Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2 Path: news.weeg.uiowa.edu!news.uiowa.edu!hobbes.physics.uiowa.edu!moe.ksu.ksu.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!sdd.hp.com!caen!destroyer!cs.ubc.ca!unixg.ubc.ca!kakwa.ucs.ualberta.ca!ee.ualberta.ca!jpenne From: jpenne@ee.ualberta.ca (Jerry Penner) Subject: GEnieLamp Oct 1992 [4 parts] Message-ID: Summary: GEnie online magazine for the Apple II Sender: news@kakwa.ucs.ualberta.ca Nntp-Posting-Host: eigen.ee.ualberta.ca Organization: University Of Alberta, Edmonton Canada Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 07:41:15 GMT Lines: 1009 This is part 1 of 4 parts. This is GEnieLamp, an online magazine produced by various people on the GEnie information service. It is posted to the Internet by request of Thomas Schmitz (TOM.SCHMITZ on GEnie), the Apple II editor for GEnieLamp. He is resigning his post as editor (as you can read in this month's issue) but I will keep posting this to the Internet in all likelihood. There are four (4) parts, each of which is approximately 1000 lines + the regular Internet header lines. Enjoy. ---8<--- snip ---8<--- snip ---8<--- snip ---8<--- snip ---8<--- |||||| |||||| || || |||||| |||||| || || ||| || || || || ||| |||| |||||| || |||| Your || || || || ||| || || |||||| |||||| || || |||||| |||||| GEnie Lamp A2/A2Pro || |||||| || || |||||| RoundTable || || || ||| ||| || || || |||||| |||||||| |||||| RESOURCE! || || || || || || || ||||| || || || || || ~ Joe Kohn On A2 ~ ~ Softdisk Publishing ~ ~ Apple Vs. IBM ~ ~ Apple History, Part 5 ~ ~ HOT FILES ~ HOT MESSAGES ~ HOT ROUNDTABLE NEWS ~ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\//////////////////////////////////// GEnie Lamp A2/A2Pro ~ A T/TalkNET OnLine Publication ~ Vol.1, Issue 7 """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Publisher............................................Kent Fillmore Senior Editor........................................John Peters Editor.............................................Tom Schmitz ~ GEnieLamp Macintosh ~ ~ GEnieLamp IBM ~ ~ GEnieLamp ST ~ ~ GEnieLamp Elsewhere ~ ~ GEnieLamp A2/A2Pro ~ ////////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ >>> WHAT'S HAPPENING IN THE APPLE II/A2Pro ROUNDTABLE? <<< """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" ~ October 1, 1992 ~ FROM MY DESKTOP ......... [FRM] HEY MISTER POSTMAN ...... [HEY] Notes From The Editor. Is That A Letter For Me? HUMOR ONLINE ............ [HUM] APPLE_TALK .............. [APP] Operator From Hell. Apple Vs. IBM. ONLINE FUN .............. [FUN] WHO'S WHO ............... [WHO] Search-ME! Who's Who In Apple II. THE MIGHTY QUINN ........ [QUI] FOCUS ON ................ [FOC] Milliseconds With Mark. Thinking Out Loud. GAMES PEOPLE PLAY ....... [GAM] CowTOONS! ............... [COW] Apple II Fun. Moooooo Fun! CONNECTIONS ............. [CON] APPLE II ................ [AII] Joe Kohn On A2. Apple II History, Part 6. THE ONLINE LIBRARY ...... [LIB] SOFTDISK PUBLISHING ..... [SOF] Yours For The Asking. Softdisk Publishing On GEnie. GEnie ONLINE ............ [GEN] HACK'N ONLINE ........... [HAC] En guarde! HST Modem Upgrade. ELSEWHERE ............... [ELS] LOG OFF ................. [LOG] Connecting The World. GEnieLamp Information. [IDX]""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" READING GEnieLamp GEnieLamp has incorporated a unique indexing """"""""""""""""" system to help make reading the magazine easier. To utilize this system, load GEnieLamp into any ASCII word processor or text editor. In the index you will find the following example: HUMOR ONLINE ............ [HUM] [*]GEnie Fun & Games. To read this article, set your find or search command to [HUM]. If you want to scan all of the articles, search for [EOA]. [EOF] will take you to the last page, whereas [IDX] will bring you back to the index. MESSAGE INFO To make it easy for you to respond to messages re-printed """""""""""" here in GEnieLamp, you will find all the information you need immediately following the message. For example: (SMITH, CAT6, TOP1, MSG:58/M475) _____________| _____|__ _|___ |____ |_____________ |Name of sender CATegory TOPic Msg.# Page number| In this example, to respond to Smith's message, log on to page 475 enter the bulletin board and set CAT 6. Enter your REPly in TOPic 1. A message number that is surrounded by brackets indicates that this message is a "target" message and is referring to a "chain" of two or more messages that are following the same topic. For example: {58}. ABOUT GEnie GEnie costs only $4.95 a month for unlimited evening and """"""""""" weekend access to more than 100 services including electronic mail, online encyclopedia, shopping, news, entertainment, single-player games, multi-player chess and bulletin boards on leisure and professional subjects. With many other services, including the largest collection of files to download and the best online games, for only $6 per hour (non-prime-time/2400 baud). To sign up for GEnie service, call (with modem) 1-800-638-8369. Upon connection type HHH. Wait for the U#= prompt. Type: XTX99368,GENIE and hit RETURN. The system will then prompt you for your information. """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" ///////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "If your only tool is a hammer....perhaps every problem / / becomes a nail......." / ////////////////////////////////////////// H.WESSEL3 //// [EOA] [FRM]////////////////////////////// FROM MY DESKTOP / ///////////////////////////////// Notes From The Editor """"""""""""""""""""" By John Peters [GENIELAMP] TOP OF THE PAGE GEnieLamp writers and contributors are paid for their """"""""""""""" efforts with online time here on GEnie. In order for me to credit their accounts, I ask them to send me their GEnie ID number. Recently, a new contributor sent me his password. GASP! I blinked a few times, took a deep breath and wrote a reply to his message explaining to him how to go about changing his password. Afterwards, I got to thinking that maybe it was because of my position here on GEnie that he assumed it would be okay to give me his password. Or maybe it was just an oversight. Regardless of the reason, it brings up the point that it can happen. Don't let it happen to you. Never, I repeat, _NEVER_ let your password out into the hands of someone else! There is absolutely _no_ reason what-so-ever for anyone but yourself to know your password. Period. Sooooo.... how long has it been since you've last changed your password? Last week? A month ago? Never? If it has been awhile, perhaps today would be a good day to change it. Odds are your account will never be the victim of some unscrupulous member, but why take chances? Changing your password takes only a few seconds to do, plus, it is part of your GEnie*Basic package. To change your password, type SET or M900;2 at any GEnie main prompt. You can use any character from A through Z, all digits from 1 through 9, asterisks, periods and dollar signs. GEnie will ask you to enter your old password, then to enter the new password. It will then ask you to re-enter your new password for verification. Pick a password is easy for you to remember, but next to impossible for someone else to figure out. Commit it to memory or write it down and put it in a _secure_ place. If you are using Aladdin while on GEnie, changing your password is even easier. Just choose "Change Password," follow the prompts and let Aladdin do the dirty work. Take the time and effort to do this. Your pocketbook may thank you someday! >>> GEnieLamp Odds & Ends <<< """"""""""""""""""""""""""""" Standing Ovation Tom Schmitz, the chief editor of the Apple II/A2PRO """""""""""""""" GEnieLamp, has informed us that he's accepted a large promotion at his daytime job and will consequently have to relinquish his role as chief editor of the Apple II/A2PRO GEnieLamp. Since April, 1992, Tom coordinated the production of the first seven Apple II/A2PRO GEnieLamp's, setting high standards in every facet of his work. We will deeply miss Tom's pioneering leadership. Taking over as chief Apple II editor is frequent GEnieLamp contributor Darrel Raines [D.RAINES]. Darrel has broad interests in the Apple II, and hopes to give the Apple II GEnieLamp his own signature leadership in the months ahead. Persons interested in contributing articles to the Apple II/A2PRO GEnieLamp are requested to contact co-editor Phil Shapiro [P.SHAPIRO1] until Darrel familiarizes himself with the GEnieLamp ropes." -Phil Shapiro THOUGHT YOU SHOULD KNOW... I downloaded the new (ALADDIN) 1.62 version """""""""""""""""""""""""" from a local BBS. After that I had all kinds of problems, like it would download a long time and when I went to read the messages, there was only one available to read. Another time it downloaded a few messages and gave the 'end' beep and said I've been idle too long. Another time I didn't get me mail at all even though I had 4 letters waiting. So, last night I downloaded 1.62 again, this time from the Aladdin library and everything seems to be working the way it is suppose to now. So I want to warn people, sometimes you may get a bad download especially if it is from a local BBS, it may have had a bad upload if you know what I mean... -Leska [V.WRIGHT] [*][*][*] Have you ever wondered what it's like to be a SysOp? To the tune of "White Rabbit" By Jefferson Airplane... Some folks like the BB's, And some folks like the Mall. And the ones who start up flamewars, Don't like anything at all. Go ask Sysop, when he climbs the wall. And if you go, chasing lurkers, And you know you're going to fall. Tell 'em hookah... smoking modem, Has given you the call. Poor Sysop, he deals with it all. When the posts in the deadmail, Get up and tell you where you go. And you've just had some kind of linenoise, And your node is moving on... Go ask Sysop, I think he'll know. When the pointers, and topic markings, Are lying sloppy dead. And the cursor is typing backwards, And you can't read what you've just said. Remember, what the Doormouse said, Park your head... park your head. (Reposted with the author's permission) (UHH.CLEM, CAT30, TOP27, MSG:36/M470) [*][*][*] Until next month... John Peters GEnieLamp E-Magazine ///////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "I've visited Tim in his computer room - we had to take / / turns breathing. :)" / //////////////////////////////////////////// A2.BILL //// [EOA] [HEY]////////////////////////////// HEY MISTER POSTMAN / ///////////////////////////////// Is That A Letter For Me? """""""""""""""""""""""" by Thomas M. Schmitz [TOM.SCHMITZ] o Apple II ODDS & ENDS o WHAT'S NEW? o THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE o APPLE HEADS WANT TO KNOW o MESSAGE SPOTLIGHT >>> Apple II ODDS & ENDS <<< """""""""""""""""""""""""""" CALL TO ARMS!!!!!!! According to some reports I've seen Apple won't be """"""""""""""""""" distributing version 7.1 of the Mac operating system via bulletin boards--such as GEnie-- or user groups. While its not been stated that sounds like Apple is going to charge for system 7.1. I strongly recommend you call Apple and tell them that you don't want to have to pay both a premium for their hardware and for relatively minor updates to the System software. I'm not suggesting that Apple should be a charitable institution. However I do feel that Mac owners should be able to get the latest version of the basic operating system for free. So it's ok in my mind for Apple to charge for new functionality such as DAL or AppleScript-- although charging for AppleScript will probably keep it from being accepted due to the high costs for developers to redo their software to support it-- but they shouldn't charge us for a .1 version upgrade. Further I don't expect Apple to provide printed documentation, media, or support for those who get the latest system via an electronic, ie free, channel. It's perfectly reasonable for Apple to charge for tech support once you're Mac is out of its one year warranty period. In any case you'll probably get all the support you need here on GEnie. The Apple support people are good but Apple can't afford the type of people who provide answers here out of the kindness of their hearts. Finally I would be willing to pay for system 8 if it had enough new features and/or improvements to warrant the cost. So start writing now folks let Apple know that they can't charge more for the hardware and also charge for the basic system software. -Tom Schmitz HELP!!!!! Denver, CO (PNS) Jawaid Bazyar of Procyon, Inc. reported """"""""" today that an AWGS gone amuck caused non-trivial damage to Procyon's customer database. Since he seemed about to have a breakdown of some sort, this reported offered a suggestion- ask around and people would probably help in the reconstruction effort. At that point, he put the grenade down and wrote the following for me to publish, in this fine gazette: "Dear Valued GNO Customers, unfortunately a certain sequence of events occurred that caused us to lose our records for customers with GNO serial number from 000160-000183, and from 000201-000220. If you're one of these good folk, please send me (via email, GEnie: Procyon.Inc) the following information to help us reconstruct our database. Name Address City, State, Zip, Country Phone GNO Serial Number We're going to be mailing announcements of our new products soon, and we don't want anyone to miss out!" After Mr. Bazyar handed me this note, he proceeded to tell me all about the Unicorn collection at the Zoo, and how he loves to visit them wearing anti- radiation DEVO clothing. White-clothed men then came to assist Mr. Bazyar away for treatment. [p.s. This really happened, and we really need your help! ] Matt Gudermuth Procyon News Services (PROCYON, CAT30, TOP5, MSG:1/M530) >>> WHAT'S NEW <<< """""""""""""""""" >>> A2 UNIVERSITY RETURNS BETTER THAN EVER <<< """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" IT'S BACK! A2 and A2Pro's educational arm, A2Pro, has been undergoing """""""""" serious renovation during summer vacation -- and now it's back, bigger and better than ever! Our new A2U Dean, Professor Steve Gunn, has been renovating the university all summer. You'll now find A2U in A2Pro, where the programming discussions it spawns can peacefully coexist with all the other programming discussions with programmers of all skill levels and interests. A2U lives in the A2Pro bulletin board as category #18, and also in A2Pro's library #18. There you can find all the past A2U courses plus sign-ups and discussion for two of the most exciting courses we've been pleased to offer. Starting September 15th, Professor Will Nelken (professor for a previous A2U course on UltraMacroWorks and author of numerous Ultra reference materials, including columns in A+/inCider) starts a brand-new 12-part course on JEM Software's latest, most powerful offering to date: Ultra 4.0. "Ultra 4.0 to the Max!" can teach _you_ how to squeeze all the power possible from this fantastic new offering. And starting in October, Professor Andy McFadden, author of NuLib and YankIt archiving programs -- both of which deal with ShrinkIt (NuFX) archives and often do so faster than ShrinkIt -- begins a fantastic course on data compression. If you as a programmer have ever wondered how compression works, how specific compression algorithms work, how to choose the right compression for you or how the most popular Apple II compression schemes work in theory or in practice, this course is for YOU! Prof. McFadden's course starts with how compression works and continues, in English and with sample code, through some advanced topics in byte squeezing. How much does it cost? Nothing more than the time it takes to read the messages and download the files -- it's part of A2 and A2Pro's service! No additional charges whatsoever! Stop by new A2Pro category 22 and take a look around, and sign up for more Apple II programming knowledge from A2 and A2Pro -- _THE_ place to be! (M.DEATHERAGE, CAT1, TOP17, MSG:29/530) What Is A2 University? A2 University is a special area in A2PRO that """""""""""""""""""""" provides for programmers and non-programmers alike to increase their programming skills via free classes that are taught online. A2 University (A2U) has the following goal: To increase the number and the quality of programmers in the Apple II world. For you see, that is the only way that we can prolong the life of the Apple II. What is Involved? A2U was designed to serve the needs of all levels of """"""""""""""""" programming experience. Whether you want to get started in basic, or optimize some of your assembly routines, A2U is the place for you. Four times a year, we will have a course registration for 2 weeks right before the next term starts. In this time you will need to register for any courses that you wish to study. Please note that there is no extra charge to participate, but we do need you to register. Then when the course begins, you will be able to download the weekly lessons that are uploaded by your professor, and attend the RTCs held here in A2PRO to ask them questions live. There will also be topic available here in the Bulletin Board to ask questions if you are unable to attend the conference. How Do I Register? When each teaching term in A2U is about to begin, all """""""""""""""""" students who have sent in a general A2U registration form will receive a short Email reminder as to what courses are being taught this next term, and how to register. There will also be plenty of reminders on the front door of A2PRO when the registration period is going on. Simply fill out the registration form in the registration Topic for each course that you want to participate in, and post it as a reply in that topic. That simple. How Do I Get Mailings? In this category, there is a topic called """""""""""""""""""""" "Student Directory" which contains a form. When you fill out this form, you will receive Email announcements from A2U. These will announce new courses, new Professors, important information etc. Please note that you must fill out this form to be placed on the mailing list, but you only have to register for a course to participate. What Happens When The Course Is Over? After each 12 week term in A2U, """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" the messages concerning each of the courses will be archived and uploaded to the A2PRO library. Then a topic will be started for the discussion of the Old Course. These topics should be used for any discussion of A2U courses that are not currently going on, and will contain all information on what is required to take the course. Who Teaches The Courses? A2 University Professors are volunteers that """""""""""""""""""""""" teach the classes. The classes that they teach are of their own creation. Their only compensation is a Free Flag in both A2 and A2PRO for the duration of their course. If you are interested in teaching a course, please send a letter to that effect to me (A2PRO.STEVE) and carbon copy it to A2PRO$. Then we will let you know what is involved and get you started on your course! Is There Anything Else? Well, in addition to the time here on GEnie, """"""""""""""""""""""" some courses may require a textbook, or a special piece of software. But most of the courses will use the "standard" tools for Development. If you have a compiler for the language you will be using, the Toolbox Manuals, and the GS/OS manuals, then you are probably set to tackle most of the courses offered in A2U. But there have been courses that required only AppleWorks and TimeOut UltraMacros. Each course is unique, and its requirements are equally unique. Closing Thank you for reading this, and your interest in A2 University. """"""" We hope to see your face in a classroom next course session. How To Take an A2U Course Taking an A2U course here on GEnie is actually """"""""""""""""""""""""" very simple. All you need to do is say that you want to take it. Then you can participate in several areas. All of which are _OPTIONAL_. I suggest that you download all of the lessons for the course you are interested in. It usually helps to have them around. Plus, the Bulletin Board (Right Here!) is another great place to ask questions. Then finally, each class will have an RTC (Conference) that you can attend to ask questions in real time! And that is about it! Take time to post a message about yourself in Topic 4, and there is nothin else that you need to do! You are a full fledged A2U Student. -Steve Fall Term Courses I am happy to announce that we will have two new """"""""""""""""" courses for the Fall Term here in A2U. They will be on Ultra 4.0 (Will Neklen) and Data Compression (Andy McFadden). Here are the topics that have been created for these courses, post anything pertinent to the course there. 22 ULTRA 4.0 - To The MAX! (Ultra 4.0 Course) 23 A pinch of Data Compression (Data Compression Course) -Steve A2 University Dude (A2PRO.STEVE, CAT22, TOP2, MSG:1/MA2PRO) A2PRO COMPANY SUPPORT GROWS WITH GS+ MAGAZINE AND JEM SOFTWARE """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" The list of companies providing direct support for programmers in A2Pro grows to five with two sterling new Apple II developer-supporting companies opening their own categories and libraries in A2Pro. GS+ Magazine, published by EGO Systems of Tennessee, is famous for the with, technical information and no-holds-barred style of the publishers and authors, mostly Steve Disbrow and Joe Wankerl. Steve and Joe have opened a new category in A2Pro's bulletin board and a new library (both #33) to help programmers who want to use GS+ utilities, or maybe who want to write and become famous by publishing in GS+ Magazine! Check out category and library 33 to learn more about GS+ Magazine. Steve and Joe have also opened a category in the A2 bulletin board (on page 645) for non-programmer concerns, such as subscriptions and back issues. JEM Software, Randy Brandt's AppleWorks super-charging company, has just released the most powerful AppleWorks 3.0 enhancement ever, Ultra 4.0. Not only does A2U offer a course on how to use this fantastic product -- JEM Software and Randy Brandt are now in Category #34 of A2Pro to support Ultra programmers as well as programmers who use all kinds of JEM products. Drop by and have a look -- if you want to know how to make AppleWorks do more for you than before, this is for you. A2Pro supports all kinds of programmers, from assembly language to HyperTalk to Ultra 4.0! Please join A2Pro in welcoming these fine companies to our online family. Drop by their bulletin board categories and say hi! (M.DEATHERAGE, CAT1, TOP17, MSG:30/M530) MORE APPLE HISTORY If you caught (or will catch, depending on how you """""""""""""""""" are reading these messages today) my post in Cat 3, Top 4 (New Uploads), I've uploaded five more pieces of the Apple II History (finally!) These: #19320 Apple II History, Part 18 -- Software #19339 Appendix A, Part 1 -- Software 1977-80 #19340 Appendix A, Part 2 -- Software 1981-82 #19341 Appendix A, Part 3 -- Software 1983-86 #19342 Appendix A, Part 4 -- Software 1987-92 Now, even though I've uploaded an appendix, that does not mean that I am finished with this puppy yet. Actually, I have several more segments to polish up and add to, but the appendix that dealt with software seemed appropriate to upload at this time. Also, I had another reason for uploading it right now. The appendix, in its four parts, gives an annotated listing of popular Apple II software that was released over the years. For the years 1977-1983, this is taken directly from the Softalk Top Thirty lists published each April (and voted on by their readers). Many of the descriptions that go along with each program are also taken directly from Softalk's "Fastalk" column. In some cases I added comments of my own, or created comments where Softalk never got around to it. The place where I find I need help is in the years after 1984. I have had to rely on posted ads for the various software packages during the years late 1984-1992, since no magazine has taken on the task of compiling a list of top software on a yearly basis since then. Consequently, the list is rather scarce during some years. What I would like from you, the users of A2, is this: If you have an interest in reviewing the lists in the Appendix parts and see if there are either errors (author's name misspellings, program name , publisher, or description) or omissions, I would be most pleased to know so I can make the list better. If you know the name of an author that I have not included, please let me know. I feel that I am particularly weak on the GS side of software, not having gotten into the 16-bit world until about 2 months ago. I don't feel that I can include EVERY piece of software that has ever been released for the Apple II, but if there is anything that was clearly a popular program, or an innovative program, that I have missed, here is your chance to make me aware of it. What I probably cannot do is make the appendix files, in toto, shorter. Trying to find a way to present information about the gargantuan pile of programs that have come out over the years is part of what made this part of the History take SO-O-O-O long to get out. I've had information for Parts 19-22 actually completed for months, but I had this stumbling block of how to organize this stuff that slowed me down so badly. If the info presented in Appendix A (parts 1-4) is already acceptable, I would appreciate hearing about it also. Oh, yes; the stuff for 1991 and 1992 I did more annotation on, since it is current an d still available. If there are some other programs recently released that I should include, please tell me about that also. Steve Weyhrich --< (S.WEYHRICH [Historian], Cat. 2, Top. 16, Msg. 114, M645;1) SOFTDISK PUBLISHING ONLINE IN A2PRO Softdisk Publishing, creators of """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Softdisk and Softdisk G-S magazines on disk, now have their own online support category _just for programmers_ in A2Pro! Softdisk has long been a valued contributor to A2 and A2Pro, and they continue to provide customer service and support for the subscribers in A2, as they have for a long time. But now, here in A Pro, Softdisk has support for you, the _programmers!_ Want to know how to submit to Softdisk? You should, because Softdisk pays good money for your work -- sometimes more than you can get from shareware fees. Do you subscribe and admire the produce on values? You can find submission guidelines that describe all these things in Softdisk's new A2Pro category and library, both #31. We're pleased to welcome Softdisk to a formal level of support for programmers and potential submitters here in A2Pro. Look for even more companies supporting programmers here in A2Pro -- the development information you want all in one convenient place! Drop by category 31 and check it out! (M.DEATHERAGE [A2Pro Leader], Cat. 3, Top. 7, Msg. 9, M645;1) WARP SIX NOW PD Warp Six BBS is now in the public domain, with the """"""""""""""" release of public domain version 1.0, right here on A2 as file number 19178, filename W6BBS.BXY. I'm not going to completely stop working with the system, but I plan on spending a lot less time with it. For this reason, I felt it would be best to place it in the public domain. For those interested in the source code to the modem drivers, I'll be uploading those to A2Pro very soon. You will need Merlin to edit and re- assemble the SSC.Driver, and Merlin 16 or Merlin 16+ to edit and re-assemble the GS.Hski and GS.GPi drivers. The Xmodem module and Xloader can be assembled with Merlin 8. (If you have Merlin 16 or 16+ you can assemble the lot.) Best wishes in the future and with this message I'm departing from this topic. -Jim Ferr, creator of Warp Six BBS. (Category 41, Topic 10, Message 51, M645;1) ASTRONOMER GS V2.3.2 IS HERE! I just complete the upload of the latest """"""""""""""""""""""""""""" version. With luck (and the Sysops help) it should be available on-line very soon. Along with that, I uploaded two other separate files that will 'tell you about the program. First, for those who don't have the program the file "About Astronomer" in the Education library contains a text file and some screen snapshots showing what the program screens look like. The text file explains what the program's capabilities are. The second file, Astro..Changes in the same library will describe the changes since version 2.3.1. Since the new version corrects several bugs everyone should update as soon as possible. (L.BELL13 , Cat. 13, Top. 14, Msg. 11, M645;1) MDG PROGRAMMERS EXCHANGE The Morgan Davis Group is proud to unveil the """""""""""""""""""""""" MDG Programmers Exchange. Many of our products are geared toward software development for both 8- and 16-bit Apple II platforms. This is the place to go when you have questions about working with our tools. Use the TOPIC command to get a complete listing of c 1 is for MDG news and announcements. Here, you'll find notices about new products, upgrades, new uploads in our software library, and so on. Topic 2 contains summary information about our entire product line, including pricing, order information, etc. The first message in each product topic is a press release describing current features and availability. The last topic is the MDG Hackers' Lounge. Post messages here that are not appropriate in any of the other topics. In the MDG Software Library, you'll find files related to using Morgan Davis Group development products. Uploads consist of either binary programs and data files, or lengthy text documents describing some aspect of programming with our software. Occasionally, we will upload "freebie" software -- utilities to help around the hard disk. We also have a few demos of some of our titles, like MD-BASIC. With ten minutes of informative and humorous running time, the MD-BASIC demo is really fun to watch. Thank you for joining the MDG Programmers Exchange here on GEnie. Enjoy! /\/\ / /__\ Morgan Davis (M.DAVIS42, CAT32, TOP1, MSG:1/2/M530) FOUNDATION IS BACK Well Folks, I'm finally back here on GEnie and you're """""""""""""""""" going to start seeing my face (so to speak) around here to answer any Foundation related questions and keep you up to date on Lunar Productions. To start things off, here is the current state of Foundation: We released it! Yes, version 1.0 was released at KansasFest, but... (you knew there was a but :) ...at the last minute we decided to pull ScriptEdit from the release. We couldn't convince Uncle DOS or Event Specialists to postpone KansasFest for a month, and Jim "no sleep" Murphy gave it his best shot anyways. The bottom line is that Foundation 1.0.1 will begin shipping in a couple weeks with a VERY nice ScriptEdit module (including the dynamic ScriptBuilder!) Anyone who has already purchased Foundation will get 1.0.1 as a Free update (please keep those registration forms coming :) Foundation 1.0.1 is $79.95 and can be ordered directly from us at: Lunar Productions 1808 Michael Drive Waukesha, WI 53186 414/549-9261 (evenings please - central standard time) Marc Wolfgram Lunar Productions - >>> THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE <<< """"""""""""""""""""""""""""" ___ GSP CARD |om, like the GSP Card for the Apple II that was rumoured to """""""" be in development by Apple, the Apple /// on a card (codenamed "Rub a dub dub") is actually in development by a ///rd party. A prototype is expected to be shown off running one of the cash registers and acting as a coin-op videogame simultaneously at PizzaFest. (: -= Lunatic (: (LUNATIC, Cat. 44, Top. 11, Msg. 33, M645;1) ANNOUNCING: THE MACRO PROJECT (?) Several months ago I floated the idea """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" that we macro writers consider forming some sort of association or alliance for the purpose of promoting macro-based programs, exchanging information and ideas, etc. Although some expressed a general interest in the idea, I did not find much enthusiasm for a formal association, largely because of the bad taste left in all of our mouths by the untimely demise of the AppleWorks Programmers Association. While I agree that there may not be a need or a desire for a formal, dues-paying organization like APA, I still believe that those of us who write macros for commercial consumption could take som eps to increase the visibility of the AppleWorks/UltraMacros combination in general and to promote our own products in particular. As independent programmers writing for a necessarily limited (and perhaps dwindling) universe (those who use AppleWorks _and_ UltraMacros), I believe we need to make special efforts to reach our entail customers. An ad in, say, inCider (aside from its cost) may not be the most effective marketing tool because many of the Apple // users who would see it would not be UltraMacros owners. Advertising in NAUG's AppleWorks Forum might be more effective in reaching the targeted audience, but only a small percentage of AppleWorks users are NAUG members, and again, many of them either do not own UltraMacros or do not have enough memory or disk storage space to use some macro programs effectively. Most marketing experts will tell you that the best potential customers for most products are people who have previously bought a similar item or an item carrying the same brand name. That is, the people most likely to buy our macros are those who have already bought our macros -- or someone else's macros. With that idea in mind, I would like to propose what I call The Macro Project. The Macro Project would produce, at least as its initial offering, a comprehensive catalog of UltraMacros-based programs, task files, macro sets, useful macro tips, hints and/or instructions. The catalog would provide sufficient space for each macro programmer to list and briefly describe all the macro sets/programs/taskfiles that the programmer is selling. The catalog would have a consistent format and would include a table of contents listing offerings by programmer name and/or company name (for example, Dan's Macro City would have a section, Marin MacroWorks another, etc.). It would also contain an index of the individual macros or macro sets. The Macro Project catalog would, at the very minimum, be mailed to everyone on the combined mailing lists of all participating macro writers. This could be handled in several ways. Either sufficient copies would be provided to each individual so that he could mail his own list (which would result in a fair amount of duplication) or our lists could be combined (and the duplicates winnowed out). The details of how the mailing would work would have to be handled through discussion and negotiation. I would hope that eventually we could obtain other useful mailing lists from sources that have a high percentage of customers who would be likely to own both AppleWorks and UltraMacros. The names companies that might have those lists are fairly obvious. I have not contacted any of them yet, so the availability and/or cost of these lists is unknown. Of course, all Apple // publications would b e notified of the catalog's availability and asked to publish an address that anyone could write to for a free catalog. I'm sure there are other distribution strategies that we could explore. The immediate goals of this project would be: 1) To provide an appropriate and effective advertising medium for macro-based software. 2) To promote and increase the visibility of the AppleWorks/UltraMacros software combination. 3) To demonstrate the range of macro-based productivity software available. 4) To establish an ongoing publication that can be updated at regular intervals. I know that there are a lot of issues to be worked out between stating the concept and mailing out the finished catalog; I don't intend to go into all of them here. I will state that I am willing devote my time and energy to overseeing this project if there is sufficient interest among macro writers. If the interest is there, I would like to see the project finished before Christmas, so I need feedback on this soon. I would appreciate it if the discussion of this could be kept public and in t forum so everyone can read the responses. But if there is something you would rather express to me privately, please feel free to email me. -=* Dan *=- (D.CRUTCHER [Dan], Cat. 17, Top. 12, Msg. 84, M645;1) APPLE CLINIC UPDATE I was kind of sad to see that Cecil Fretwell will no """"""""""""""""""" longer be writing Apple Clinic in inCider, myself. Fretwell was an Apple II pioneer, from the very earliest days. His column was always well written and accurate. It's a shame he isn't doing it anymore. On the other hand, I expect good things from Cynthia Field, so we'll see I guess! In other news, I got word last week that Dan Muse had left inCider to work at Byte. At the moment the editing duties are being taken care of by one Eileen Terrill, though it's not clear if that's to be permanent or not. What with a change of hands at Apple Clinic, and my new column, and Matt Deatherage's new column, and with more columns for Joe Kohn, and a new editor, inCider is starting to look like a whole new magazine! Should be interesting to see how much it changes with all these new faces and new directions. -Dean Esmay (A2.DEAN [Chief Sysop], Cat. 28, Top. 3, Msg. 38, M645;1) >>> APPLE HEADS WANT TO KNOW <<< """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" PIZZAFEST SUCCESS! \/\/ell, the first Silicon Valley PizzaFest has now """""""""""""""""" come off, and I can say that it was quite a success. In attendance were: Matt Deatherage Dave Lyons Andy Nicholas Matt Ackeret Andy McFadden Lunatic E'Sex Joe Kohn Jim Merritt Kent Keltner John Ferreira Moses Ferreira Shirley Hill (Vaguely in order of appearance) |\/|uch food was consumed, and much fun was had by all! |) |lans are already under way for another Apple II social get together and hang out in the SF Bay Area, sometime next month. It was agreed that the next one will be held at a Chevy's restaurant (Mexican food), and that the location will be farther up the peninsula towards San Francisco. All attending were highly enthusiastic about making it to the next one. _ (_ __)o, if you're in the Bay Area, or you're going to BE in the Bay Area, near the end of September, and would like to go out to dinner with this cool group of people, keep watching this space for further details! -= Lunatic (: (LUNATIC, Cat. 44, Top. 11, Msg. 42, M645;1) From our Foreign Desk PROTOCOL """"""""""""""""""""" (summary by Henrik Gudat) Pizza sponsored by: Apple dealer U. Brunner Organizer: H.Gudat The first meeting in Reinach, Switzerland was a real success. 9 programmers (8 assembly language, 1 Pascal), the local Apple dealer and two other interested people attended the "show". Besides exchanging information and eating tons of peanuts, the most recent releases of some programs were shown. The meeting ended in a pizzeria. Mr. Brunner, the Apple dealer, expressed his support and belief in the Apple II by generously sponsoring the complete evening. Thank you very much! The equipment - provided by H. Gudat - consisted of two Apple IIGS, a 52MB and a 20 MB HD, two 3.5" drives, one 5.25" drive, a Revox amplifier, Bose 301 III speakers, and other stuff. Present Urs Brunner, Joerg and Valerie Kienzle, Yann Le Tensorer, """"""" Laurence, Urs Hochstrasser, Marc Schweizer, Andre Horstmann, Michael Born, Andreas Furrer, Dominik, Henrik Gudat. U. Brunner confirmed his faith in the Apple IIGS, donated a 6.0 CD and """""""""" suggested interesting marketing strategies. Joerg Kienzle he demonstrated SpaceFox because one person didn't know the """"""""""""" program! (Okay, he played in the cheat mode) Andre Horstmann showed off the brand-new ShadowDial II 2.1. It's a """"""""""""""" Videotex/Btx decoder with great capabilities. Unfortunately, there wasn't a modem connected to the GS so he could scratch the surface only. What a shame! Andre added tons of new macro commands and features supporting the new system tools. In addition you're now able to copy graphic directly out of the Vtx/Btx screen into the system clipboard. Michael Born and Andre explained their new project. They are building a """""""""""""""""""""" hardware/software package that will allow you to control any external device via phone (!) and much, much more. As far as I understood the whole thing, it will turn the GS into a intelligent telephone answering machine. Andreas Furrer and Dominik they started a demo with sensational """""""""""""""""""""""""" 70-line-scrolling (!!!) and NoiseTracker music. The quality was outstanding! Both had also some great ideas regarding new programs. They are now working on a new action adventure game with smooth animation. Urs Hochstrasser ...launched ChemiGS, a desktop application for molecular """""""""""""""" design. It's similar to an object oriented drawing program but features some functions for "simulating" 3D structures. A prot ocol between GSymbolix (see below) and ChemiGS is planned. (ChemiGS will be released in 1993.) Henrik Gudat ...double-clicked on GSymbolix 1.7. This nearly-running """""""""""" prototype has been modified so that it supports 6.0 features ( especially the Sound CDev and menu icons). A short 3D animation of a cosine could be seen as well as the built-in debugger (...which was definitely better than GSBug...) The most important change is GSymbolix's new capability of working with complex formulae. The program recognized even complicated expressions (such as 4*i/3*i^3). A button bar _might_ also be part of v1.7. GSymbolix 1.7 will ship in a couple of months. Marc Schweizer demonstrated LinReg, a desktop program written in """""""""""""" ORCA/Pascal for linear regression. It worked flawlessly but it is not yet finished. New action game Bright Software will soon start with a new, funny """"""""""""""" action/strategy game for IBM (by Yann Le Tensorer), Mac (Joerg Kienzle), Atari (?) and IIGS (Andre Horstmann and Henrik Gudat). We promise you: the IIGS version will be the best! There are also plans for an application-independent, object oriented, graphic based programming language. Let's face it when the new game hits the shelves... To make a long story short, this afternoon was plain fun. Obviously we all spoke the same language (except for one - Urs is using APW - uuuuhhhh). Though the evening ended with a lot of confusion regarding negative fixed values, I'm about to call this meeting the Swiss KansasFest. And next year I'll take a big pizza. -Henrik PS for more info, please contact Bright Software, P.O. Box 18, 4153 "" Reinach 2, Switzerland. (A.HORSTMANN, Cat. 13, Top. 13, Msg. 13, M645;1) Ultra Macro Printing A while back I saw a message requesting a macro """""""""""""""""""" that would print all of the odd pages in a document, then pause to allow the paper to be turned over, then print the even pages. I also needed to print on both sides of the paper and, unable to find a ready made macro, I was "forced" to write my own. Actually there are two macros; one for the odd pages and one for the even. :P P then exit {check for last page} else rpt:! {end loop} :P P then exit {check for last page} else rpt:! {end loop} I hope that someone will find these useful. Although these macros are not very long (or elegant) they took several hours of head scratching and reading the excellent Ultra Macros series by Willen. Enjoy! Karl R. (K.RONEY [Karl],Cat. 15, Top. 35 Msg. 85, M645;1) Quiet Your MDIdeas Card re long cables on the MDIdeas card, I had the """"""""""""""""""""""" same problem basically the thing wants to oscillate, so on the MDIdeas end I put a 3 ft cable before the 20 ft cable, and inbetween a little RC net work. I _think_ I put about a 100 pf cap across the line on the MDIdeas side, and about a 100 ohm resistor in series with the line. Used a little piece of perfboard. Worked fine then. This is my standard procedure for lines that go from a computer into the real world. Actually a .01 cap will just round the edges of a 10khz square wave, and it kills noise dead. Violates all kinds of people's sensibilities, but works. :) (J.IMIG [Bit Picker] , Cat. 6, Top. 7 Msg. 155, M645;1) -- Jerry Penner jpenne@ee.ualberta.ca Try a 1-line .sig today. Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2 Path: news.weeg.uiowa.edu!news.uiowa.edu!hobbes.physics.uiowa.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wupost!gumby!destroyer!cs.ubc.ca!unixg.ubc.ca!kakwa.ucs.ualberta.ca!ee.ualberta.ca!jpenne From: jpenne@ee.ualberta.ca (Jerry Penner) Subject: GEnieLamp Oct 1992 [4 parts] Message-ID: Summary: GEnie online magazine for the Apple II Sender: news@kakwa.ucs.ualberta.ca Nntp-Posting-Host: eigen.ee.ualberta.ca Organization: University Of Alberta, Edmonton Canada Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 07:42:33 GMT Lines: 1009 This is part 2 of 4 parts. This is GEnieLamp, an online magazine produced by various people on the GEnie information service. It is posted to the Internet by request of Thomas Schmitz (TOM.SCHMITZ on GEnie), the Apple II editor for GEnieLamp. He is resigning his post as editor (as you can read in this month's issue) but I will keep posting this to the Internet in all likelihood. There are four (4) parts, each of which is approximately 1000 lines + the regular Internet header lines. Enjoy. ---8<--- snip ---8<--- snip ---8<--- snip ---8<--- snip ---8<--- DRIVE TALK Yes the Vulcan is IDE and you can replace it with any Quantum """""""""" or Connor mechanism and I would expect the Maxtor drives to work as well. Current state of the art IDE drives use a block translation and are not designed to require an initialization routine to know the parameters of the drive. For example the Quantum drives will allow the interface card to setup an arbitrary number of heads/cyl inders/sectors per track. The drive simply stores these parameters at initialization time and when the interface card issues a read command the drive will convert the head/cylinder/sector number using the initialization parameters over into a logical block number. From the logical block number the drive will convert over into a head/cylinder/sector number that fits with it's drive parameters. It has to be done this way because current state of the art drives have variable number of sectors per track. >>>> Flopticals..... We are looking into it and we make no promises """" at this time. Further badgering on the subject will not be taken in a positive light. AS FAST AS IT GETS The RamFAST does DMA at 1meg/sec. This is as fast as """""""""""""""""" the IO bus can handle. The RF could actually DMA at about 1.7 meg/sec but the IO bus can't handle it so the RF runs as fast as the IO bus can handle. We read the drive at 1:1 interleave which is as fast as the drive can manage. The RamFAST is as fast as it gets. It is theoretically possible to make a DMA interface that plugs into the Zip or the processor socket and is capable of DMA at 2.6 meg/sec (2.59xxx actually) but it would not be compatible with the TWGS so we haven't pursued it. -Drew (CV.TECH [Tri.Stated], Cat. 11, Top. 10, Msg. 77, M645;1) TAPES The mechanism in question is a 3M mechanism and it uses the DC-2000 """"" tapes. I've got one here and we use it for testing. The tapes will run you about $14 ish a piece in small quantity and the performance of the drive is about 1.1 meg/sec. A couple of drawbacks to the drive include: o The tapes only hold 40 meg (actually about 38000k) o The tapes have to be formatted before use and that takes over half an hour per tape. o The drive is slightly finicky about power consumption so make sure it comes with a box and power supply. If you put it together yourself you will need at least a 60 watt power supply. o The drive takes awhile to recognize a tape. When you insert a tape the drive "goes away" for a couple of MINUTES. Advantages of the 3M mechanism: o It is the only tape drive I know that can do random access. This means that the RF card can tell the drive to go out into the tape and find block number xxx and read it. The tape drive copes. This is a great improvement when it comes to file based restores using the RF. -Drew (CV.TECH [Tri.Stated] , Cat. 11, Top. 12, Msg. 82, M645;1) SCRIPT-CENTRAL SUBSCRIBERS A quick note to Script-Central subscribers.... """""""""""""""""""""""""" I am sorry to say that I left two bugs in the Doctor Who stack. Until the Companions and Villains Stacks are provided, do _NOT_ select Slide Show from either the Companions or Villains popUp menus. If you wish to fix the 'bugs' you must add three lines to the slideShow handler of both the All Companions button and the Some Villains button. The three lines are as follows: on slideShow checkIt -- <---- add this Line 1 global F -- <---- add this Line 2 if F is "NO" the exit slideShow -- <---- add this Line 3 global STK If you do not wish to make these changes, the 'problem' will disappear when the auxiliary stacks are provided. -Joseph (J.WEEKS4 [IANAN,IAAFM!], Cat. 23, Top. 8, Msg. 101, M645;1) AE HIGH-DENSITY 3.5 DRIVE INCOMPTIBLILITIES We are indeed aware that """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" there are incompatibilities with the AE high-density 3.5" drive. We currently are working on an upgrade to Salvation-Deliverance, Salvation-Renaissance, and Salvation-Bakkup. However, our department has not yet been informed about the specifications of these application. I do know that the new versions will be supporting Apple's 1.44 MB high-density drive. I can't yet say that we are, or are not, supporting the AE high-density 3.5" floppy disk drive. As soon as we know what the specifications are, we'll let everyone know. Thanks, Lowell Erbe Vitesse, Inc. (VITESSEINC., Cat. 40, Top. 13, Msg. 39, M645;1) LOOKING FOR... """""""""""""" > Can anyone suggest or recommend software that will generate invoices and > statements? Sure. First, there's an add-on of some sort for AppleWorks; I'll bet someone's already posted that information. Myself, I like DB Master Pro for its flexibility. And, with Barney's going- out-of-business sale, it's fairly inexpensive. (BusinessWorks is fairly expensive, if I recall.) I uploaded to the Library a demo of a relational inventory/invoicing system for DB Master awhile back; all you have to do is add the program itself :). If your group went that route, Bill, I could probably modify my system to its needs, gratis, if it's not too involved. You didn't tell us anything about what the requirements are: Is this for inventory, fund-raising and contributions, or something else? Does the system have to add interest on an automatic basis (like credit cards)? What sort of a system does the group have -- hard drive, ram , platform? <<>> (L.DEVRIES [Lloyd], Cat. 2, Top. 5, Msg. 60, M645;1) MODEM DRIVERS TO: Everyone who uses a USR HST or one of the new """"""""""""" SupraFAXModems with GBBS Pro or another ACOS-based system. Paul Parkhurst has recently completed work on a set of drivers which will run any variety of US Robotics HST modem and the SupraFAXModem v.32bis from either the GS serial port or the Super Serial Card. The cost for the complete set of drivers is $15.00. If you want just the Supra driver, the cost is $10.00. He is waiting for 40 orders before he will ship. He can be reached by voice at 510-837-9098, or on his BBS, the Infinity's Edge BBS, at 510-820-9401. This is the only way I know of to use the SupraFAXModem v.32bis with GBBS, but I'm open to other suggestions. BTW, what's the story on the guy who was working on FAX software for the GS? --> Dan (D.BROWN109 [Dan], Cat. 10, Top. 2, Msg. 166, M645;1) WAIT, THERE'S MORE... Matt's right about 6.0 and CPS Follow, but there's """"""""""""""""""""" more. I wrote the patches that Zip is distributing (actually they had a contract programmer adapt the code I gave them), and you only need the AppleTalk patch for pre-6.0 AppleTalk. Since slowing down to 81% worked, I have to ask if you are in fact running system 5, because 81% and CPS Follow disabled should not (under 6.0) make the printer reappear -- 30% or so would. I have my own version of the init that not only fixes AppleTalk for 5.0 but also fixes the "disappearing cursor" flicker and patches the GS/OS SET_SYS_SPEED vector for Future Driver Compatibility (ooh ahh). I sent the entire init to Zip, and it looks like their contractor didn't change anything (although they did convert the source from Orca/M to Merlin). The system 5 version of the init is called ZIPTALK, and when system 6 came out I removed the AppleTalk code and called the resulting init ZIPFIX. Both inits have been available on internet. What Zip's documentation probably still doesn't tell you: AppleTalk delay was a last minute compatibility hack. It is really an IRQ delay that turns off the acceleration for 5 milliseconds every time an interrupt occurs. Zip did all their prototyping and beta testing with boards that ran just slow enough for AppleTalk to keep working, and when they finally got the 8 mhz parts from WDC with weeks to go before the release date, they scrambled to find a way to keep from breaking AppleTalk. Since AppleTalk Delay kicks in on any type of interrupt, enabling it really slows down the Zip -- heartbeat interrupts happen 60 times a second (16 ms), and the Zip slows down for 5 ms each time... so roughly a third of the time (or more) is spent unaccelerated. For this reason the AppleTalk delay should ALWAYS be disabled and an init (or system 6) should be used. Besides, as you've probably discovered, AppleTalk delay doesn't fix AppleTalk under system 5 unless you slow the Zip down a bit yourself. Blearg. This is because long AppleTalk packets take 14 ms to send, and the AppleTalk delay only makes things work for 5 ms -- so if you are sending data to the printer and running the Zip at full speed under system 5 the first third of the packet makes it OK and then the Zip comes back on and you're toast. You may be noticing something like this now; you can see the printer, but actually printing doesn't always work. That's because you don't need to use long packets to see the printer, but you do need them to print to it. Likewise, CPS Follow should ALWAYS be on. Turning it off may make the Zip run a bit faster, but you won't be able to use Disk ]['s (big loss) and system 6's AppleTalk driver requires it, as Matt said. Other things won't work, like border color animation demos, and the Normal Speed setting in the control panel won't do anything. There are probably other compatibility risks but I haven't run into them because I play it safe and leave CPS follow enabled. I suppose I should upload these inits to the software libraries. Which category would be the best one, or it is obvious? -Todd Whitesel toddpw (TODDPW, Category 26, Topic 12, Message 99, M645;1) RULE #1 """"""" > the only thing anybody is going to use the MSDOS FST for is writing out > files that are intended for an MSDOS system (or a unix system that can > access MSDOS, like the one I use at work). NOBODY IN HIS RIGHT MIND IS > GOING TO REGULARLY USE MSDOS FOR REAL IIGS FORKED FILE WORK. Get real!! Rule #1 of designing software: NEVER assume what people are going to do with it. 90% of all the problems I've ever seen users have with developer's work come about on things where the developer says "People won't want to do that. Get real." If the FST is writable, people will try to save files to it in Standard File, and if the file has a resource fork the file will then be immediately unusable to the application that just saved it. This was an early problem with the HFS FST -- it treated files of type $B0 (SRC) as files of type TEXT, so they got HFS creator 'pdos' and file type 'TEXT'. The problem was that when you read them, they had GS/OS file type $04 (Text). It had the advantage of making sense, and letting Macintosh applications read the files with no tweaking. It had the disadvantage that if you copied an ORCA/C source file to an HFS partition, ORCA/C would no longer compile it (wrong language type). Either it acts like a disk or it doesn't act like a disk. If it doesn't act like a disk, it shouldn't be an FST. Anything less is imposing even more "rules" for IIgs users to remember, and this is absolutely positively not the goal. --Matt (I speak for myself, not for Apple) (M.DEATHERAGE [A2Pro Leader], Category 9, Topic 7, Message 59) WE'VE MOVED!! """"""""""""" Our NEW physical address is: Econ Technologies, Inc. 99 N Central Ave Ste B Oviedo, FL 32765 Our business ours are: 9:30 AM - 6:00 PM EST Our mailing address is: P.O. Box 195356 Winter Springs, FL 32719 (ECON [D. Proni], Category 35, Topic 2, Message 2, M645;1) WHAT'S A COMPUTER? ][t's a person who uses a slide rule, pencils, and """""""""""""""""" lots of paper to make complicated calculations. At least, that's how they're referred to in the Lensman series of book by E.E. "Doc" Smith. ( : INTERESTING TRIVIA The first manned spacecraft to include an electronic """""""""""""""""" computer was the Apollo. All previous manned spacecraft (Mercury, Gemini, and the Soviet craft) were controlled merely by various combinations of simpler electronics and mechanical devices. Kinda scary, when you look around these days and practically EVERYTHING has a computer in it just to make it work the way you want it to. -= Lunatic (: (LUNATIC , Category 2, Topic 5, Message 89, M645;1) >>>>> Don't forget the pigeon bomb control system. Pigeons were """"" conditioned to watch a small screen and peck one of four buttons when a certain shape came on the screen (circle, square, triangle, and diamond). If the rocket started to get off course, the navigation system would flash a symbol on the screen and the pigeon would peck the correct button to respond. I don't recall if this navigation system was ever used, but I saw a number of times the pigeon training program to "program the navigation computer". Skinner would probably have loved it. >>> MESSAGE SPOTLIGHT <<< """"""""""""""""""""""""" Category 2, Topic 8 Message 8 Sat Sep 12, 1992 R.COVINGTON2 ["Baron"] at 21:01 EDT APPLE II WARS The following commentary was aired on Sound Bytes, a """"""""""""" public radio show originating in Rochester, NY. It is copyright (c) 1990 by Nick Francesco. Permission is granted to disseminate it in any form, as long as the wording is not changed, and this copyright notice accompanies it. DOS and Mac people have been at each other's throats since the introduction of the Mac in 1984. Which machine is better; which machine is more fun. As religious wars go, it's somewhere in the middle: worse than the Crusades, but not as bad as the Inquisition. No one on either side has been willing to take prisoners, and Silicon Valley is littered with its victims. Like the Crusades, no one was ever really persuaded to change sides, and like the Inquisition, people who did change sides did so only under extreme duress. Up until now, of course, most of the ammunition has been on the Mac side. Lots of studies have come out about how easy it is to learn to use a Mac, and how Mac people know and use more different types of programs than DOS people. No less prestigious a company than Microsoft (all rise) has released the information that their support lines prove that the Mac is easier to learn and use. They provide less support per package sold on the Mac side, proving that a Graphical User Interface is better. Of course, they didn't release this information until they had their own Graphical User Interface on the market, but I'm sure it takes a long time to compile the results of this sort of study. The DOS people had to content themselves with intangibles (it's slower), and appeals to the compu-macho in us all (real users don't use mice). Now, however, from the hallowed halls of the University of Delaware, comes Dr. Marcia Peoples Halio (trumpet sound). Dr. Halio (no relation to the graphics package, I'm sure) has released the results of a five-year study that suggests that Mac people are shallower, more illiterate, and less likely to have sex than DOS users. She did this by looking at the grades of a basic composition course. You see, as each student entered the University of Delaware, he or she was required to take a writing course in basic composition. Each student was also allowed to decide if he or she would rather use a Mac or DOS. And over five years, Dr. Halio discovered that Mac people got lower grades, picked shallower topics, and (gasp!!!) had more spelling errors than DOS people. The obvious conclusion? DOS people are fine, upstanding, moral, right-thinking people you would be proud to call your neighbor. And Mac people... well, you wouldn't want your daughter to marry one. Of course, this begs a few questions. Do the Mac people start out stupid, or is it something to do with the user interface? Is there something about a DOS command line that builds strong minds twelve ways? And what about a control group? If you took a few of these DOS Ubermenchen and put them in front of Macs, would they turn into drooling idiots? And if you could prop some of these Mac people up in front of DOS machines, would they suddenly start speaking in complete sentences and be able to get dates? We clearly need more study here. We need to delve deeper into this obviously fascinating mystery - I sense a Time-Life Books series coming on. Do DOS people eventually burn out and buy Windows? Do Mac people find themselves reduced to pointing at pictures in the menus at Denny's? And what about their future? Do DOS people end up becoming dry academicians, arguing about Edwin Newman's latest column and living on stipends while praying for tenure? Do Mac people spend their evenings standing around fern bars in double-breasted Armani suits, talking about convertible debentures and vacationing in the Azores? I am prepared to devote my life to this study. All I need is about five million dollars from Apple Computer, and about twenty million from Bill Gates (that's a fair assessment, based on their respective net worths). John, Bill, are you guys listening? I can be bought. Uhh... rented. Hired. You know. This is Nick Francesco for Sound Bytes, a production of WXXI in Rochester, NY - Hub of Civilization in the Western World. [*][*][*] While on GEnie, do you spend most of your time downloading files? If so, you may be missing out some excellent information in the Bulletin Board area. The messages listed above only scratch the surface of what's available and waiting for you in the bulletin board area. If you are serious about your APPLE II, the GEnie Lamp staff strongly urge you to give the bulletin board area a try. There are literally thousands of messages posted from people like you from all over the world. //////////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "Nathan, I imagine Lee caught onto the meaning of "enthisiasm" / / right away. He's very enthisiastic himself!" / ////////////////////////////////////////////// D.A.BRUMLEVE //// [EOA] [HUM]////////////////////////////// HUMOR ONLINE / ///////////////////////////////// Operator From Hell """""""""""""""""" by Simon Travaglia >>> B*ST*RD OPERATOR FROM HELL <<< """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" ~ PART 1 ~ It's backup day today so I'm P.O.'d. Being the BOFH, however, does have it's advantages. I assign the tape device to null - it's so much more economical on my time as I don't have to keep getting up to change tapes every 5 minutes. And it speeds up backups too, so it can't be all bad. A user rings "Do you know why the system is slow?" they ask "It's probably something to do with..." I look up today's excuse ".. clock speed" "Oh" (Not knowing what I'm talking about, they're satisfied) "Do you know when it will be fixed?" "Fixed? There's 275 users on your machine, and one of them is you. Don't be so selfish - logout now and give someone else a chance!" "But my research results are due in tomorrow and all I need is one page of Laser Print.." "SURE YOU DO. Well; You just keep telling yourself that buddy!" I hang up. Sheesh, you'd really think people would learn not to call! The phone rings. It'll be him again, I know. That annoys me. I put on a gruff voice "HELLO, SALARIES!" "Oh, I'm sorry, I've got the wrong number" "YEAH? Well what's your name buddy? Do you know WASTED phone calls cost money? DO YOU? I've got a good mind to subtract your wasted time, my wasted time, and the cost of this call from your weekly wages! IN FACT I WILL! By the time I've finished with you, YOU'LL OWE US money! WHAT'S YOUR NAME - AND DON'T LIE, WE'VE GOT CALLER ID!" I hear the phone drop and the sound of running feet - he's obviously going to try and get an alibi by being at the Dean's office. I look up his username and find his department. I ring the Dean's secretary. "Hello?" she answers "Hi, SIMON, B.O.F.H HERE, LISTEN, WHEN THAT GUY COMES RUNNING INTO YOUR OFFICE IN ABOUT 10 SECONDS, CAN YOU GIVE HIM A MESSAGE?" "I think so..." she says "TELL HIM `HE CAN RUN, BUT HE CAN'T HIDE'" "Um. Ok" "AND DON'T FORGET NOW, I WOULDN'T WANT TO HAVE TO TELL ANYONE ABOUT THAT FILE IN YOUR ACCOUNT WITH YOUR ANSWERS TO THE PUURITY TEST IN IT..." I hear her scrabbling at the terminal... "DON'T BOTHER - I HAVE A COPY. BE A GOOD GIRL AND PASS THE MESSAGE ON" She sobs her assent and I hang up. And the worst thing is, I was just guessing about the purity test thing. I grab a quick copy anyway, it might make for some good late-night reading. Meantime backups have finished in record time, 2.03 seconds. Modern technology is wonderful, isn't it? Another user rings. "I need more space" he says "Well, why don't you move to Texas?" I ask "No, on my account, stupid." Stupid?!?.... Uh-Oh.. "I'm terribly sorry" I say, in a polite manner equal to that of Jimmy Stewart in a Family Matinee "I didn't quite catch that. What was it that you said?" I smell the fear coming down the line at me, but it's too late, he's a goner and he knows it. "Um, I said what I wanted was more space on my account, *please*" "Sure, hang on" I hear him gasp his relief even though he covered the mouthpiece. "There, you've got plenty of space now" "How much have I got" Now this REALLY *PISSES* *ME* *OFF*! Not only do they want me to give them extra disk, they want to check it, to correct me if I don't give them enough. They should be happy with what I give them *and that's it*!!! Back into Jimmy Stewart mode. "Well, let's see, you have 4 Meg available" "Wow! Eight Meg in total, thanks!" he says pleased with his bargaining power "No" I interrupt, savouring this like a fine red, at room temperature "4 Meg in total..." "Huh?... I'd used 4 Meg already, How could I have 4 Meg Available?" I say nothing. It'll come to him. "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagggggghhhhhH!" I kill me; I really do! +-----------+ Terminal Sticker: "My other terminal is a chunk of sh*t too" |+----+ | +----------------------------------------------------------+ || | | | Simon Travaglia, Computer Services, University of Waikato| |+----+VT100| | Priv. Bag, Hamilton, New Zealand. spt@grace.waikato.ac.nz| +-----------+ +----------------------------------------------------------+ The telephone pole was approaching fast, I was attempting to swerve out of it's path when it struck my front end. [*][*][*] CS-ID: #1253.humor/tasteless@pro-friends, 4587 chars Date: 10 Jun 92 09:14:40 +1200 From: spt@waikato.ac.nz (Simon Travaglia) Subject: b*st*rd OPERATOR FROM HELL #1 Newsgroups: alt.tasteless Message-ID: <1992Jun10.091440.8536@waikato.ac.nz> Organization: University of Waikato Computer Centre Lines: 126 //////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "If anyone wants any stamps send me a SASE and I will send / / you a stamp." / ///////////////////////////////////////////// M.FARMER2 //// [EOA] [APP]////////////////////////////// APPLE_TALK / ///////////////////////////////// Apple Vs. IBM """"""""""""" by Stephen Kroese As I was walking down the street the other day, I noticed a man working on his house. He seemed to be having a lot of trouble. As I came closer, I saw that he was trying to pound a nail into a board by a window --- with his forehead. He seemed to be in a great deal of pain. This made me feel very bad, watching him suffer so much just to fix his window pane. I thought, ``Here is an opportunity to make someone very happy simply by showing him a better way to do things.'' Seeing him happy would make me happy too. So I said, ``Excuse me sir, there is a better way to do that.'' He stopped pounding his head on the nail and with blood streaming down his face said, ``What?'' I said, ``There is a better way to pound that nail. You can use a hammer.'' He said, ``What?'' I said ``A hammer. It's a heavy piece of metal on a stick. You can use it to pound the nail. It's faster and it doesn't hurt when you use it.'' ``A hammer, huh?'' ``That's right. If you get one I can show you how to use it and you'll be amazed how much easier it will make your job.'' Somewhat bewildered he said, ''I think I have seen hammers, but I thought they were just toys for kids.'' ``Well, I suppose kids could play with hammers, but I think what you saw were brightly colored plastic hammers. They look a bit like real hammers, but they are much cheaper and don't really do anything,'' I explained. ``Oh,'' he said. Then went on, ``But hammers are more expensive than using my forehead. I don't want to spend the money for a hammer.'' Now somewhat frustrated I said, ``But in the long run the hammer would pay for itself because you would spend more time pounding nails and less time treating head wounds.'' ``Oh,'' he said. ``But I can't do as much with a hammer as I can with my forehead,'' he said with conviction. Exasperated, I went on. ``Well, I'm not quite sure what else you've been using your forehead for, but hammers are marvelously useful tools. You can pound nails, pull nails, pry apart boards. In fact every day people like you seem to be finding new ways to use hammers. And I'm sure a hammer would do all these things much better than your forehead.'' ``But why should I start using a hammer? All my friends pound nails with their foreheads too. If there were a better way to do it I'm sure one of them would have told me,'' he countered. Now he had caught me off guard. ``Perhaps they are all thinking the same thing,'' I suggested. ``You could be the first one to discover this new way to do things,'' I said with enthusiasm. With a skeptical look in his bloodstained eye he said,''Look, some of my friends are professional carpenters. You can't tell me they don't know the best way to pound nails.'' ``Well, even professionals become set in their ways and resist change.'' Then in a frustrated yell I continued, ``I mean, come on! You can't just sit there and try to convince me that using your forehead to pound nails is better than using a hammer!'' Now quite angry he yelled back, ``Hey listen buddy, I've been pounding nails with my forehead for many years now. Sure, it was painful at first but now it's second nature to me. Besides, all my friends do it this way and the only people I've ever seen using {\Fit0 hammers} were little kids. So take your stupid little children's toys and get the hell off my property.'' Stunned, I started to step back. I nearly tripped over a large box of head bandages. I noticed a very expensive price tag on the box and a blue company logo on the price tag. I had seen all I needed to see. This man had somehow been brainwashed, probably by the expensive bandage company, and was beyond help. Hell, let him bleed, I thought. People like that deserve to bleed to death. I walked along, happy that I owned not one but three hammers at home. I used them every day at school and I use them now every day at work and I love them. A sharp pain hit my stomach as I recalled the days before I used hammers, but I reconciled myself with the thought that tonight at the hammer users club meeting I could talk to all my friends about their hammers. We will make jokes about all the idiots we know that don't have hammers and discuss whether we should spend all of our money buying the fancy new hammers that just came out. Then when I get home, like every night, I will sit up and use one of my hammers until very late when I finally fall asleep. In the morning I will wake up ready to go out into the world proclaiming to all non-hammer users how they too could become an expert hammer user like me. -Bear (A2-BEAR, CAT2, TOP8, MSG:2/M645) ///////////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "There's an Office Depot just up the street from me. I'll give / / your recommendation a try (even though you told me not to trust / / anyone's recommendations ;^)." / /////////////////////////////////////////////////// OUTRIDER //// [EOA]#61 [FUN]////////////////////////////// ONLINE FUN / ///////////////////////////////// Search-ME! """""""""" Scott Garrigus [S.GARRIGUS] SEARCH-ME! Welcome to Search-ME, our monthly puzzle article. Each """""""""" month we will have a different theme. This month the Search-ME! puzzle contains 21 keywords that are associated with programming. >>> PROGRAMMING! <<< """""""""""""""""""" Q A O R R A G H S S F S P G S A K D F I B Q C S T Q R M X J I D D M K U E A R E L M X G T G W Z R M J X N P O V B O O W F K E X P S Q N D Y Z I Z O W W G T F H C H K G S Y X N U S W J D C R Y E W O T N I R P G B X T Q A H D G A B Z T A P A T K D G M F H X L G P X V T Y L C U X R B S O A D I U P Y A U I Z M F G X X H Q H J S H P Z F A G G D Z T Y F U B C T E P D C G G N F S K T C J Z S F P N R N W E P N N F O E O T H Y Q G K B L O U J N A S Y C E S L W M Y A S S E M B L Y R I F C M N T I Q G R O G P S W D E V U O C W Z B N E W L S S K Z E O W I Z R L Q Y F F P O E D M D H A G H N Y A P B L E I G K V B O E A J O X O B O F L H O D U W E V T P N V I Z U H R G Z W S Q J Q Y B C C J L O E B J M O T C Y K U E U Q G Y Y A F A J A C M S E U L Z R K H M M B S O D E U R E Z C A H Y T E G C Q V B L N O V V A L G M R B S P S N E V A R I A B L E P A B L E V P I A A B U D H F I L M W K E V E J Z A Q P O M L P V Z Z X V W ARRAY ASSEMBLY BASIC BIOS COMPILE CONSTANT DOS FOR GEM GFA GOSUB GOTO LOOP MEMORY MOVE NEXT PASCAL PRINT READ VARIABLE WRITE [*][*][*] GIVE UP? You will find the answers in the LOG OFF column at the end of """""""" the magazine. This column was created with a program called SEARCH ME, an Atari ST program by David Becker. ///////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "You will get the mag on Thursday because you sent them a / / message asking if it was sent on Wednesday. I know because / / I sent a message on Tuesday and just got my mag today. I / / wish I'd sent the message a week or two earlier so I would / / have had the magazine. :-)" / ///////////////////////////////////////////////// WAYNED //// [EOA]!!@ [WHO]////////////////////////////// WHO'S WHO / ///////////////////////////////// Who's Who In Apple II """"""""""""""""""""" by Phil Shapiro [P.SHAPIRO1] >>> WHO'S WHO? DEAN ESMAY <<< """""""""""""""""""""""""""""" ~ Head Apple II Roundtable Sysop ~ GEnieLamp> Dean, how did you first get interested in the Apple II """"""""" computer? Do you have any anecdotes you can share with us about your first experiences with the Apple II? DEAN ESMAY> The first computer I messed with was a TRS-80 Model I. A """""""""" neighbor upstairs had one when I was a kid. It fascinated me and I quickly learned how to load game programs from its cassette tape - it was neat! Though I drifted away from that, years later in high school I started working extensively with TRS-80 Color Computers. I also went through a brief love affair with the IBM-PC, but I spent most of my time with the CoCo, and later with a TRS-80 Model XII, a pretty rare CP/M based business computer that never did too well for Radio Shack. In school I had almost unlimited time in front of the machines. The school was very small (it was a Special Education school with a student body of somewhere between 70 and 90) and I quickly gained a reputation for being great at word processing, so the people who ran the school let me spend a lot of time in front of the machine. They had me doing office correspondence for them, typing in software from computer magazines, and just basically the computer whiz kid for the school. Anyway, to get to the point, one day the school got an Apple IIe to run some specialized vocational evaluation software. Well, it was right there in the office so I got to play with it, too. I remember starting with Apple Writer and not really being sure what to think, but the demo disk that came with the machine was very intriguing. It only had a green monochrome screen, but the graphics were still much nicer in many ways than what the Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer could do. Well I didn't get too much further into it right then. But not long afterwards I started going back to hang out with some friends in my old neighborhood who I hadn't seen for a few years, and pretty quickly I found that a couple of them used Apple IIes in school. One of them in particular, a close friend named Thom Ryng, actually had one at home. And wow, they had these neat disks with software to give me; mostly Applesoft and Integer BASIC stuff under DOS 3.3, just silly demo stuff that was used back then to teach programming. But it was wonderful! I had been messing with BASIC programs on the TRS-80 systems, but the Apple was just so neat! It had disk drives that were actually useful! Oh sure, the TRS-80 systems had disk drives, but they were a real pain to work with, especially under BASIC. I fell in love with the Apple because you could put in a disk, boot the machine, and then just type CATALOG to see what was there! And just type RUN and a file name to run a program! Amazing! And you could just type LOAD and a file name to load a program up, and then you could LIST it, make changes to it, almost anything! And you could make a turnkey disk by just writing a program, putting in a blank disk, and typing INIT HELLO. Your own custom Hello programs! You could even write one BASIC program that would run another program! Jeez, it was just so freaking AWESOME. It all sounds quaint and kind of silly now, but at the time it just blew me away. I was just absolutely in love. Soon we got a copy of AppleWorks (I'm pretty sure it was 1.0 at that point) and I started doing all sorts of things with it. I think that's when I finally stopped using the other systems completely. The IIe was just way too much more powerful, more friendly, and more FUN than any system I'd used before. GEnieLamp> You've been working for Resource Central for several years """"""""" now, doing work in several different capacities. How did you first link up with Tom Weishaar and his merry crew? DEAN ESMAY> I think I picked up my first copy of Open-Apple (which is """""""""" what A2-Central used to be called, even before the company was named Resource Central) only a year or so after I started using the Apple IIe as my primary computer at the school. I got a copy of that first "Issue #0," the one that talked in glowing terms about what a wonderful system the Apple II was, despite the way Apple ignored it. That's pretty funny considering that this was, what, seven or eight years ago? We Apple II'ers have been complaining about Apple and worrying about the Apple II's future for at least that long, but we're still here! Well anyway, Open-Apple hooked me immediately and I scraped up what meager funds I had to subscribe. Come to think of it, I may have actually gotten a teacher to subscribe to it for me. I can't remember anymore. (Chuckle.) That little newsletter changed my life. I remember telling Tom Weishaar that once and he seemed to think that was a kind of weird thing to say, but when I started reading it I was still in my mid-teens, and it more than anything else was responsible for plunging me into a long-term love affair with computers. Let me tell you, the direction my life would have gone in if I hadn't developed a serious interest in computers is kind of scary for me to think about even today. I'd probably be working at McDonald's or eking out a living on food stamps or something. That newsletter made me an expert, gave me something I could both understand and enjoy, and something I actually enjoyed WORKING with. It made me a serious computer fanatic - and not just computers in general, but the Apple II in specific. I still like working with other computers, and we now have others around the house, but my Apple II is where I do all my real work. Well anyway, I kept reading Open-Apple for years, and wrote in a few letters now and then that Tom actually published, which was a big thrill for me. Then one issue of Open-Apple came along where Tom talked about how he'd been talked into taking over the Apple II areas on GEnie. Well I was already a diehard modem user; I'd been calling local systems for years and eventually started running a bulletin board myself (the Apple Tree BBS, under the auspices of the Apple Tree Computer Club, south-suburban Chicago user group I've been involved with for many years). I had never used a large service like GEnie, but I sure knew my way around modems, and had some amount of expertise in computers and in the Apple II. So when I saw Tom mention he was taking over GEnie's Apple II areas, I thought, "What the hell." I worked up a resume and mailed it to him, saying I'd be very happy to work as a volunteer to help manage the area. I never got a response, so a few months later I sent him another copy, slightly updated. I had learned by then that if you wanted to make sure those Open-Apple guys saw something and actually remembered it, you had to send at least two copies. Well I still didn't hear anything for a few months. And then one day I got this hand-scrawled note from Tom saying, and I'm quoting almost exactly, "Got your resume. Can you send me some references? Why aren't you in college? Tom Weishaar." (Which is pretty classic Tom Weishaar - much of his correspondence reads that way. Short and to the point!) So I wrote him another letter, including another resume and the requested list of references. I didn't hear anything for another few months, so I basically forgot about it. Then one day sitting at my desk (I was working as a secretary at the time) a friend of mine called me up and said, "Hey, Tom Weishaar just called me and asked me about you." Then two other people called me and said the same thing within the space of maybe ten minutes. And these were all people that I'd put down as references! Well I didn't have any chance to really absorb that news, because right after I hung up with one of them, the phone rings again and this time it's Tom Weishaar himself! I was almost speechless; he was something of a hero to me and here he was calling me to talk about working for him. It was more than that; he actually wanted to fly me out to meet the rest of the crew and we even talked about salary over the phone. Within a week he'd flown me to Kansas City for the interview. For a guy in his early 20's with nothing but a High School diploma, working a dead-end job but who loved his Apple, well... it was just the biggest thrill I'd ever experienced. And though the salary he could afford to offer wasn't really much, it was much more than I was making at the time. The worst part was that I had to turn down the job. I wanted it badly, but at the time I was trapped in a marriage; a very unhappy one that I had been thinking about terminating for a while, but I was still young and insecure and not sure what to do. Anyway, she couldn't/wouldn't move to Kansas City. I told Tom I might get a divorce, or maybe try to work something else out, but I just couldn't come work for him now. I hoped he'd hold the job open for me but I didn't know if or when I could take it. So I left back for Chicago very depressed and unhappy. Well a few days later Tom calls me again and tells me that for the projects he wants me for, he doesn't see any reason I can't just stay in Chicago. He wouldn't pay me quite as much, but I could set my own hours and work from where I was! I eventually did get out of that marriage (no one should ever marry at 19!) but somehow it's always worked out that I'd just stay here in Chicago anyway. I seem to have started a minor trend at Resource Central though; seems like more and more of the people who do stuff for Tom (such as Bo Monroe, and HangTime) live nowhere near Kansas. I see I've left a lot of little things out, but I do have a tendency to drone on and on once I get going, so I'd better stop. GEnieLamp> While just a few years old, the A2-Central Summer Developer's """"""""" Conference (nicknamed "KansasFest") has become a veritable Apple II institution. As a person who has attended every KansasFest conference, can you share some thoughts about KansasFest? What would you like to see added for next year's conference? DEAN ESMAY> Well one correction - the first KansasFest was called the """""""""" A2-Central Developer's Conference. I remember how we all sort of nicknamed it KansasFest the first year. But anyway, all subsequent conferences have been called simply the A2-Central Summer Conference - note that the word "Developer" was removed. It's not a developer conference; there's lots of stuff for programmers and developers, but plenty to interest non-programmers. But anyway, what can I tell you about KansasFest? Basically, I think anyone who is an Apple II aficionado (not just a user, but someone who really ENJOYS working with it) really should go. Not so much for what you'll learn (though you'll probably learn some things) but for who you'll meet and how much fun you'll have. I always have a wonderful time there. Meeting other Apple II users from around the world is such a treat. It's a double treat if you're on GEnie, because you usually find at least a few people who you've met in RTC's or on the bulletin board, but never actually seen face to face. One of the strongest observations I want to make about KansasFest, though, and one which I think far too few people realize, is that the real fun is not the conference - it's hanging out in the rooms during the evening with other Apple II users! What's weird is some folks who come never catch on to that. They actually try to find hotels, or they hole up in their rooms, or just stick with one or two friends and don't socialize much. Oh, what a mistake! The fact is that there's just nothing more fun than getting to know the other Apple IIers in the world. I remember that first KansasFest four years ago; I just swallowed my many insecurities and started walking around introducing myself. Nobody knew who I was, but soon I had a bunch of friends; computer enthusiasts all share certain personality traits, and Apple II users are an unusually friendly bunch anyway. What would I like to see added to KansasFest? I can't think of a thing; it's always one of the highlights of my year now. This year was by far the worst KansasFest I ever attended - but only because I was quite ill with some kind of respiratory problem, and then some kind of stomach problem on top of it, for half the event. And a bunch of things we'd planned to promote the goings-on here on GEnie fell through because I was under the weather, and also some other things we planned didn't come through. But I STILL had fun! The only thing that was not-fun was seeing all the other people having even more fun than me. You will make friends at KansasFest, you will learn things about your Apple II, and you will have fun. That's what it's all about. So, the only thing I can think of that should be added to KansasFest is more Apple II users. Those of you who don't come just don't know what you're missing. That's all KansasFest needs - more of you guys out there who say, "Ah, I don't know if it's for me." Yes it is! GEnieLamp> Before ascending to the head sysop of the Apple II Roundtable """"""""" on GEnie, you worked for a while as the head Apple II Roundtable librarian. What did you find most rewarding about the librarian job? Least rewarding? -- Jerry Penner jpenne@ee.ualberta.ca Try a 1-line .sig today. Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2 Path: news.weeg.uiowa.edu!news.uiowa.edu!hobbes.physics.uiowa.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wupost!gumby!destroyer!cs.ubc.ca!unixg.ubc.ca!kakwa.ucs.ualberta.ca!ee.ualberta.ca!jpenne From: jpenne@ee.ualberta.ca (Jerry Penner) Subject: GEnieLamp Oct 1992 [4 parts] Message-ID: Summary: GEnie online magazine for the Apple II Sender: news@kakwa.ucs.ualberta.ca Nntp-Posting-Host: eigen.ee.ualberta.ca Organization: University Of Alberta, Edmonton Canada Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 07:43:13 GMT Lines: 1007 This is part 3 of 4 parts. This is GEnieLamp, an online magazine produced by various people on the GEnie information service. It is posted to the Internet by request of Thomas Schmitz (TOM.SCHMITZ on GEnie), the Apple II editor for GEnieLamp. He is resigning his post as editor (as you can read in this month's issue) but I will keep posting this to the Internet in all likelihood. There are four (4) parts, each of which is approximately 1000 lines + the regular Internet header lines. Enjoy. ---8<--- snip ---8<--- snip ---8<--- snip ---8<--- snip ---8<--- DEAN ESMAY> I didn't just work for "a while" as librarian. It was the only """""""""" thing I ever did on GEnie! Well actually I did that and answered almost all A2.HELP mail at the same time. I did both for something like four years before becoming chief sysop, which was only just a few months ago. I always tell people the same thing about being software librarian on GEnie. The greatest thing about it is getting to download and play with so many files! It really is neat to see so much stuff and get to mess with all of it. You have to make sure it all works and all that, right? So when the latest new shareware game comes along, of course I have to spend some time playing it to make sure it works... right? But the worst thing about being file librarian is... having to download and mess with so many files! Seriously, it's both the greatest plus and greatest drawback. When you see EVERY file that goes up, and when you HAVE TO look at all of it, it starts to lose some of its attraction. Some days you just can't stand the thought of having to deal with any more new files... but of course you have to, because it's your job. I kind of thought I'd miss the job after I turned it over to Tim Tobin a few months ago, but you know what? I really haven't. A2 gets anywhere from a few dozen K to a megabyte or even several megabytes (and I mean megabytes AFTER being compressed with ShrinkIt) every single day. Having to wade through all that can be fun, but I find that after a having had a few years of it I don't miss it near as much as I thought I might! GEnieLamp> What do you consider your most proud accomplishment? (In terms """"""""" of your work with the Apple II.) DEAN ESMAY> My work on Studio City. Studio City is a bi-monthly """""""""" magazine-on-disk that I edit. It uses HyperStudio as its main environment. It used to be called Stack-Central, but we thought Studio City was more catchy and would help people more clearly distinguish it as a HyperSTUDIO product. (We also have Script-Central, for HyperCARD, but I'm only involved peripherally with that.) I pour a lot of my soul into Studio City, and it's a lot of work. I've been doing it for about 14 months now and, while I'm starting to feel a real strain to keep up with it, it's still the work I'm proudest of. I look at those back issues since I took over, and I think that much of what is in them represent some of the best work I've ever done in my life. I'm also proud to say that we've attracted some people who aren't HyperStudio owners but who really like and can use the stuff we put on each issue! I really like that; you can use HyperStudio stacks without owning HyperStudio, due to the free "runtime" module we include with each issue, but most people don't seem to have caught on yet. We publish loads of good software that people can use every issue, much of it stuff you just DON'T need HyperStudio to use or enjoy. HyperStudio is such an exciting environment. There's all sorts of opportunity it represents from the enterprising person; you don't have to be a "real" programmer to do some very exciting stuff with it. Although if you are a "real" programmer there's stuff for you in it, too. Again, since people DON'T have to own HyperStudio to use what you create with it, there's just lots of opportunities there if you want to develop products people might buy (or at least enjoy downloading from our library! ). Unfortunately, at the present time HyperStudio is in a new release stage (version 3.1) which has some significant bugs. This doesn't affect "average" users much, but those of us who push the environment to its limits keep coming across frustrating bugs that cause real problems. Fortunately it's been getting more stable, and I hope that Roger Wagner Publishing gets them all ironed out soon. GEnieLamp> Who do you look up to as your mentors? """"""""" DEAN ESMAY> I don't really have any mentors; I never really have had them. """""""""" I suppose you could say I am a self-made man. I didn't go to college, and in fact I barely squeaked through a Special Ed High School (they made me Valedictorian but considering that it was a graduating class of about a dozen, with an average GPA of maybe 2.0 that's not saying much!). I was always a loner who kept to himself and read. I suppose you could say my mentors were books. I feasted on them; especially SF books, but other books of many types, not to mention magazines. Certainly the Open-Apple newsletter and those who wrote in it (not just Tom Weishaar but Dennis Doms and the many people who wrote letters that were published in it over the years) had a big effect. But many others would include those authors who taught me ways of looking at life, taught me facts about the world, and even sometimes taught me how to think (especially how to think for myself). As a kid I read three to five books a week, and even now I read at least one a month on the average (which isn't near as much as I'd like, but I'm too slow and too busy to handle much more). There are some names that come to mind though - Mark Twain, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov... and Albert Einstein (not that he wrote much that I read, but I spent so much time and energy trying to teach myself Special and General relativity, he had an effect anyway, if you see what I mean). I guess this is a kind of weird answer but it's the only one I have. I grew up reading, and books were my mentors; not just my mentors, but my friends, allies, and partners in crime. Guess that means I was a weird kid, but so what? GEnieLamp> Dean, speaking as someone with quite a lot of """"""""" telecommunications experience, where do you see the future of telecommunications moving in the next five to ten years? Do you think the new Internet capability of GEnie will be opening up a lot of doors? (In terms of allowing GEnie subscribers to communicate with people on other information services.) DEAN ESMAY> I think it's really hard to say where the future lies. """""""""" Certainly telecommunications will get faster and more efficient and more powerful. We'll also see things that are much more advanced in terms of graphics, and even sound, being generated across modem lines. How much so is very hard to say. Not to get all political (though I love to talk politics), much of it depends on how soon the government gets around to regulating the industry. I'm confident they'll do it sooner or later. No matter how much we fight it, they'll have their way with us eventually. And once the on-line services are hostage to government control and restriction, then the technological advances we see, and what companies are allowed to offer consumers, will be slowed down significantly. So it really depends on how long we have until the government finally comes in and screws up a good thing. It's inevitable; I merely hope it's later rather than sooner. If we have a decade or so more without much interference, I think what we'll see will be mind-blowing. If we only have another year or two, don't expect too much more exciting than what we have now (which I'll admit is still pretty neat! :-). The Internet links thousands of different computer systems around the world. So yes, that makes it likely that there will be a lot of new opportunities for communicating with people on-line. You won't have to require that other people you know have GEnie accounts before they can send messages to you; they'll be able to send mail to you from all kinds of other systems. That should be very nice. I'm not really an expert on the Internet, so I can't say much else about it than the fact that it will give us access to quite a lot of information and quite a lot more people! GEnieLamp> What sorts of things do you like to do for fun (i.e. """"""""" non-computer hobbies)? DEAN ESMAY> I'm a rabid music listener. I have a fairly nice stereo and """""""""" several hundred CDs. I listen to many different kinds of music, mostly rock and blues but a smattering of everything - jazz, pop, country, classical, industrial, rap, folk, and avant-garde stuff. I also still read quite a lot. A majority of the fiction I read is Science Fiction, but I read lots of other things. I seem to have a perverse interest in economics, as well as certain odd kinds of historical and sociological areas. I also used to love to go to places like the Jerry Pournelle RoundTable to talk about everything from politics to physics, but since taking over A2 I haven't had enough time for that. GEnieLamp> Along with everything else you do, Dean, you also edit """"""""" A2-Central On-Disk. Since some Apple II enthusiasts may not know what A2-Central On-Disk has to offer, can you give us a brief synopsis of its contents? Does editing A2-Central On-Disk take up a lot of time each month? DEAN ESMAY> A2-Central On Disk (A2 On Disk for short) is a monthly """""""""" companion to the A2-Central newsletter. Now, A2-Central (formerly Open-Apple) has won many awards and much acclaim as an Apple II periodical. What doesn't get mentioned as often is the monthly disk that you can get with it as an option. Each issue of A2 On Disk is a single 800K 3.5 disk that contains, first, a copy of the A2-Central newsletter itself in a text file. Each month I convert the newsletter into a usable text file. That may not sound all that exciting until you realize that we provide software to let you search through that text for items of interest. One thing you can do is take all the text files from your back issues and use software such as Sneeze (which is free), or Fastdata Pro (which costs a little but is awfully nice) to search through back issues very quickly. It becomes a highly useful technical reference, much more convenient and flexible than standard indexes. There's TONS of useful information in back issues of A2-Central, so it's neat to have it all quickly at your fingertips. Now, the newsletter text only takes up a small fraction of the disk. So each month it is also crammed - and I do mean crammed - full of the best public domain, freeware, and shareware software I can find. Not only do I get stuff from on-line, but people send me stuff all the time. Many shareware authors send me their programs, and quite often subscribers from around the world will send me disks with neat stuff on them. It's really cool when you get a disk from a place like Australia full of new software you've never seen before. While most of the software on A2 On Disk is IIgs-specific, every month I try to include as much quality 8-bit stuff as I can find. And it usually winds up being at least enough to fill up a 5.25 disk or two. You see, we compress all the files on each issue with ShrinkIt, which means your 800K disk actually has well over a megabyte worth of programs on it. So there's lots of things I can do with it now. As for how long it takes - you know, it takes up a lot more time than you might think. Usually I get the raw, unformatted text from Ellen Rosenberg (the current editor) about four days before it has to be done. And it usually takes me about two working days to finish the issue at that point. I spend a lot of time fitting stuff on there, trying to develop a theme, and trying to make sure everything on it is really interesting and that there's a variety of all kinds of things. I put a lot of effort into that, and making sure there's stuff for all machines on there. I also work really hard to fit things together well; each issue usually has well under 10K of free space left on it by the time I'm done, and that's not as easy to do as it sounds. Let's say you have ten files to choose from; but if you use these two files, you can't use this other file because you'll be out of room, and so you dump those two for later and then you realize you've got a bunch of space left over and have to go find something to fill that gap, and so on. It really does take some effort, and a sort of intuition that you develop for it over time. And there's work the rest of the month, mostly in collecting materials, weeding through what I've gotten lately for things that are appropriate, and contacting the authors of the programs we feature. Though the material is mostly shareware and freeware, it's important to us that we actually contact the author whenever possible to obtain permission to use it. So there's a lot of chasing people down in e-mail (which not everybody answers unfortunately), trying to find their phone numbers and getting them on the phone, keeping track of who I've gotten permission from and who I haven't, who I still have to call, and so on. I've been doing it for years now and I've got most of it down to a system. But it's not as easy as it might appear! GEnieLamp> As a person who works out of a home office, can you share any """"""""" special insights as to the benefits and drawbacks of working at home? DEAN ESMAY> Working at home has obvious advantages. No "boss" looking """"""""""" over your shoulder or riding you to work on certain things at certain times. No need to "look busy" when you have nothing to do. And not near as much office politics to deal with as in a standard work environment. No need to dress up; I wear comfortable clothes at all times and NEVER wear a tie (heck, I don't even own one anymore). I can listen to my stereo as loud as I want. I can sleep late pretty much whenever I want. And I like to say that I have a thirty-second commute in the morning - that being about how long it takes me to stumble out of bed and stump over to my computer to check my morning mail! :-) It saves money, too. You don't spend near as much on clothes, gasoline, or upkeep on your car. Then again your phone bills shoot way up, so it kind of evens out. There are drawbacks; you don't get a lot of office socializing, chatting around the water cooler type stuff. You spend a lot of time on your own, or without adult company anyway. Sometimes there are interminable delays when you can't reach someone on the phone and have to wait 24 hours or more for e-mail to be returned on what should be a simple matter that would only normally take 30 seconds to get answered. You also tend to get fat I'm afraid. Not only do you not even get the exercise it takes you to walk out to your car in the morning, but it's insidiously easy to run downstairs to the refrigerator to snack on stuff. No one's going to notice or care if you eat at your desk, right? Well that's nice but it's easy to do too much of it. Another drawback is that sometimes other people have a hard time believing that you actually do work much, or work very hard. I've had people more or less tell me that they don't believe I really have a job, that I just sort of horse around a bit. When you don't have a firm schedule, and don't have to GO somewhere to work, well, to some people it doesn't seem like WORK. This is a double problem for me because I generally keep a night schedule; many people who work at home don't do that, but I personally find that I work much better that way. Unfortunately, this leads some people to consciously or unconsciously think of you as "lazy" because you're usually asleep at 9 or 10 in the morning. They don't realize that you were still working while they were snug in their beds. (I usually don't go to sleep until around 5:00 a.m., sometimes later.) So, sometimes I have to put up with a little snootiness and sniffing because of the hours I keep. But overall it's great. I much prefer it to working in a regular office; I did that for several years and sure don't miss it much. ////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "Wow, three new messages waiting for me when I posted my / / last message!" / //////////////////////////////////////////// OUTRIDER //// [EOA] [QUI]////////////////////////////// THE MIGHTY QUINN / ///////////////////////////////// Milliseconds With Mark """""""""""""""""""""" by Mark Quinn, DOA [M.QUINN3] >>> A WHOLE BUNCHA MILLISECONDS WITH MARK <<< """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" They are out there. Those logjams in the bit stream; those dropped characters (there are a few characters I'd like to drop, but they seem to be more prevalent than ever); those I/Os (I/O, I/O, so CompuServe I owe), and those lows. But what _really_ bugs a modem geek (or, as someone I know chooses to refer to them, a "modemhead")? (I rustle the card, and try to screw my expression up, to the delight of the audience.) TOP TEN THINGS THAT GIVE A MODEMHEAD A HEADACHE """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" 10. Soap. 9. Hardware incompatibilities between modems. 8. The Danger Man from Domino's. 7. Those nasty things hooked to modems called "computers". 6. Actually paying to download a MIDI or GIF file after seeing its description, which begins, "This is my first attempt at this sort of thing . . .". 5. Rugrats belching into the family phone in the middle of a download. 4. When the 9600 bps modem gives out in the middle of the night, and the spare 2400 bps internal model is found at the bottom of a stack of dirty dishes. 3. Thinking that you bought a Hewlett Packard product, and discovering the next morning that it was manufactured by that _other_ company. 2. After you've moved, your spouse insists on unpacking inconsequential items like children's toys _before_ the computer equipment. and (give us a digital drum roll, will you, Hal?) . . . 1. Getting "pulled into chat" by the sysop of a local BBS, and discovering that he/she is normal. ////////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "cmp.l LET_A,d0 That would compare the contents of address / / 65 with d0. It would also generate an address error since / / 65 is odd and you're looking for a long. Also, bus error / / since you may not be in supervisor mode. / / / / Keep at it, it'll come to you in a blaze of light one night / / when you are just about to fall asleep....." / ////////////////////////////////////////////// C.WALTERS1 //// [EOA] [FOC]////////////////////////////// FOCUS ON... / ///////////////////////////////// Thinking Out Loud """"""""""""""""" by Phil Shapiro [P.SHAPIRO1] >>> THINKING ABOUT PEOPLE'S AFFECTION FOR THEIR HOME COMPUTER <<< """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" The other day I got to thinking about people's affection for their home computers. These thoughts were raised when I took my computer in for a motherboard upgrade. As the dealer took my computer out of my clutches, I hesitantly asked: "So how many days is this going to take?" If the upgrade were going to take five days, that would be an eternity. Three days would be barely manageable. Two days would be difficult, but I'd get over it. It turns out that putting in the new motherboard would take three days. Barely manageable. But as I walked out of the store it struck me how very similar my feelings for my computer were to the feelings for my classical guitar when I took it to the store to have an electronic pickup installed. When I handed over my cherished guitar, I hesitantly asked: "So how many days is this going to take?" If the upgrade were going to take five days, that would be an eternity. Three days would be barely manageable. Two days would be difficult, but I'd get over it. The answer: "Three days." Arrgggh. Barely manageable. The reason people's affection towards their home computers is so similar to their affection towards their cherished musical instrument is because both computer and instrument are extensions of the human personality. Both computer and instrument provide unlimited opportunities for creative expression. Both, too, provide unlimited opportunities for creative exploration. Computers are sandboxes for the mind. Musical instruments are sandboxes for the soul. But the comparison doesn't stop there. The parallels grow stronger on closer investigation. About six years ago my older brother Ian showed me a new tuning for guitars, the lovely-sounding "dropped-D" tuning. The moment I heard that tuning I knew it would open up vast new areas of musical exploration. In a sense the new tuning was a new "operating system" for the guitar. It allowed me to produce the same music I produced before, but in a whole new and interesting way. The parallels between computers and instruments continues when you consider that both computers and musical instruments provide opportunities for a lifetime's worth of study and mastery. After mastering the basics you can go on to study endless intricacies. You can stand in awe at what virtuosos have accomplished in the past. You can develop a fine appreciation of the art and the craft. You may even develop enough skill to extend the boundaries of the craft yourself. Perhaps these parallels are all centered around the "appeal to the creative temperament." Could anybody doubt that if Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart were alive today he'd be spending much of his free time sitting at a computer keyboard --- playing, learning, composing, exploring? Knowing Mozart, he'd find a way to get Salierni's computer to print musical notes backwards, from right to left, on Salierni's computer screen. Likewise, could anyone doubt that Da Vinci, were he alive today, would be online three or four times a day with other artists/inventors in other Renaissance villages? Chances are Da Vinci would be at his computer so much he'd never have a chance to take a good look at his screen saver. (You know --- the one with sketches of parachutes, gliders, and other mechanical contrivances.) Moving ahead five hundred years, it's intriguing to consider that Alan Kay, an awesomely creative research fellow at Apple Computer, is himself a world class pianist. And it's hardly surprising to hear that his special talent is extemporaneous composition. Other microcomputer visionaries have had similar musical passions. Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, likes to do nothing more than to jam with his rock-and-roll band. Microcomputer legend Steve Wozniak organized and sponsored two large rock concerts in the early 1980's. People who don't use a computer regularly can sometimes have a difficult time understanding how other people could get emotionally attached to such an "inanimate object." If you need a quick explanation of your emotional attachment to your computer, drawing the comparison to musical instruments can serve as a useful analogy. If such non-computer using persons had every experienced the joy and wonder of playing a musical instrument, they'll nod their heads in understanding. Some things in life you just can't put into words. [*][*][*] NOTICE! Last month GEnieLamp printed an article about how Apple II """"""" computers are being used for "cognitive therapy" in a psychiatric hospital. GEnieLamp would like to spotlight other inspiring stories where Apple II computers are assisting and uplifting people with special needs. If you happen to know of Apple II's in your area being used in a children's hospital, adult literacy center, special needs school, or other community organization, please contact GEnieLamp co-editor Phil Shapiro (p.shapiro1) here on GEnie. We are also interested in putting together a story on how Apple II's are the favored computer for public access use in our nation's libraries. Anyone with anecdotes or interesting stories on this subject are invited to contact us about that article. -Phil Shapiro [*][*][*] Phil Shapiro Shapiro is the founder of Balloons Software, a """""""""""" new Apple II educational software company. He can be reached He can be reached via electronic mail on GEnie at: P.Shapiro1; on America Online at: pshapiro /////////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "I'm still sold on LiveMouse. It's a one-size-fits-all kinda / / deal. If it's too small when you buy it, you just feed it / / until it's the right size. Then you pull the Freeze Tab / / and voila...instant mouse." / ////////////////////////////////////////////// J.EIDSVOOG1 //// [EOA] [GAM]////////////////////////////// GAMES PEOPLE PLAY / ///////////////////////////////// Apple II Games """""""""""""" By Darrel Raines [D.Raines] >>> HIDDEN TREASURE <<< """"""""""""""""""""""" ~ The Public Domain Eamon Adventure Game Series ~ Introduction "Fade in to a dimly lit tunnel that has moss hanging on the """""""""""" walls. The source of light is a few torches hung every 10 feet along the sides of the tunnel. On the floor of the tunnel you can see a pile of diamonds that would buy you a kingdom and ensure a happy future for the king into the foresee- able future. Now, there is only one little problem with your plans for a glorious retirement. You swing your trusty sword, Trollsfire, at the giant orc and hit. The giant orc is at death's door, knocking loudly! The giant orc swings his heavy axe and hits. Your armor absorbs the blow. The lesser orc shoots an arrow at you and misses. The orc guard stabs at you with his sword and hits. You are badly injured! The question of the moment is whether you should flee now and return to fight another day. You have the giant orc on the floor, if you can just finish him off before you are finished yourself. Unfortunately, for the giant orc, that pile of diamonds sure does look like your destiny. You thrust Trollsfire back at the giant orc and ... ... as you look around the tunnel that is now littered with the bodies of fallen orcs, you find that you have no more enemies at hand. With a sigh of relief, you put Trollsfire back into your belt until the next battle. Your body feels like you just tried out a new carriage by letting the horses drag it over you. With a coarse whisper you utter the words of healing. Immediately you can feel the wash of energy through your body. You are now in good shape. With a confident stride you walk over to the pile of diamonds. This was a rough dungeon to conquer, but it looks like the reward will make it worth the effort. As you bend down to scoop the diamonds, you meet an unexpected resistance. Something is wrong here. The diamonds don't seem to be laying loose in a pile like you first thought. Instead, they seem to be embedded in a tough hide! As you draw your head back to look for the edge of the seemingly endless stretch of hide, you see a large pair of gleaming eyes inspecting you from the dark shadows of a tunnel recess. You have managed to irritate a very large dragon. As you draw out Trollsfire, you think to yourself that you should have stayed back in that warm, cozy tavern with the sweet tasting ale. Fade out to the sounds of metal biting into bone and the roar of fire blazing out in a hot blast." History The section of history related in the previous section could """"""" have easily come from one of the many adventures awaiting the daring game player within the varied worlds of Eamon. Eamon is a public domain, adventure gaming system for the Apple II computer that has been around for many years. As best I can tell, it was created about 1980-1981. The original idea was brought to life by Donald Brown. I was first introduced to Eamon in 1983-1984. Even at that time, no mention was ever made of Donald Brown still being around to support his creation. But the wonderful thing about Eamon is that the software was written to be an expandable, changeable, unrestricted environment for people to create their own adventure games. Eamon provides a shell that can be adapted by the programmer to make an adventure of any variety. Indeed, many different styles of adventures already exist within the Eamon gaming system: Tolkien-type adventur