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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. 10
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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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October 15, 2004
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HIGH ABOVE THE ROCK RIVER---------------------------------------------[OPN]
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Conservation of Natural Wildlife Habitats
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Conservation of the Apple II's
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A2 FORUM AT Syndicomm Online (A2Central.com) DISTILLATIONS------------[DAS]
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Welcome, Magnus--------------------------------------------------[WMS]
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Impressed With the AMD64 Systems---------------------------------[AMD]
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Patch Written for the LANceGS Driver-----------------------------[PLD]
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New Upload to A2 Library-----------------------------------------[NAL]
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The Prizm Debugger-----------------------------------------------[TPD]
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Emulator Issue With Regard to Future Development-----------------[EFD]
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Version 1.2 of the Contiki OS------------------------------------[COS]
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Help With the Rez Resource Compiler------------------------------[HWR]
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Marinetti: Interacting With a POP3 Server------------------------[IPS]
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How to Tell From an NDA if a Toolset is Already Started up-------[TSS]
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SideClick Contextual Menu Manager--------------------------------[CMM]
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Internet Settings CDev-------------------------------------------[ISC]
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Address Book NDA-------------------------------------------------[ABN]
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URL Handler------------------------------------------------------[UHR]
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Possible Projects for Software Development-----------------------[PPD]
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Email Fetcher----------------------------------------------------[EMF]
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Email Sender-----------------------------------------------------[EMS]
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Programming Conference-------------------------------------------[PGC]
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New WEB Location For MUD History Articles------------------------[MHA]
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List of Top 25 Most Influential Games----------------------------[MIG]
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ILLUMINATING THE LAMP-------------------------------------------------[ITL]
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An overview of GEnieLamp A2 and The Lamp!
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2002
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ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM SYNDICOMM------------------------------------------[ANS]
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To Sign up for Syndicomm Online----------------------------------[TSU]
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September 2004 Issue of Syndicommotion Available-----------------[SSA]
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October Issue of Syndicommotion Available------------------------[OSN]
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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 2005------------------------------------------------------------[KF5]
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KansasFest 2005 to be Held July 19-24th--------------------------[TBH]
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KansasFest Website-----------------------------------------------[KFW]
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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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Conservation of Natural Wildlife Habitats
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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The deep blue sky against the many colors of leaves in the early
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morning scene from High Above The Rock River confirms that this will be a
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great day for a drive in the country.
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The back roads to the town of Apple River in Northwestern Illinois
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will let us move at a slower pace... giving us more time to savor the Fall
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colors on display among the many hills... patches of multicolored woods
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interspersed with irregular shaped fields of mature corn awaiting harvest.
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The Annual Fall Eagle Fest, honoring the Bald Eagle, is sponsored by
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the Eagle Nature Foundation, which is headquartered in Apple River. The
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activities include a program on birds of prey... including a live Bald
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Eagle and other live examples.
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Food, baked goods, garden produce, nature art, postcards, shirts,
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decals, bird feeders, etc. are available for purchase.
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A talk by the Executive Director outlines the purpose of the
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organization... conservation of the habitat of the Bald Eagle in the states
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of Illinois and Wisconsin.
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Conservation of the Apple II's
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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It is suggested that you work for the conservation of Apple II
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hardware. Most of the hardware is no longer being manufactured. Rescue it
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from sources that might otherwise end up in a landfill. Sell it or give it
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to "good homes" when you no longer have a need for it or no longer have a
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desire to keep it.
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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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[WMS]
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WELCOME, MAGNUS
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"""""""""""""""
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hi, my name is Magnus Ericson, I'm from Sweden and I been to Kfest 1995...
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long time ago, but maybe an anniversary for me next year, who knows.. :-)
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I'm the current chairman of AppleUSerGroup here in Sweden, since its only
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A2-users in our club we only have around 30 members here. We have also the
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last years founded an real Apple II Museum, so when you are around
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Gothenburg in Sweden don't, hesitate to contact me for a visit...:-)
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kindly/ Magnus
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ps. I know lots of people here from GEnie... but do they remember me ? :-)
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(MAGNUS, Cat 2, Top 7, Msg 163)
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>>>>>
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"""""
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I remember you Magnus!
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It would be great if you made it to another KFest!
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Cindy
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(CINDYADAMS, Cat 2, Top 7, Msg 164)
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>>>>>
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"""""
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Hello. I wasn't around in the GEnie days, but it's great to see you here,
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Magnus. I've been to a few Kfests, and it would be great to see you at the
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next one.
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Welcome Aboard.
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Dain
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(A2.DAIN, Cat 2, Top 7, Msg 165)
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>>>>>
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"""""
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It would be great to have you back. Cabella's has a big new store North of
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Kansas City, just off the road from the airport, if you are still looking
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at such things. :)
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Carl Knoblock - Retired - Tue 28 Sep 04 7:17:22 pm
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cknoblo@cox.com - Via Spectrum v2.5.3 & SOAR v1.0b10
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KFest 2005, July 19-24, 2005 - 294 days till KFest
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On cable via LANceGS & Marinetti 2.0.1 - Thank you, Richard.
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A2 RTC Staff - Sunday Night House Party - carlk@syndicomm.com
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(CARLK, Cat 2, Top 7, Msg 166)
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>>>>>
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"""""
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Hi Cindy & Carl & all you others !
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Very interesting about Cabela, thanks for keeping me updated :-) I'm very
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impressed that you remember such a thing....
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In fact that is a very good reason to go to the Kfest. ;)
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/Magnus
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(MAGNUS, Cat 2, Top 7, Msg 167)
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>>>>>
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"""""
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Hi Magnus,
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I had lots of contact with Andreas Wennborg in the old days. He is still
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active in the Apple // world?
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Regards - Ewen
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Ewen Wannop - Speccie - Wed 6 Oct 2004 - 286 days till KFest '05
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Delivered without using a IIgs by Spectrum v2.5.3 & SOAR 1.0b11
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Setup: IIgs running at 95Mhz thanks to Bernie ][ the Rescue 3.0
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(CONDUCTOR, Cat 2, Top 7, Msg 168)
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[EOA]
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[AMD]
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IMPRESSED WITH THE AMD64 SYSTEMS
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""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
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The AMD64 systems look pretty sweet. And with direct support by all the
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major OS's (and even some that have small market shares), it is already
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proven to be a winner. And the real bonus is that IIgs emulators will
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easily exceed 100MHz (if anybody has numbers running on the top of the line
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processors, I would be interested to see them). It is so nice to get the
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next generation of computational power without losing the risk of backwards
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compatibility. It reminds me a lot of the situation when the IIgs was
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released as a step above its 8-bit cousins.
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The price tag is already starting to drop which is making it a more
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attractive option.
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Geoff
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(GEOFF, Cat 2, Top 10, Msg 19)
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>>>>>
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"""""
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The AMD-64 processor looks to be a pretty nice processor. You can get a
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motherboard for about $99, a processor starting near $125 (up to like $700
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if you dare). So technically you could put together a system fairly
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cheaply. I have an AMD Athlon system here that ran like a champ for a year
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or so , but while upgrading the memory the other night it seems to have
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died.
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It would be cool to say I have an 8 bit computer, a 16 bit computer, a 32
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bit computer and now a 64 bit computer:) Of course I could do that with an
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Apple G5 though. To run either in 64 bit mode you'd have to go Linux for
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now though.
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Dain
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(A2.DAIN, Cat 2, Top 10, Msg 20)
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[EOA]
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[PLD]
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PATCH WRITTEN FOR THE LANceGS Driver
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""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
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I have written a patch for the LANceGS.Driver, the routing version. The
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archive patchlance1.shk has been uploaded to the Syndicomm library.
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From the README, this is what it fixes:
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* Correct behavior for Link Layer restart. Both the TCP/IP control panel
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and Spectrum support restart and without this update, a restart will cause
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connections not to work.
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* Support for broken LanceGS cards "fixed" by LanceHack. The most common
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failure of LanceGS cards is the EEPROM losing its data. It will cost over
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US$20 to have a card sent to Germany and back and any support charges.
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Just repair with LanceHack plus use of this driver (and running the setup
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software to reset the configuration) will get you up and running
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* ARP requests are handled more intelligently, especially for faster
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systems.
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* Only IP packets are passed to Marinetti. Non-IP packets can cause
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Marinetti to hang.
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* Odd-sized ethernet frames now get sent. An extra byte was being added
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before.
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* No extra bytes are added to received IP frames when passed to Marinetti.
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* Corrected hanging bug on busy network segments such as cable modem or
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DSL. Most LanceGS systems are connected to private networks so unless it
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is physically connected to the cable/DSL side, this isn't noticed.
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* Compatible with future ethernet emulation in KEGS.
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Geoff
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(GEOFF, Cat 20, Top 13, Msg 83)
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>>>>>
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"""""
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I should probably add that the patch is not supported by SHH Systeme and is
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to be used at your own risk. If you find any problems with the resulting
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LANceGS.Driver and can back up your claim with data from NiftyList, GSBug,
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etc. I'll help you the best I can. Be prepared that I may give you my
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source and have you fix it yourself :)
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Geoff
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(GEOFF, Cat 20, Top 13, Msg 84)
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>>>>>
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"""""
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Thanks, Geoff!!!!!!!!
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Kelvin
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(KWS, Cat 20, Top 13, Msg 85)
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>>>>>
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"""""
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Kelvin, it really should be I thanking you. You gave me the best beta test
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report ever during the beta cycle of this driver. Additional
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acknowledgements goes to Ryan, Mark, Carl, and Dain who have different
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systems than I do who verified that the software worked as expected.
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I should probably add this driver still has the same problem as the
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original where packets will still be sent even if ARP fails. Unlike the
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original, my driver will always send the packet to the broadcast MAC
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address. This is really a bad thing, but it almost guarantees that a
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network connection will work. The fix is to track a lack of an ARP reply
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and not transmit packets to that IP address.
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Additional features that would be nice include:
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* ARP timeout (someone [not me] needs to create a utility to let the user
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specify the ARP timeout and then the driver can read the value and use it)
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* change the "timing" loops to use the event manager to track cycles
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instead of a relying on the CPU speed (loops have to be given extra time to
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run on an accelerated system, resulting in potentially slower response time
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for slower GS's or not enough time for hyper accelerated GS'S).
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(GEOFF, Cat 20, Top 13, Msg 86)
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>>>>>
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"""""
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I would also like to thank Geoff for his work on the patch for the LANceGS
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driver (as well as all of his other work recently).
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Ryan
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Chief Sysop and Head Geek
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(A2.RYAN, Cat 20, Top 13, Msg 87)
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>>>>>
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"""""
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No Kidding Geoff. I've gotten lots of use from your programs over the
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years, Thanks.
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Dain
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(A2.DAIN, Cat 20, Top 13, Msg 88)
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[EOA]
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[NAL]
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NEW UPLOAD TO A2 LIBRARY
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""""""""""""""""""""""""
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There is a new upload in the telecommunications/applications/16-bit
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directory:
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File: patchlance1.bxy
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Size: 18304
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Date: Sep 16
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PatchLance1 by Geoff Weiss (geoff@apple2.gs)
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This is the first update available to patch the LANceGS.Driver link layer
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for Marinetti. Several bugs are fixed as well as additional enhancements
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have been implemented.
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This software has not been sanctioned by SHH Systeme so it is to be used at
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your own risk.
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See Category 13, Topic 20, Message 83 (or the included ReadME file) for
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further details.
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Tony Ward, A2 Librarian
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(A2.TONY, Cat 2, Top 37, Msg 40)
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[EOA]
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[TPD]
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THE Prizm DEBUGGER
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""""""""""""""""""
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I recently discovered the debugger that existed within Prizm and was very
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impressed by it. I thought I had found a problem with it which I later
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learned was my ignorance after reading appropriate section of the manual.
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I didn't like that the caret character is used for pointers in the
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variables window (considering I was using C). I was wondering what the
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general consensus is if Prizm supported both the asterisk and the caret for
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pointers. This would maximize compatibility between C and Pascal
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developers.
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Geoff
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(GEOFF, Cat 22, Top 28, Msg 18)
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>>>>>
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"""""
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I think that would be nice, if there were an option to choose which
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notation to use for pointers.
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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 22, Top 28, Msg 19)
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>>>>>
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"""""
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Choice is good.
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I use Prizm, although I rarely use the debugger. I just wish the GS had
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more screen real estate.
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Ryan
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Chief Sysop and Head Geek
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(A2.RYAN, Cat 22, Top 28, Msg 20)
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>>>>>
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"""""
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Prizm is one of the few programs where the lack of screen real estate makes
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it cumbersome to use. Or maybe I'm just used to 1600x1200 resolution
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displays for the last six years. A interesting project for someone to
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tackle would be to write an X client on the GS so windows are accessible on
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larger displays. This would require patches to the Window Maner, Event
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Manager, Quickdraw, etc. Because the graphic drawing is offloaded to the
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client instead of being needed to be done by the GS, it could prove to be a
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workable solution. And with X servers available on virtually all modern
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OS's, there's an immediate base of compatibility for usefulness.
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Geoff
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(GEOFF, Cat 22, Top 28, Msg 21)
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[EOA]
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[EFD]
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|
EMULATOR ISSUE WITH REGARD TO FUTURE DEVELOPMENT
|
|
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
|
|
I have been following Richard Bennett-Forrest's series of emulation
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articles in Juiced.GS and have been enjoying the content. As someone who
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has added a feature or two into KEGS, it is refreshing to see the point of
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view of another approach. I am very curious to see where Richard is going
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based on his May 2004 article about emulator identification from the IIgs
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stand point.
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I have found that the suggested format of using $C04F ID Byte to be
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extremely limiting and poorly designed for any type of expansion. The
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version number that it presents is in the form of X.Y. KEGS is still in
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the development stages and the version number hasn't even reached 1.0 yet.
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Its version number appears as .XY, or using the $C04F notation, 0.X,
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losing the second version number digit. Also, the version number format
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breaks once the major version exceeds 9 (or 15 if BCD is not assumed). The
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mouse code changed from 0.85 to 0.86 in KEGS so an application may want to
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take advantage of the two different scenarios, but can't since the version
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number returns $08 for both.
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And how should the emulator ID be defined? Sweet 16 is Bernie ported to Be
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so it gets a different ID than Bernie. KEGS has been ported to many
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different platforms and comes in many flavors so should it get a different
|
|
ID for each? KEGSwin, xKEGS, KEGSMac, CasaGS, KEGS32, ActiveGS, and
|
|
KEGS-Xbox are several ports that have been made. Something like xKEGS has
|
|
different functions depending on which underlying OS it was built on, not
|
|
even mentioning that there are assembly versus C cores for specific systems
|
|
too. A single ID byte may not provide enough information.
|
|
|
|
I await anxiously to see what Richard has come up with. Hopefully, some of
|
|
these areas of concern would be addressed.
|
|
|
|
Geoff
|
|
|
|
(GEOFF, Cat 29, Top 6, Msg 12)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
Well, Sweet16 isn't actually Bernie ported to anything; it's based on
|
|
Bernie but has some key differences (such as the fact that on x86 it's a
|
|
totally different, C-based, emulation core). That's why it gets its own
|
|
ID. It might actually have made sense for it to report a different ID on
|
|
PPC versus x86 for that reason.
|
|
|
|
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
|
|
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
|
|
Building communities, bit by bit.
|
|
|
|
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 29, Top 6, Msg 13)
|
|
[EOA]
|
|
|
|
|
|
[COS]
|
|
Version 1.2 of the Contiki OS
|
|
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
|
|
Version 1.2 of the Contiki OS has been announced. Some of the new features
|
|
are:
|
|
|
|
# Service layer providing dynamic loading and unloading of system services
|
|
# Multi-threading library
|
|
# Protothreads: extremely light-weight, stackless threads
|
|
# Optional socket-like network API based on protothreads
|
|
# Generic filesystem interface
|
|
# Kernel rewritten with cleaner API
|
|
# CTK terminal driver for providing text-based GUI over Telnet
|
|
|
|
It is amazing that it now has surpassed GS/OS in its capabilities. The
|
|
last feature mentioned sounds pretty neat since that is essentially VNC
|
|
using text (resulting in fast operation for slower computers).
|
|
|
|
Has anybody looked at converting the released LanceGS 8-bit driver into a
|
|
library for Contiki to give Apple II users the ability to take advantage of
|
|
its TCP/IP capabilities?
|
|
|
|
Heck, a IIgs port would be neat to take advantage of a full color GUI.
|
|
|
|
Geoff
|
|
|
|
(GEOFF, Cat 51, Top 63, Msg 1)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
Contiki's ETH64 ethernet driver uses the same chip as the LanceGS so most
|
|
of the work is already done to add LanceGS support for Contiki. The
|
|
LanceGS driver could be easily based on what exists for the ETH64.
|
|
Obviously, the big difference would be EEPROM access.
|
|
|
|
Geoff
|
|
|
|
(GEOFF, Cat 51, Top 63, Msg 2)
|
|
[EOA]
|
|
|
|
|
|
[HWR]
|
|
HELP WITH THE Rez RESOURCE COMPILER
|
|
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
|
|
Anyone with some Rez sample code for rectangle controls (as well as what
|
|
the resulting box looks like)? I have not yet used this control so I could
|
|
use this direction.
|
|
|
|
Thanks
|
|
|
|
Ryan
|
|
Chief Sysop
|
|
|
|
(A2.RYAN, Cat 52, Top 48, Msg 22)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
From the SIS source code:
|
|
|
|
#define PrefBaseRect $8014
|
|
|
|
resource rControlTemplate (PrefBaseRect) {
|
|
PrefBaseRect,
|
|
{1,1,123,538},
|
|
rectangleControl {{
|
|
0+2,
|
|
fctlProcNotPtr,
|
|
0
|
|
}};
|
|
};
|
|
|
|
This draws the black rectangle that makes up the border of the index card
|
|
of the preference window. A portion of this rectangle gets erased where
|
|
the active tab is displayed by drawing an icon over it.
|
|
|
|
One of the grey rectangles in the General Preferences was drawn by this
|
|
(based on the coords, this should be the upper-most grey rect):
|
|
|
|
resource rControlTemplate (gPrefLRect) {
|
|
gPrefLRect,
|
|
{10,10,35,260), /* coords local to window */
|
|
rectangleControl {{
|
|
0+1,
|
|
0x1000,
|
|
0
|
|
}};
|
|
};
|
|
|
|
Geoff
|
|
|
|
(GEOFF, Cat 52, Top 48, Msg 23)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
Thanks, Geoff.
|
|
|
|
Ryan
|
|
|
|
(A2.RYAN, Cat 52, Top 48, Msg 24)
|
|
[EOA]
|
|
|
|
|
|
[IPS]
|
|
Marinetti: INTERACTING WITH A POP3 SERVER
|
|
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
|
|
I am currently doing some more work on interacting with a POP3 server and
|
|
am seeking opinions as to what length of time to implement for a "timeout",
|
|
meaning, "If we don't receive a response from the server within x amount of
|
|
seconds, we assume this connection is toasted." I realize that there are a
|
|
lot of variables with this (primarily the speed of the connection) and
|
|
would like some opinions as to how long this time out ought to be. I'm
|
|
thinking 10 seconds, but would value some input.
|
|
|
|
Thanks.
|
|
|
|
Ryan
|
|
Chief Sysop
|
|
|
|
(A2.RYAN, Cat 57, Top 31, Msg 43)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
Optimally, this should be a user preference with the default being fairly
|
|
large such as 60 seconds.
|
|
|
|
Users on a modem versus those on broadband have different speed
|
|
expectations. Broadband has brought us closer to the "7 second maximum"
|
|
immediate response time (as specified by the HCI research of Ben
|
|
Shneiderman, http://www.cs.umd.edu/~ben/ ). Factors outside user control
|
|
is the speed of the mail server (is it busy processing spam) and speed of
|
|
the connection to the server (is it on the other side of the country).
|
|
|
|
So a modem user connecting to a busy server on the other side of the
|
|
country over a slow connection can easily need 60 second timeouts.
|
|
|
|
The POP protocol, especially if the server uses mail format instead of
|
|
mdir, may also take a while to generate the information before it will get
|
|
sent. Software such Eudora and Exchange have a 30-60 second time out and I
|
|
have seen where the servers needs to process information longer than that
|
|
timeout.
|
|
|
|
I hard-coded SIS to use a 30 second time out since that is a decent median
|
|
for slower and faster access users. Server time-outs are not a common
|
|
preference item to be found in user-level applications. I personally would
|
|
like a quicker time-out since it can be a PITA waiting 30 seconds for a
|
|
time-out, but I kept the higher value since I wasn't the only user of SIS.
|
|
|
|
Geoff
|
|
|
|
(GEOFF, Cat 57, Top 31, Msg 44)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
Thanks for your input, Geoff.
|
|
|
|
I wasn't thinking I was actually going to release this little program since
|
|
it was mostly to help me work out my POP3 logic, but I probably will. I
|
|
agree that a user defined timeout is ideal, but given that it's such a
|
|
small thing I'm hard coding a 30 second timeout.
|
|
|
|
After this thing is done, I'm looking at a couple of small projects, the
|
|
first of which is a dict client suggested by Dain. That'll take awhile. :)
|
|
|
|
Ryan
|
|
Chief Sysop
|
|
|
|
(A2.RYAN, Cat 57, Top 31, Msg 45)
|
|
[EOA]
|
|
|
|
|
|
[TSS]
|
|
How to Tell From an NDA if a Toolset is Already Started up
|
|
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
|
|
You'd think I know this by now, but I apparently don't (or I'm so sick I
|
|
can't remember it):
|
|
|
|
How do I tell if a given toolset is already started up from a NDA? I need
|
|
to use TextEdit in my NDA and I can figure out how to use StartOneTool to
|
|
start it (since I'm not supposed to use StartUpTools from a NDA) but how do
|
|
I find the status before I figure out if I need to start it?
|
|
|
|
Thanks.
|
|
|
|
Ryan
|
|
Chief Sysop
|
|
|
|
(A2.RYAN, Cat 55, Top 21, Msg 6)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
You have to call TEStatus. If the returned value is 0, then you know the
|
|
toolset is not active.
|
|
|
|
Geoff
|
|
|
|
(GEOFF, Cat 55, Top 21, Msg 7)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
Under System 6, you can use StartUpTools from an NDA, IIRC.
|
|
|
|
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
|
|
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
|
|
Building communities, bit by bit.
|
|
|
|
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 55, Top 21, Msg 8)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
Ah; okay, I did use StartUpTools and it appears to work.
|
|
|
|
I'm having some TextEdit issues, but I'll bring those up later in a more
|
|
appropriate forum :)
|
|
|
|
Ryan
|
|
Chief Sysop
|
|
|
|
(A2.RYAN, Cat 55, Top 21, Msg 9)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
>> You have to call TEStatus. If the returned value is 0, then you know
|
|
the toolset is not active. <<
|
|
|
|
You should also check for a toolerror -- if the tool isn't loaded in memory
|
|
at the time, the return value won't be meaningful.
|
|
|
|
Kelvin
|
|
|
|
(KWS, Cat 55, Top 21, Msg 10)
|
|
[EOA]
|
|
|
|
|
|
[CMM]
|
|
SideClick Contextual Menu Manager
|
|
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
|
|
I've got a first draft of the API for SideClick. I'd welcome any feedback.
|
|
|
|
It's in PDF format, at this URL:
|
|
|
|
http://snipurl.com/9ohn-HHXJ5
|
|
|
|
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
|
|
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
|
|
Building communities, bit by bit.
|
|
|
|
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 24, Top 21, Msg 1)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
Just gave you some feedback in conference :)
|
|
|
|
What I'm thinking I'm going to try first with SideClick is with MyIP.NDA;
|
|
having the menu that SideClick displays be something like, "Show my IP
|
|
address" and when it's selected, opening the NDA.
|
|
|
|
It also occurs to me that instead of having the app or NDA actually do the
|
|
requested task, it could also be a type of "handler" that passes the task
|
|
on to something appropriate; for instance, there could be an init that
|
|
installed "Send an email" in the SideClick menu, then when it was selected
|
|
broadcast an IPC message to another application that would actually send
|
|
the email.
|
|
|
|
At least, that's what I think I think. :)
|
|
|
|
Ryan
|
|
Chief Sysop
|
|
|
|
(A2.RYAN, Cat 24, Top 21, Msg 2)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
I've just posted version 0.2 of the SideClick spec. It's been updated a
|
|
lot, with a new IPC call added, and a section describing a possible usage
|
|
scenario.
|
|
|
|
http://homepage.mac.com/sheppy/projects/sideclick/SideClickAPISpecs.pdf
|
|
|
|
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
|
|
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
|
|
Building communities, bit by bit.
|
|
|
|
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 24, Top 21, Msg 3)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
So I am interpreting this as meaning that, for instance, if I had MyIP.NDA
|
|
interface with SideClick, I could have the SideClick menu add two menu
|
|
items, say "Display IP address" and "Copy IP address to clipboard"?
|
|
|
|
Also another question: any (practical) limitation on the length of the
|
|
string used for the menu item?
|
|
|
|
Ryan
|
|
Chief Sysop and Head Geek
|
|
|
|
(A2.RYAN, Cat 24, Top 21, Msg 4)
|
|
[EOA]
|
|
|
|
|
|
[ISC]
|
|
Internet Settings CDev
|
|
""""""""""""""""""""""
|
|
Here's a place for us to talk about creating a CDev that users can use to
|
|
set options related to Internet settings, such as email address, server
|
|
addresses, preferred applications to handle various URL types, and so
|
|
forth.
|
|
|
|
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
|
|
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
|
|
Building communities, bit by bit.
|
|
|
|
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 30, Top 26, Msg 1)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
The idea for this would be that the user could configure everything in one
|
|
place.
|
|
|
|
Then it could have an IPC call that would let someone ask it what
|
|
application to use to handle a particular type of URL, or fetch specific
|
|
settings.
|
|
|
|
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
|
|
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
|
|
Building communities, bit by bit.
|
|
|
|
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 30, Top 26, Msg 2)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
Some thoughts about stuff this should be able to configure:
|
|
|
|
Email
|
|
Address
|
|
POP server
|
|
SMTP server
|
|
IMAP server
|
|
Full name
|
|
Password for authentication
|
|
Preferred reader
|
|
Preferred sender
|
|
|
|
Usenet
|
|
News server
|
|
Username
|
|
Password
|
|
Preferred reader application
|
|
Preferred poster application
|
|
|
|
Web
|
|
Proxy settings
|
|
Preferred web browser
|
|
|
|
FTP
|
|
Preferred FTP client
|
|
|
|
What else would make sense to have?
|
|
|
|
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
|
|
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
|
|
Building communities, bit by bit.
|
|
|
|
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 30, Top 26, Msg 3)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
I've yet to write a CDev :)
|
|
|
|
That said, I think that looking at older versions of Internet
|
|
Config/Internet Control Panel on the Mac OS may be a place to start.
|
|
There's also a Mac OS X System Preference (third party) called "More
|
|
Internet" that has a pretty simple interface but I think just defines
|
|
applications to use with various forms of URLs, not gives people anywhere
|
|
to store their actual settings.
|
|
|
|
Ryan
|
|
Chief Sysop
|
|
|
|
(A2.RYAN, Cat 30, Top 26, Msg 4)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
Yeah, if anyone has a machine with Internet Config on it, it would be
|
|
helpful if they could grab screenshots and post them somewhere for us to
|
|
use as reference.
|
|
|
|
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
|
|
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
|
|
Building communities, bit by bit.
|
|
|
|
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 30, Top 26, Msg 5)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
Looking at this from a low level, structures that I see needed are:
|
|
|
|
* 16-bit ints
|
|
* 32-bit ints
|
|
* GSStrings (16-bit length followed by data)
|
|
|
|
Each of these would have a 16-bit structure ID and a 16-bit location ID.
|
|
The structure ID is a value for each low level structure. ID 1 for 16-int
|
|
could be the port number of a Web proxy server. ID 1 for a string could be
|
|
the email address. The location ID would be associated with something like
|
|
home, work, etc. (i.e. you can have different mail settings to access your
|
|
mail from work or home).
|
|
|
|
This would allow for expansion, without requiring the need to specify all
|
|
the preference items up front. The CDEV could just handle a few preference
|
|
settings and let applications maintain others.
|
|
|
|
Geoff
|
|
|
|
(GEOFF, Cat 30, Top 26, Msg 6)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
>> Yeah, if anyone has a machine with Internet Config on it, it would be
|
|
helpful if they could grab screenshots and post them somewhere for us to
|
|
use as reference. <<
|
|
|
|
Google helps to make this unnecessary :) A quick search brings this, for
|
|
instance:
|
|
|
|
http://www.umanitoba.ca/campus/acn/remote/mac/clients8/
|
|
|
|
It's not all of the preferences, but it's certainly a start.
|
|
|
|
Ryan
|
|
Chief Sysop
|
|
|
|
(A2.RYAN, Cat 30, Top 26, Msg 7)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
See, I think you're thinking too level. I think the CDev should implement
|
|
a series of IPC calls:
|
|
|
|
askInternetSettingsGetSMTPServer
|
|
|
|
askInternetSettingsGetPOPServer
|
|
|
|
askInternetSettingsGetNewsServer
|
|
|
|
And so forth. This would be much more flexible, and tons easier for the
|
|
client programmers to deal with.
|
|
|
|
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
|
|
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
|
|
Building communities, bit by bit.
|
|
|
|
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 30, Top 26, Msg 8)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
>> "See, I think you're thinking too level" <<
|
|
|
|
Hum. That was supposed to be "See, I think you're thinking at too low a
|
|
level." :)
|
|
|
|
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
|
|
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
|
|
Building communities, bit by bit.
|
|
|
|
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 30, Top 26, Msg 9)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
iirc, back in the days of Internet Config on the Mac, usually the Internet
|
|
applications had a checkbox in their preferences that the user checked if
|
|
they wanted to use Internet Config for the preferences or its own
|
|
preferences. I am guessing that some kind of equivalent would be indicated
|
|
here.
|
|
|
|
Ryan
|
|
Chief Sysop and Head Geek
|
|
|
|
(A2.RYAN, Cat 30, Top 26, Msg 10)
|
|
[EOA]
|
|
|
|
|
|
[ABN]
|
|
Address Book NDA
|
|
""""""""""""""""
|
|
The goal would be to have an address book that's useful on its own but can
|
|
also be integrated with email clients and the like.
|
|
|
|
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
|
|
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
|
|
Building communities, bit by bit.
|
|
|
|
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 30, Top 27, Msg 1)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
I don't know much about using the list control (which is probably the best
|
|
control to use for an address book), so I don't think I'm much of a
|
|
candidate to write it at this point, but I think that this is a really
|
|
needed thing.
|
|
|
|
iirc Aaron has written an AddressBook NDA that was still in alpha the last
|
|
I saw.
|
|
|
|
Ryan
|
|
Chief Sysop
|
|
|
|
(A2.RYAN, Cat 30, Top 27, Msg 2)
|
|
[EOA]
|
|
|
|
|
|
[UHR]
|
|
URL Handler
|
|
"""""""""""
|
|
The URL Handler would basically take an URL string and pass it along to the
|
|
app that the internet settings CDev says wants to handle those.
|
|
|
|
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
|
|
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
|
|
Building communities, bit by bit.
|
|
|
|
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 30, Top 28, Msg 1)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
See technical note 200 at:
|
|
|
|
http://www.sheppyware.net/tech/tn/iigs/iigs200.html
|
|
|
|
This note covers the askAnyoneOpenURL IPC call, which hasn't been
|
|
implemented yet, but was designed to handle dispatching an URL.
|
|
|
|
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
|
|
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
|
|
Building communities, bit by bit.
|
|
|
|
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 30, Top 28, Msg 2)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
I've also been thinking (after reading technote 200) of a simple NDA that
|
|
had only a Lineedit control and a button to enter a URL in, that would then
|
|
broadcast an IPC message to whatever applications were listening.
|
|
|
|
Ryan
|
|
Chief Sysop
|
|
|
|
(A2.RYAN, Cat 30, Top 28, Msg 3)
|
|
[EOA]
|
|
|
|
|
|
[PPD]
|
|
Possible Projects for Software Development
|
|
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
|
|
This is a place for us to talk about possible projects, or topics we need
|
|
to create.
|
|
|
|
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
|
|
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
|
|
Building communities, bit by bit.
|
|
|
|
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 30, Top 29, Msg 1)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
I have a partially completed notification manager type of extension that
|
|
lets applications flash an icon in the menu bar, so that it alternates with
|
|
the Apple menu's logo. That might be useful for email and other types of
|
|
software; I'll have to finish it.
|
|
|
|
gsAIM 1.5 has that ability built in, but I started pulling it out as a
|
|
separate init when I realized I might want to use it in other projects.
|
|
Never finished the work.
|
|
|
|
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
|
|
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
|
|
Building communities, bit by bit.
|
|
|
|
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 30, Top 29, Msg 2)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
I've posted version 0.1 of my Notification Manager specification. Please
|
|
have a look and let me know if you have any thoughts or suggestions!
|
|
|
|
http://homepage.mac.com/sheppy/projects/notification/NotificationAPISpec.pd
|
|
f
|
|
|
|
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
|
|
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
|
|
Building communities, bit by bit.
|
|
|
|
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 30, Top 29, Msg 3)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
I take it this is something (well, very vaguely :) like a bouncing icon in
|
|
an OS X dock to draw the attention of a user if something 's happening in a
|
|
hidden window?
|
|
|
|
Ryan
|
|
Chief Sysop
|
|
|
|
(A2.RYAN, Cat 30, Top 29, Msg 4)
|
|
[EOA]
|
|
|
|
|
|
[EMF]
|
|
Email Fetcher
|
|
"""""""""""""
|
|
Here's a place to talk about a utility to fetch email.
|
|
|
|
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
|
|
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
|
|
Building communities, bit by bit.
|
|
|
|
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 30, Top 30, Msg 1)
|
|
[EOA]
|
|
|
|
|
|
[EMS]
|
|
Email Sender
|
|
""""""""""""
|
|
Talk about writing a program that can be shared among many applications for
|
|
sending email.
|
|
|
|
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
|
|
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
|
|
Building communities, bit by bit.
|
|
|
|
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 30, Top 31, Msg 1)
|
|
[EOA]
|
|
|
|
|
|
[PGC]
|
|
Programming Conference
|
|
""""""""""""""""""""""
|
|
That was a great programming conference last night. Thanks to everyone who
|
|
stopped in (we also had a substantial international contingent with two
|
|
Australians and two from Canada--one a Canadian and one an American in
|
|
Canada).
|
|
|
|
We're going to be holding these monthly to see where we get to :)
|
|
|
|
Ryan
|
|
Chief Sysop
|
|
|
|
(A2.RYAN, Cat 50, Top 5, Msg 20)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
Whoops! Sorry I missed this one. Will there be a transcript posted?
|
|
_________
|
|
| homas
|
|
|
|
(TCOMPTER, Cat 50, Top 5, Msg 21)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
Kirk says there will be a transcript. We also decided to hold monthly
|
|
programming meetings; the next will be on November 12.
|
|
|
|
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
|
|
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
|
|
Building communities, bit by bit.
|
|
|
|
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 50, Top 5, Msg 22)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
Yes, the transcript is uploaded and awaiting release.
|
|
|
|
A poor second to actually being there live, but it'll give you an idea of
|
|
what happened. B-{)
|
|
|
|
Kirk
|
|
|
|
(A2.KIRK, Cat 50, Top 5, Msg 23)
|
|
[EOA]
|
|
|
|
|
|
[MHA]
|
|
NEW WEB LOCATION FOR MUD HISTORY ARTICLES
|
|
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
|
|
The MUD history articles mentioned in message 45 in this topic are no
|
|
longer available at Happy Puppy. Instead, try this URL:
|
|
|
|
http://www.gatecentral.com/shared_docs/Timeline1.html
|
|
|
|
The new home page of "Biting the Hand", the article written by author
|
|
Jessica Mulligan (hence the "bth" in the original filename), is
|
|
|
|
http://www.skotos.net/articles/bth.html
|
|
|
|
-Ken
|
|
|
|
(KGAGNE, Cat 2, Top 6, Msg 121)
|
|
[EOA]
|
|
|
|
|
|
[MIG]
|
|
LIST OF TOP 25 MOST INFLUENTIAL GAMES
|
|
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
|
|
Issue #138 (October 2004) of Game Informer magazine presents a list of "The
|
|
Top 25 Most Influential Games of All Time". The list is presented
|
|
chronologically, spanning from 1971 to 2001. Only one Apple II game made
|
|
the list; at 1979, FS1 Flight Simulator is the third game listed.
|
|
|
|
Several other listed games were also made available for the Apple II, or
|
|
are known to its users: Zork (TRS-80); Pac-Man (arcade); Adventure (Atari
|
|
2600); Gauntlet (arcade); Super Mario Bros. (NES); Tetris (PC); Prince of
|
|
Persia (PC); and SimCity (PC).
|
|
|
|
(KGAGNE, Cat 14, Top 1, Msg 113)
|
|
|
|
>>>>>
|
|
"""""
|
|
We're talking 23+ years ago, but I could have sworn that Zork came out on
|
|
the Apple II before the TRS-80.
|
|
|
|
Speaking of Zork, "Zork I" was one of the first programs I ever bought for
|
|
my Apple II+. And to this day I have no regrets that it was! (I also have
|
|
great memories of the weeks while several people all worked towards solving
|
|
it. One person would solve one puzzle, another a different puzzle, with
|
|
excited phone calls to share the news! Ah, the good old days!)
|
|
|
|
Peter peterw@syndicomm.com
|
|
Palm OS Community Bulletin Board Manager
|
|
|
|
(PETERW, Cat 14, Top 1, Msg 114)
|
|
[EOA]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
[ITL]------------------------
|
|
ILLUMINATING THE LAMP |
|
|
-----------------------------
|
|
|
|
An overview of GEnieLamp A2 and The Lamp!
|
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
|
|
|
By Steven Weyhrich
|
|
|
|
|
|
THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD
|
|
|
|
These days, I am enjoying the benefits of digital photography. It is
|
|
SO convenient to be able to take a picture and immediately see the results;
|
|
to be able to take many shots, and eliminate the bad ones; to be able to
|
|
electronically transmit my photos to others via the Internet or a CD. But
|
|
back before I had a digital camera, I had a standard film-based camera. The
|
|
particular camera that gave me the best results for my photographic
|
|
endeavors was my Minolta SLR (single-lens reflex) camera. It had automatic
|
|
film advance, it would set the white balance by itself (which means I could
|
|
successfully take photos in dim light), and detachable lenses that would
|
|
let me do long distance photography.
|
|
|
|
In order to know that the subject I was about to snap was in focus,
|
|
the lens system would show a two half-circles. The upper one and the lower
|
|
one had to be in line with each other, going from
|
|
|
|
____ ____
|
|
/ \ / \
|
|
__/______\ /______\
|
|
\ / \ /
|
|
\____/ \____/
|
|
|
|
this to this.
|
|
|
|
The image goes from being disjointed to being lined up; when that
|
|
happens, the image is in focus.
|
|
|
|
This final (for now) edition of Illuminating The Lamp brings me back
|
|
to "the present", so to speak. It was in June of 2002 that I re-connected
|
|
with the Apple II community after an eight-year hiatus, since I left GEnie
|
|
around 1994. For years, I had been bothering my Apple II author colleagues
|
|
on the IIScribe mailing list when I had questions about the Apple II for
|
|
the purposes of updating or adding to my Apple II History. I had heard (or
|
|
been told) about the benefits of a Syndicomm online membership, and decided
|
|
it was time to give it a try. I have not regretted that decision (and
|
|
probably the IIScribe people have felt the same way).
|
|
|
|
When I started looking at the GEnieLamp and Lamp newsletters from
|
|
start to finish, my original purpose was to learn about what were, for me,
|
|
the "silent years", in which I had very little information about what I had
|
|
missed while I was away. As I read through them, I was re-acquainted with
|
|
the parts I remembered, from GenieLamp's origin in 1992 through 1995, and
|
|
then onward to the present. And the feeling I had as I approached 2002 was
|
|
like focusing the lens on my Minolta camera; the image was becoming more
|
|
clear and more "in line" with what I knew the present Apple II world to be
|
|
like. An interesting feeling, to say the least.
|
|
|
|
|
|
WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS
|
|
|
|
The response to the events of September 11, 2001 continued in 2002, as
|
|
the United States gathered a coalition and toppled the Taliban regime in
|
|
Afghanistan, and continued its search for al Queda leader Osama bin Laden,
|
|
finding evidence that he was indeed still alive. Focus now began to turn to
|
|
Iraq and Saddam Hussein, amid concerns that weapons of mass destruction
|
|
were being produced and hidden there. Within the United States, the energy
|
|
company Enron collapsed amid corporate scandal, and WorldCom, the world's
|
|
second largest long-distance telephone and data service company, filed for
|
|
bankruptcy in June.
|
|
|
|
In May, after an eight-month battle, Hewlett-Packard bought Compaq
|
|
Computer Corp., forming the largest information technology company in the
|
|
world. David Smith, creator of the Melissa virus (which caused millions of
|
|
dollars of damage to computer networks in 1999), was sentenced to 20 months
|
|
in a federal prison and a $5,000 fine. Intel PC processors achieved speeds
|
|
of 1.8 GHz, and hard drive capacity hit 60 gigabytes.
|
|
|
|
Apple CEO Steve Jobs continued to press for faster, more powerful, and
|
|
more stylish models of the Macintosh. The iMac transmogrified from a
|
|
candy-colored and shaped desktop appliance to something that resembled the
|
|
lamp that symbolized Steve Jobs' other company, Pixar Studios. The new
|
|
flat-panel iMac, powered by a G4 processor, had a round base and an arm to
|
|
adjust the flat screen to any desired position. The Power Mac G4 line also
|
|
got a speed bump up to 1 GHz, some models with dual processors to further
|
|
enhance speed. Mac OS X became yet another cat, with the release of
|
|
"Jaguar", also known as 10.2. It included better graphics management
|
|
("Quartz Extreme"), an e-mail client with an adaptive spam filter, the
|
|
Address Book, Rendezvous networking, iChat (an Apple rebranding of AOL's
|
|
Instant Messenger), and speed improvements throughout.
|
|
|
|
|
|
THE LAMP! INFO
|
|
|
|
Controversy and drama was mostly absent from the Apple II world this
|
|
year, now that the exodus from Delphi to Syndicomm had settled down to a
|
|
comfortable routine. Editor Lyle Syverson began the first of his Tinkerer's
|
|
Corner series of articles on hardware projects. KansasFest promotions,
|
|
Syndicomm postings, a little Delphi scattered in the mix, all together
|
|
rounded out another fine year of reporting on the doings of the last
|
|
organized Apple II community in the online world. And I began to make my
|
|
own new contribution to the community, related to The Lamp; my own reviews
|
|
of the entire series prompted me to begin creating a comprehensive index to
|
|
the series of newsletters, with the first edition uploaded in July.
|
|
|
|
|
|
DELPHI A2 FORUM
|
|
|
|
At the start of 2002, it was still possible to access Delphi in text
|
|
mode via telnet. (However, the address that worked at that time is no
|
|
longer effective today). The files that made up the Delphi A2 library were
|
|
made available on Syndicomm.com.
|
|
|
|
|
|
A2CENTRAL.COM / SYNDICOMM
|
|
|
|
In January, it was announced in The Lamp! that all of Syndicomm
|
|
Online's forums had been converted to work with the new bulletin board
|
|
software. The same month, new lower prices for Syndicomm were announced.
|
|
The web side of the Syndicomm was enhanced with additional features,
|
|
including a display of the count of how many members were in chat. Further,
|
|
a web-based chat was introduced at that time. Cargotha, an online "MUD"
|
|
(multi-user dungeon) was opened.
|
|
|
|
Ken Gagne introduced a new monthly electronic newsletter,
|
|
Syndicommotion, which had the purpose of helping promote Syndicomm's
|
|
various forums.
|
|
|
|
The Prolific Quill forum started a plan to have a collaborative story
|
|
written online, about a person named "Douglas". A $20 gift certificate for
|
|
the Syndicomm online store was offered to those wishing to contribute to
|
|
the story. Unfortunately, to this day additional authors are still being
|
|
sought, in order to have the minimum number necessary to make it possible
|
|
for this interesting concept of a group story to get started.
|
|
|
|
Some of the regulars in the Apple II forum revealed their true
|
|
identities (the jobs they do in the "real" world) in the March issue. Some
|
|
also made their Apple II software wish lists (things they'd like to see get
|
|
written).
|
|
|
|
Also in March, Syndicomm hosted a special online chat with veteran
|
|
Apple II programmer Dave Lyons, with a transcript later posted in the
|
|
library. Later in the year, another special chat was held featuring Rich
|
|
Dreher, the creator of the CFFA Compact Flash reader for the Apple II.
|
|
|
|
Syndicomm began using an anti-spam filter on mail passing through its
|
|
server in April. In July, the online store was updated to support overseas
|
|
airmail, as well as payment by check or money order. Additional products
|
|
were added for sale at the store.
|
|
|
|
Eric Shepherd announced in October that Syndicomm would be relocating
|
|
to Maryville, Tennessee. As part of the preparations for this move, the new
|
|
Cargotha online RPG was temporarily taken offline. One enhancement that was
|
|
to be offered by the move was an upgrade to higher performance servers and
|
|
a higher bandwidth connection.
|
|
|
|
|
|
HARDWARE NEWS
|
|
|
|
Various topics were addressed in the A2 Forum this year:
|
|
|
|
o Keyboards compatible with the Apple IIGS
|
|
o Setting the ID on a SCSI hard drive
|
|
o Refilling and/or disposing of used inkjet printer ink cartridges
|
|
o Apple IIe revision differences
|
|
o Current sources of No-Slot Clock-compatible hardware
|
|
o Keyboard cleaning after a spill
|
|
o The story of the Mark Twain Apple IIGS
|
|
o Use of an ImageWriter II on a PC
|
|
o How to network an Apple IIGS to an iMac or PowerBook
|
|
|
|
The first mention of Rich Dreher's CFFA compact flash reader for the
|
|
Apple II appeared in the February issue.
|
|
|
|
|
|
EMULATOR NEWS
|
|
|
|
The identity of the first Apple II emulator was debated in April. Use
|
|
of Bernie ][ The Rescue to get a IIGS (emulated) onto the Internet was
|
|
discussed in July. A new version of KEGS for Windows (KEGS32) was mentioned
|
|
in February. How to compile KEGS for Mac OS X was discussed in October.
|
|
|
|
|
|
INTERNET NEWS
|
|
|
|
January saw discussion of how to post e-mail addresses on a web site
|
|
in such a way as to avoid making those addresses available to spammers.
|
|
Other methods of dealing with spam were discussed in later issues.
|
|
|
|
|
|
SOFTWARE NEWS
|
|
|
|
:: COLLECTIONS ::
|
|
|
|
Howard Katz of The Lost Classics project was able to get permission
|
|
from Mike Harvey, former publisher of Nibble, to have all of Nibble's
|
|
software disks released as freeware. A specific collection was not
|
|
available, due to the need to collect working copies of the software.
|
|
|
|
|
|
:: PRODUCTIVITY SOFTWARE ::
|
|
|
|
Platinum Paint was recovered as a Lost Classic release in January, as
|
|
was Beagle Bros GSFont Editor, and Quality Software's Bag Of Tricks 2.
|
|
|
|
|
|
:: TELECOMMUNICATIONS SOFTWARE ::
|
|
|
|
Delphi's A2 Forum discussed:
|
|
|
|
o connecting a PC to an Apple IIGS using Marinetti
|
|
o connecting an Apple IIe to the Internet via a Linux PC
|
|
o suggestions for potential improvements to Marinetti (specifically making
|
|
an alternative TCP/IP stack)
|
|
o turning on AppleTalk under Mac OS X
|
|
o how to make it possible to network a IIGS to a Mac under that newer OS
|
|
|
|
The A2 Forum on Syndicomm discussed:
|
|
|
|
o various telecommunication software that they had used over the years
|
|
o methods of creation of PDF files from a word processing document (not
|
|
Apple II)
|
|
|
|
Ewen Wannop updated SOAR, his offline message reader for Syndicomm, to
|
|
v1.0b9, and then soon after to v1.0b10.
|
|
|
|
|
|
:: UTILITY SOFTWARE ::
|
|
|
|
Although not specifically a utility, discussion in April involved the
|
|
proper way to move a text file from a Mac to an Apple II via a 3.5 disk,
|
|
while avoiding creation of a resource fork (which 8-bit Apple II programs
|
|
cannot handle).
|
|
|
|
A test of the MUG! (MS-DOS utilities) NDA by Ryan Suenaga found that,
|
|
running on Bernie ][ The Rescue, it was possible to read an MS-DOS volume
|
|
on a digital camera attached to a Mac via USB.
|
|
|
|
NiftyList was made available as freeware by Dave Lyons.
|
|
|
|
|
|
:: GAMES ::
|
|
|
|
Jeff Fink continued his updates to Silvern Castle, with 7.4 being
|
|
released early in the year. Tips on use of the game also appeared in the
|
|
March issue.
|
|
|
|
The March issue also included a post by Ken Gagne posted an address
|
|
for an article describing the history of online gaming. Although the link
|
|
listed there is no longer correct, the article exists today at this
|
|
address:
|
|
|
|
http://www.gatecentral.com/shared_docs/Timeline1.html
|
|
|
|
The author, Jessica Mulligan, uses another web site to write articles
|
|
giving her viewpoint on gaming:
|
|
|
|
http://www.skotos.net/articles/bth.html
|
|
|
|
|
|
PUBLICATIONS
|
|
|
|
As mentioned above, Syndicommotion was started in January by Ken
|
|
Gagne.
|
|
|
|
Juiced.GS got a face-lift on its web site early in 2002, and it
|
|
continued its publication under new editor Ryan Suenaga. Some of the
|
|
infamous upside-down pages began to appear, related to the company with
|
|
whom Syndicomm had contracted to do the actual printing and mailing. The
|
|
first (and possibly last) Juiced.GS swimsuit issue appeared in the summer.
|
|
A price increase was announced, to account for postage rate increases over
|
|
the previous three years.
|
|
|
|
|
|
KANSASFEST
|
|
|
|
Registration forms became available in April's issue, a bit later than
|
|
usual. Ryan Suenaga's KFest FAQ, version 3.0, again appeared in April. A
|
|
pre-KFest 2002 chat was held on Syndicomm on June 17.
|
|
|
|
Topics discussed at KansasFest this year included Richard
|
|
Bennet-Forrest and his announcement of Florence, a Java-based Apple IIGS
|
|
emulator, and Jeff Blakeney and IN: The Mailbox, an e-mail client for the
|
|
IIGS (which he thought would be ready by December). Howard Katz and Sandra
|
|
Warnken had a presentation about user groups, Bruce Baker gave a talk about
|
|
games published by Softdisk, Sarah Shepherd described Syndicomm's dark
|
|
secrets.
|
|
|
|
KansasFest's keynote speaker for 2002 was Tony Diaz (in which he
|
|
showed clips of KFest past - all fourteen years that he has attended), and
|
|
the recipient of the annual roast was Ryan Suenaga.
|
|
|
|
The GShisen contest was again held, and was won by Geoff Weiss.
|
|
|
|
Back in June, I had made a post about my inquiries to the current
|
|
owners of Softdisk as to whether or not they would make back issues of
|
|
their disk magazine available for download in their web site's store. A
|
|
consequence of that conversation was getting Softdisk and Sheppy connected,
|
|
which resulted in an announcement at KFest of Project Barney, a CD
|
|
compilation of Softdisk G-S, with a later CD to include the older Softdisk
|
|
issues.
|
|
|
|
At the end of event, the dates for KFest 2003 were announced.
|
|
|
|
|
|
WRITERS
|
|
|
|
Ryan Suenaga again wrote his Apple II Achievement awards column for
|
|
2001, appearing in the January issue of The Lamp! The Best Commercial
|
|
Product was given to Juiced.GS' Friends II CD-ROM, with runner-up being
|
|
given to Ken Gagne's Esprit de Apple Corps CD-ROM collection of graphics,
|
|
MOD music files, and games. Best Shareware Product went to Kim Howe's
|
|
Telnet NDA. Best Freeware Product went to SAFE (Spectrum Automated File
|
|
Exchange) and Thomas Compter's IIGS translation of Hammurabi. Best World
|
|
Wide Web Site was given to A2Central.com, the Best Publication went to
|
|
Juiced.GS, and the Outstanding Apple II Related Development was awarded to
|
|
Syndicomm for its efforts to re-release products from EGO Systems,
|
|
Parkhurst Micro Products, The Byte Works, APDA, and the continuation of
|
|
publication for Juiced.GS magazine. The Outstanding Individual Achievement
|
|
was awarded to David Miller, the programming powerhouse behind
|
|
Syndicomm.com, and to Max Jones, for turning over Juiced.GS to new hands
|
|
rather than letting it die.
|
|
|
|
|
|
MISCELLANEOUS FEATURES
|
|
|
|
Ken Gagne mentioned in January a web site on which MP3 sounds of an
|
|
Apple II disk drive had been stored.
|
|
|
|
The floating-point precision limits of Applesoft were reviewed, with
|
|
differences noted between a calculator's solution to 9 to the 9th power and
|
|
Applesoft's answer to the same math calculation.
|
|
|
|
In June, A2 Forum members described the ways in which they were
|
|
currently using their Apple II computers.
|
|
|
|
|
|
STATS
|
|
|
|
Here are statistics for the first eleven 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
|
|
2001 47K 96K 71K
|
|
2002 34K 78K 54K
|
|
|
|
|
|
HELLO, GOODBYE
|
|
|
|
I'll say goodbye for now, but I'm not fading away as I did in 1995.
|
|
I'll return some time next year to do another couple of Illuminating The
|
|
Lamp columns for 2003 and 2004. Until then, don't forget to compliment our
|
|
editor, Lyle Syverson, for his continued diligence in producing this
|
|
newsletter each month, and don't forget to PARTICIPATE in the Apple II
|
|
online world.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Steven Weyhrich
|
|
a2history@syndicomm.com
|
|
http://apple2history.org
|
|
|
|
|
|
References:
|
|
|
|
A Brief History of Mac OS X
|
|
http://www.kernelthread.com/mac/osx/history.html
|
|
|
|
Computer History For The Year 2000 To Today
|
|
http://www.computerhope.com/history/2000.htm
|
|
|
|
Computer History Trivia
|
|
http://www.cedarville.edu/departments/compserv/history.htm
|
|
|
|
The History Of Computing Project
|
|
http://www.thocp.net
|
|
|
|
The History Of The World Timeline
|
|
http://www.historychannel.com/timeline/index.jsp?year=2002
|
|
|
|
HP-Compaq: A fight to the finish | CNET News.com
|
|
http://news.com.com/2009-1001-852197.html
|
|
|
|
Macintosh History: 2002
|
|
http://www.lowendmac.com/history/2002.html
|
|
|
|
Wikipedia - Mac OS X
|
|
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_X#Versions
|
|
|
|
[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]
|
|
|
|
|
|
[OSN]
|
|
October Issue of Syndicommotion Available
|
|
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
|
|
The October issue of Syndicommotion, our free newsletter covering the
|
|
latest events on Syndicomm Online, is now available. If you don't
|
|
subscribe, you can read the issue at
|
|
|
|
<http://www.syndicomm.com/syndicommotion/>.
|
|
|
|
(Login Banner, Syndicomm Online)
|
|
[EOA]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
[LTE]-------------------------------
|
|
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR |
|
|
------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
|
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
|
|
|
NO LETTERS TO THE EDITOR THIS MONTH
|
|
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
|
|
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]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
[KF5]------------------------------
|
|
KFest 2005 |
|
|
-----------------------------------
|
|
|
|
[TBH]
|
|
KansasFest 2005 to be Held JULY 19-24th
|
|
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
|
|
Mark your calendar and start saving some money.
|
|
|
|
|
|
[KFW]
|
|
KansasFest Website
|
|
""""""""""""""""""
|
|
Is located here: http://www.kfest.org
|
|
[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]
|