booting an Apple IIGS from that Mac. A related recurring theme was file
|
|
transfer between Apple II and some other foreign computer. Accomplishing
|
|
this between a IIGS and an IBM PC was discussed in March.
|
|
|
|
|
|
:: GAMES ::
|
|
|
|
Jeff Fink worked feverishly on his adventure game Silvern Castle
|
|
during 2000. He first updated it to version 3.0, with an Expanded Scenario,
|
|
and then to v4.0 and v4.1 by May. In August, v5.0 of the game was
|
|
available, and some hints were posted as well. Along with some feature
|
|
improvements, this new update included a new expert-level scenario "Time
|
|
Master" for registered owners. A revision to v5.1 and v5.2 followed soon
|
|
after, as did the announcement that Fink had decided to change the status
|
|
of the game to freeware, as he had received only a measly NINE shareware
|
|
registrations since he had released the game in July 1999. He hoped that
|
|
making it a freeware product would increase the penetration of the game,
|
|
and therefore the interest in it. Not willing yet to rest on his laurels,
|
|
he released v6.0 by November. The changes in this revision were primarily a
|
|
recoding to operate under MicroDot, which allowed the program to be more
|
|
compact and to fit more game into the same amount of space. By December he
|
|
announced yet another update, this time to v7.0.
|
|
|
|
Other game-related events included:
|
|
|
|
o Kim Howe released his first Apple IIGS game, Shipwrecked, which operated
|
|
under HyperCard IIGS.
|
|
|
|
o Joe Kohn arranged for the re-release of Ultima I IIGS.
|
|
|
|
o NinjaForce updated their web site, and made a version of Defender Of The
|
|
World in "2MG" format for use with emulators.
|
|
|
|
o Tom Zuchowski released a CD filled with Eamon text adventure scenarios,
|
|
suitable for use with an emulator or an Apple II with access to a CD-ROM
|
|
drive.
|
|
|
|
o At KansasFest, Sheppy released Lemonade Stand GS, an updated version of
|
|
the classic Applesoft game.
|
|
|
|
o An update of GShisen to v1.2.1 was uploaded in September.
|
|
|
|
o Ancient Art Of War At Sea, DuelTris and Xenocide were again made
|
|
available through the Lost Classics Project.
|
|
|
|
|
|
INTERNET NEWS / NETWORKING
|
|
|
|
June discussions included ways to use a PC running Linux to act as a
|
|
server for an Apple IIGS, allowing an indirect connection to the Internet
|
|
via a DSL or cable modem. (The web site referenced, www.linuxrouter.org, is
|
|
still available, but no further development is being done with it).
|
|
|
|
|
|
PUBLICATIONS
|
|
|
|
Juiced.GS continued its run, concluding its fourth year and starting
|
|
its fifth. Each issue was described in a post on the Delphi forum that
|
|
outlined its table of contents.
|
|
|
|
|
|
KANSASFEST
|
|
|
|
Dubbed "Y][KFest", this 2000 edition of KFest was again held in late
|
|
July at Avila College in Kansas City, Kansas. As early as January, a
|
|
registration form for the event appeared in each issue of The Lamp!, up
|
|
until the month before the event. Ryan Suenaga's "Y][KFest Compliant" KFest
|
|
FAQ appeared in the March issue.
|
|
|
|
KFest this year featured a keynote address by Ryan Suenaga, and a
|
|
roast of Eric Shepherd. Those events and the regular sessions were
|
|
available for the first time via web-cam. Sessions this year included
|
|
"AppleWorks GS and MusicWriter" by Stan Marks; "ProTERM Mac Tips & Tricks"
|
|
and "ProTERM Scripting" by Jerry Cline and Dave Miller; "Desktop
|
|
Publishing" by Max Jones; "Lost Classics Update" by Howard Katz; and
|
|
"Linux: The Apple II Cable Modem Adapter" by Ryan Suenaga and Kirk
|
|
Mitchell.
|
|
|
|
The one HackFest entry mentioned in The Lamp! (and not until November)
|
|
was from Ken Gagne. His program, Maxster, was a hoax made to look like a
|
|
Napster client for the Apple IIGS. It would APPEAR to search for,
|
|
download, and play the first few seconds of MP3 audio files. It was
|
|
uploaded in its 0.79 version during November.
|
|
|
|
Editor Lyle Syverson had an opportunity to attend the event this year,
|
|
and he gave his comments on his first KansasFest in an article in the
|
|
August issue.
|
|
|
|
|
|
REVIEWS
|
|
|
|
Ryan Suenaga reviewed the book "APPLEDESIGN: The Work Of The Apple
|
|
Industrial Design Group" in the February issue. Lyle Syverson reviewed the
|
|
Time In A Bottle CD set in September, and Mike Thomas did his own review of
|
|
it in November.
|
|
|
|
|
|
WRITERS
|
|
|
|
Ryan Suenaga again wrote "The Lamp Salutes" in January, presenting the
|
|
Apple II Achievement Awards. Best Commercial Product was awarded to GSoft
|
|
BASIC 1.2, with runner-up given to Spectrum Internet Suite 1.1. Best
|
|
Shareware Product was awarded to Silvern Castle and ImageMaker. Best
|
|
Freeware Product was given to the reclassified Modem MGR telecommunications
|
|
program. Best World Wide Web Site was awarded to the Apple II Information
|
|
Resource by Tony Diaz, and to David Kerwood's A2-Web. The Best Publication
|
|
award went to Juiced.GS, with honorable mention to Shareware Solutions II.
|
|
Outstanding Apple II-Related Development went to Bernie ][ The Rescue and
|
|
Sweet16. Outstanding Individual Achievement went to Howard Katz.
|
|
|
|
Suenaga also appeared again in August with "The Publisher Strikes
|
|
Back", an article that announced the outcome of his project of several
|
|
months of work, that being the production of the Time In A Bottle CD set.
|
|
He also announced "A2 News And Notes", a short newsletter that he would
|
|
write on a monthly basis to give headline-style updates of events in the
|
|
Apple II world.
|
|
|
|
Although it was not a major article, posts by Mark Percival (current
|
|
host of the A2 "Midweek Madness" chat on Wednesday evenings) began to
|
|
appear as quotes in The Lamp! during 2000. He joined in a spirited
|
|
discussion on the preservation of Apple II software.
|
|
|
|
|
|
MISCELLANEOUS FEATURES
|
|
|
|
Editor Syverson wrote an article about his thoughts on a dream
|
|
computer, an Apple II that would allow multitasking.
|
|
|
|
A joint teleconference was held between the Aurora Area Apple Core of
|
|
Aurora, Illinois, and the AppleByters of the Quad Cities of Illinois and
|
|
Iowa, over one hundred miles apart.
|
|
|
|
In August, it was announced that Glen Bredon had passed away. He was
|
|
the prolific author of ProSel, the Merlin (and Big Mac) assembler, and
|
|
numerous other utilities for the Apple II and IIGS over the years. As
|
|
mentioned in the previous article in this series, the web site Bredon had
|
|
put up posting pictures taken with his digital camera is still working (see
|
|
the February 2004 "Illuminating The Lamp" article for details).
|
|
|
|
|
|
STATS
|
|
|
|
Here are statistics for the first nine years of GEnieLamp and The
|
|
Lamp! The numbers refer to the size of each issue in "K" (kilobytes):
|
|
|
|
Year Min Max Avg
|
|
---- ---- ---- ----
|
|
1992 116K 212K 156K
|
|
1993 80K 256K 172K
|
|
1994 124K 216K 165K
|
|
1995 92K 176K 125K
|
|
1996 80K 192K 116K
|
|
1997 44K 124K 85K
|
|
1998 68K 156K 102K
|
|
1999 59K 120K 91K
|
|
2000 47K 81K 60K
|
|
|
|
|
|
YOU MAKE ME FEEL BRAND NEW
|
|
|
|
The Apple II world continued to contract during this year. However,
|
|
despite the undeniable fact that the World Wide Web ruled the Internet at
|
|
large, through Windows, Mac and Linux computers, there was still a ray of
|
|
hope. This was thanks to the efforts of the busy people who spearheaded the
|
|
effort to create a real home for the Apple II, one that was not dependent
|
|
on those who barely knew what an Apple II was. The new year was bright in
|
|
many ways, and continued to look better every day. Come back next month as
|
|
we move closer to convergence with the present, and review the events of
|
|
2001.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Steven Weyhrich
|
|
a2history@syndicomm.com
|
|
http://apple2history.org
|
|
|
|
|
|
References:
|
|
|
|
Computer History For The Year 2000
|
|
http://www.computerhope.com/history/2000.htm
|
|
|
|
The History Of Computing Foundation
|
|
http://www.thocp.net
|
|
|
|
Information Please: 2000
|
|
http://infoplease.lycos.com/year/2000.html
|
|
|
|
Macintosh History: 2000
|
|
http://www.lowendmac.com/history/2000.shtml
|
|
|
|
[EOA]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
[ANS]-------------------------------
|
|
ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM SYNDICOMM |
|
|
------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
by Lyle Syverson <lyle@foxvalley.net>
|
|
|
|
[TSU]
|
|
TO SIGN UP FOR SYNDICOMM ONLINE
|
|
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
|
|
Please visit our web site at http://www.syndicomm.com for information or to
|
|
sign up!
|
|
|
|
(Logon message)
|
|
[EOA]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
[LTE]-------------------------------
|
|
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR |
|
|
------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
Enjoying the Monthly Column, "Illuminating The Lamp"
|
|
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
|
|
The mail box for Letters to the Editor remained empty this month.
|
|
[EOA]
|
|
|
|
|
|
AN INVITATION
|
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
|
Express your opinions about the comings and goings in the world of the
|
|
Apple II computers.
|
|
|
|
Send your comments to Lyle Syverson, Editor <lyle@FoxValley.net>
|
|
|
|
The Editor reserves the right to edit any material submitted.
|
|
|
|
The Editor reserves the right to reject any material he considers
|
|
unsuitable for publication in _The Lamp!_.
|
|
[EOA]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
[KFF]------------------------------
|
|
KFest 2004 |
|
|
-----------------------------------
|
|
|
|
[KF4]
|
|
KansasFest 2004
|
|
"""""""""""""""
|
|
KansasFest 2004 is planned for July 20-25, 2004 at Avila University in
|
|
Kansas City, Missouri.
|
|
|
|
(Heading: Cat 5, Top 22)
|
|
[EOA]
|
|
|
|
|
|
[KFR]
|
|
REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN FOR KFest 2004
|
|
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
|
|
Visit the KFest Home Page at: http://www.kfest.org/
|
|
and follow the registration link.
|
|
[EOA]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
[INN]------------------------------
|
|
EXTRA INNINGS |
|
|
-----------------------------------
|
|
About The Lamp! The Lamp! is published on the fifteenth of every month on
|
|
""""""""""""""" the WEB at: http://lamp.a2central.com/
|
|
|
|
This publication produced entirely with real or emulated Apple II computers
|
|
using Appleworks 5.1 and Hermes. Apple II Forever!
|
|
|
|
* The Lamp! is (c) copyright 2004 by Ryan M. Suenaga, M.S.W. All
|
|
rights reserved.
|
|
|
|
* To reach The Lamp! on Internet email send mail to
|
|
thelamp@sheppyware.net
|
|
|
|
* All issues of The Lamp! are available at The Lamp! Home Page,
|
|
http://lamp.a2central.com/
|
|
|
|
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
|
|
Opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors, and do not
|
|
necessarily represent the opinions of A2Central.com, Delphi Online
|
|
Services, Syndicomm, Ryan M. Suenaga, or Lyle Syverson. Forum messages are
|
|
reprinted verbatim and are included in this publication with permission
|
|
from the individual authors. A2Central.com, Delphi Online Services,
|
|
Syndicomm, Ryan M. Suenaga, and Lyle Syverson do not guarantee the accuracy
|
|
or suitability of any information included herein. We reserve the right to
|
|
edit all letters and copy.
|
|
|
|
Material published in this edition may not be reprinted without the
|
|
expressed written consent of the publisher. Registered computer user
|
|
groups, not for profit publications , and other interested parties may
|
|
write the publisher to apply for permission to reprint any or all material.
|
|
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
[EOF]
|