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~ WELCOME TO GEnieLamp APPLE II! ~
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
~ THE TREASURE HUNT: Yours for the Downloading ~
~ WHO'S WHO IN APPLE II: Doug Cuff ~
~ HOT NEWS, HOT FILES, HOT MESSAGES ~
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\////////////////////////////////////
GEnieLamp Apple II ~ A T/TalkNET OnLine Publication ~ Vol.4, Issue 35
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Editor....................................................Douglas Cuff
Publisher.............................................John F. Peters
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~ GEnieLamp IBM ~ GEnieLamp ST ~ GEnieLamp [PR] ~ GEnieLamp Windows ~
~ GEnieLamp A2Pro ~ GEnieLamp Macintosh ~ GEnieLamp TX2 ~
~ GEnieLamp A2 ~ LiveWire (ASCII) ~ GEnieLamp MacPRO ~
~ Solid Windows ~ Config.sys ~
~ Member Of The Digital Publishing Association ~
GE Mail: GENIELAMP Internet: genielamp@genie.geis.com FTP: sosi.com
////////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
>>> WHAT'S HAPPENING IN THE APPLE II ROUNDTABLE? <<<
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
~ February 1, 1995 ~
FROM MY DESKTOP ......... [FRM] FROM MY MAILBOX ......... [MAI]
Notes From The Editor. Letters to the Editor.
HEY MISTER POSTMAN ...... [HEY] HUMOR ONLINE ............ [HUM]
Is That A Letter For Me? Too Much Time on My Hands.
REFLECTIONS ............. [REF] ASCII ART GALLERY ....... [ASA]
Bond Between Writers & Readers. Valentine Art.
THE TREASURE HUNT ....... [HUN] PROFILES ................ [PRO]
Yours For The Downloading. Who's Who: Doug Cuff.
LOG OFF ................. [LOG]
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's monthly fee is $8.95 for which gives you up to
""""""""""" four hours of non-prime time access to most GEnie
services, such as software downloads, bulletin boards, GE Mail, an
Internet mail gateway, and chat lines, are allowed without charge.
GEnie's non-prime time connect rate is $3.00. To sign up for GEnie
service, call (with modem) 1-800-638-8369 in the USA or 1-800-387-8330
in Canada. Upon connection type HHH. Wait for the U#= prompt. Type:
JOINGENIE and hit RETURN. When you get the prompt asking for the
signup/offer code, type: DSD524 and hit RETURN. The system will then
prompt you for your information. Need more information? Call GEnie's
customer service line (voice) at 1-800-638-9636.
SPECIAL OFFER FOR GEnieLamp READERS! If you sign onto GEnie using the
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" method outlined above you will
receive an *additional* six (6) free hours of standard connect time
(for a total of 10) to be used in the first month. Want more? Your
first month charge of $8.95 will be waived! Now there are no excuses!
*** GET INTO THE LAMP! ***
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
//////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE ////
/ Liberty is protected by 4 boxes: /
/ Soap, Ballot, Jury, Cartridge. Use in that order. /
//////////////////////////////////// jewell@Data-IO.com ////
[EOA]
[FRM]//////////////////////////////
FROM MY DESKTOP /
/////////////////////////////////
Notes From The Editor
"""""""""""""""""""""
by Douglas Cuff
[EDITOR.A2]
This month, the big news is that Spectrum 2.0 has been released,
assuming that Seven Hills Software kept their promise. However, in
discussing the release of Spectrum, Dave Hecker of Seven Hills mentioned
that they are also working on new versions of Kangaroo, TransProg III, and
GraphicWriter III. That's exciting. (Of course, my cynical side
immediately chimes in that this explains the pre-Christmas sale Seven Hills
had on these products, but don't listen to it. My cynical side is a just
an old grump with a permanent case of the winter blahs.) It's always
exciting to know that the wheels keep turning.
At the same time, apparently not enough of us are voting with their
wallets. Mike Westerfield says that sales of Quick Click Calc--a fine
program, BTW--are not all they should be, and Michael Lutynski desperately
needs more orders of Animasia 3-D in order to keep his head above water.
Now, I know that few of us have enough money to buy every piece of
software that comes on the market. (I sure don't, as you'll read in this
month's interview.) But if you do have the money, then take the time now
to order the software. I've cut my editorial short this month so that you
have the extra time. (Oh, all right, I also figured that since I'm
profiled this month, there's a limit to how much of my voice you readers
can take.)
-- Doug Cuff
GEnie Mail: EDITOR.A2 Internet: editor.a2@genie.geis.com
__________________________________________________________
| |
| REPRINTING GEnieLamp |
| |
| If you want to reprint any part of GEnieLamp, or |
| post it to a bulletin board, please see the very end |
| of this file for instructions and limitations. |
|__________________________________________________________|
ASCII ART BEGINS
_____ ______ _ _ ___ ___
/ ____| ____| (_) | | / _ \|__ \
| | __| |__ _ __ _ ___| | __ _ _ __ ___ _ __ | |_| | ) |
| | |_ | __| | '_ \| |/ _ \ | / _` | '_ ` _ \| '_ \ | _ | / /
| |__| | |____| | | | | __/ |___| (_| | | | | | | |_) | | | | |/ /_
\_____|______|_| |_|_|\___|______\__,_|_| |_| |_| .__/ |_| |_|____|
| |
|_|
ASCII ART ENDS
[EOA]
[MAI]//////////////////////////////
FROM MY MAILBOX /
/////////////////////////////////
Letters to The Editor
"""""""""""""""""""""
Unpaid Bills I was told that the latest A2 Lamp says that I am doing
'''''''''''' programming for Spectrum 2.0. Someone must have their Bills
confused. It is not me that is doing that programming.
-= Bill Shuff =-
(W.SHUFF, CAT3, TOP3, MSG:265/M645;1)
Sorry about that, Bill. This was entirely my fault. In fact,
it is Bill Tudor who has programmed XCMDs for Spectrum 2.0. I
apologize for any inconvenience suffered.--Ed.
Check Before You Donate In the January GEnieLamp A2 there is an article
''''''''''''''''''''''' by Phil Shapiro about the Apple II as an Equity
Computer. In the article, Phil discusses what might be done with the many
Apple IIs in schools as school labs switch over to Macs and Power Macs. To
quote:
"As the more affluent schools in our nation decide to equip their
computer labs with Macs and Power Macs, large numbers of Apple II computers
will come available on the second-hand market. Along with the computers
themselves will come huge quantities of second-hand Apple II educational
programs."
It would be prudent for us to inquire closely about our local
school's plans. I have heard more than one report (from educators) of area
schools =requiring that their Apple IIs be junked= -- thrown in the trash
-- when their computer labs were "upgraded" to new machines. I find this
appalling, unconscionable, and outrageous.
Phil proposes some fine uses for these machines, and others could
think of more, but if the machines are thrown in landfills, the opportunity
will be wasted. We've each come to terms in some way with Apple's decision
to figuratively bury the Apple II; for Apple IIs to literally be buried
would be a tragedy!
(EDMUNDL, CAT3, TOP3, MSG:277/M645;1)
[EOA]
[HEY]//////////////////////////////
HEY MISTER POSTMAN /
/////////////////////////////////
Is That A Letter For Me?
""""""""""""""""""""""""
by Douglas Cuff
[EDITOR.A2]
o A2 POT-POURRI
o HOT TOPICS
o WHAT'S NEW
o THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE
o MESSAGE SPOTLIGHT
>>> A2 POT-POURRI <<<
"""""""""""""""""""""
WHILE THEY LAST...! Publish It 4! is available!!!!
"""""""""""""""""""
Troll Associates (the company that sell children's books and
software) has Publish It 4 available IN STOCK today. She couldn't tell me
how many copies they had, so if you are interested, you should call soon.
Troll 1-800-526-5289 ext 1119
Publish It 4 - item # TM-AD275 $149.95
I'm not associated with this company but I know people have been
looking for this program, so I'm passing along this info.
Cindy
(C.ADAMS11, CAT4, TOP2, MSG:392/M645;1)
APPLIED ENGINEERING SOURCE CODE GOOD NEWS!!! GREAT NEWS!!!
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
All is not lost with the AESource archive, it seems that the archive
was corrupted when I tried to unpackit with GShrinkit v1.1. I then got a
hint about trying to unpackit with Shrinkit v3.4, and to my amazement it
worked.
The AESource is all intact, and this includes the PCTransporter
source. I was able to unpackit, and took a quick look at. The source
itself is old, and only includes the drivers for the PCT, and not the
actual software. I guess something is better than nothing. :) :) :)
Sam Latella [A2World]
"Apple ][ Forever, IBM Never!!!"
(S.LATELLA, CAT14, TOP2, MSG:72/M645;1)
ONE THOUSAND MARK AND RISING Just about a week ago, Shareware Solutions
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""" II passed a major milestone when I was able
to proclaim that SSII now has subscribers in all 50 states.
Today, Shareware Solutions II has passed an even greater milestone.
It now boasts a readership of 1,000 subscribers.
I'm almost at a complete loss for words.
I'd just like to thank everyone for their support and encouragement;
I couldn't have done it without you.
Joe Kohn
Publisher, Shareware Solutions II
(JOE.KOHN, CAT28, TOP4, MSG:327/M645;1)
SEND IN YOUR TYPES As you may know, A2Pro has assumed responsibility for
"""""""""""""""""" assigning filetypes, sound types, scrap types,
resource types, request codes, and all other previously Apple-assigned
types. Unfortunately, we are having difficulty getting a complete list of
-any- of the recent assignments from Apple's DTS. Thus, we ask you to
please send a description of any and all data which may fall into one of
the previous categories and which was assigned to you by DTS since June of
1992, when they published their last list. Please forward these data to
-this- account, a2pro.help@genie.geis.com, as the A2PRO@genie.geis.com
account mentioned in our press release is not currently staffed.
Also, we encourage you to feel free to send your requests for
filetypes and such NOW. They will be filled as soon as we are reasonably
sure that we have an accurate list. These can be filed either to me or the
A2PRO address... but, if it's time-critical, please have it sent to me. :)
All temporary DTS assignments should be considered permanent unless
we notify you of a conflict.
Thank you for your cooperation and your continued support of the
Apple II series of computers. :)
...J. Nathaniel Sloan, Apple II Programmers' and Developers' RoundTable
on GEnie.
(A2PRO.HELP, CAT11, TOP20, MSG:19/M645;1)
ICON BASICS Doug's comments need a little clarification.
"""""""""""
First: To use a new Icon it must be placed into a Folder named
ICONS. This folder must be in the root directory of a currently mounted
volume. It does NOT have to be on the boot volume, but this is the
preferred place for Icons that will affect all files (like the trash can
icons). Generally the best method is to place icons that affect only a
particular program onto the disk for that program, unless the program is
kept on your hard drive.
Second: Since the introduction of System 6.0, the Finders own icons
are not stored in the Icons folder. Instead they are in the Finder's
resource fork. Even with the older systems, however all of the Finder's
icons were lumped together into a single file. If someone were to do what
doug suggests and move their Finder.Icons (on system 5 or earlier) to a
differnt directory, the Finder would crash. While this method is fine for
Icons added to the system, it will not work with the Full Trash Icon
(unless you have more than one personal trash icon). This is not a problem
though. When the Finder locates a new icon it simply replaces the built in
icon with the new one.
Third. Be careful adding new icons. The Finder gets into trouble if
more than one icon is added to the system with the same definition. I.e if
you placed to new Trash Icons into your Icons folder, bad things are likely
to happen. This is especially true for multiple copies of the "Generic
file" icon. For this reason, I use an icon editor to check every new icon
folder before I use it. I then combine any new Icons I like into my
existing Icon Folders. What I end up with is a nice manageable set of Icon
folders with no duplicates. My Icon folder looks something like this;
Folder.Icons
System.Icons
Filetype.Icons
Game.Icons
As I find or make new Icons that I like, I just place them into the
appropriate folder.
I hope this helps
Dave C
(D.CORKUM, CAT2, TOP4, MSG:573/M645;1)
POINT TO POINT PROTOCOL Is anyone out here interested in a PPP program
""""""""""""""""""""""" for the Apple IIe? No, I kid you not... I
recently ran accross a programmer who (just to prove it can be done) is
working on a PPP program for the _8-bit_ Apple II. He asked me to put out
some feelers in here to see how many people are interested should he be
successful. :) He says he's already looked over the specs, and seems
pretty sure of himself. I won't hold any promises, but I'm one that'll
definately be excited if he gets it to work :)
Dave
(JUST.DAVE, CAT10, TOP10, MSG:299/M645;1)
EASTER EGGS THAT CHECK THE CALENDAR Aside from System's 6's Time Control
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Panel, I'm not aware of any other
Easter Eggs that depend on the IIGS clock or that only activate themselves
on certain days. That is, until Brutal Deluxe's Blockade arrived here about
a week or so ago.
It seems to me that if you play Blockade on odd numbered days, the
border flashes in time to the music. Played on even numbered days, there
are no flashing borders.
Knowing Brutal Deluxe, I'm sure that's just one of many Easter Eggs
in Blockade. Another one is activated when clicking on a senstive part of
the graphic of the young lady.
Anyone else found any others?
Joe
(JOE.KOHN, CAT28, TOP4, MSG:369/M645;1)
>>>>> Sorry, but our BBS package Eclipse (written in 1989) has an easter
""""" egg, where if it is the birthday of any of the authors (three of
us), you'll get a happy birthday message on startup. So... BD were not the
first.
(RICHARD.B, CAT28, TOP4, MSG:372/M645;1)
[Others pointed out the calendar-specific Easter eggs in Print Shop IIgs
and Platinum Paint.--Ed.]
RAMFAST FATAL MEMORY FAULT CODES
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
$00 - unknown, probably means your card is very confused
$01-$08 - DRAM memory test failure
$09 - EPROM Checksum failure
$0C - Z180 processor crashed, indicates some hardware fault
$0D - error writing cached data to disk device
$0E - Termination power error
Jawaid
(PROCYON.INC, CAT20, TOP13, MSG:641/M645;1)
MEMORIES OF KOBE I just downloaded Steve Chick's Find.File NDA, and I
"""""""""""""""" noticed his address is in Kobe, Japan. Does anybody
know if he made it through the earthquake?
(P.CREAGER, CAT9, TOP5, MSG:463/M645;1)
>>>>> The last time I was in contact with him, after 2 years ago, he was
""""" no longer in Japan.
There are 2 different CIS' addresses for Steve Chick listed in
FindFile. One has a typo, but one is valid. You could always try writing an
e-mail to him.
Joe
(JOE.KOHN, CAT9, TOP5, MSG:465/M645;1)
NOW THAT'S PLUG AND PLAY! I have gone on record here stating the
""""""""""""""""""""""""" Roadrunner is the best low priced internal hard
disk drive available, and that its little more than plug and play when I
send one to a customer. Here is a message I received yesterday:
>> Dear Chuck,
>> I got the Hard Drive Today. I connected it myself.
>> Isn't that nice?
>> It works fine!
>> I coppied my programs on to it with no trouble.
>> Thank you so much,
>> Brent Bacome
What you may find interesting is that Brent is inconvenienced with
blindness. Yet he installed the two card Roadrunner, installed his
TEXT-TALKER and other software and was up and running from the hard disk
drive and on GEnie the same day the Roadrunner arrived in the mail.
I think that the fact I was able to help Brent was neat. That Brent
doesn't need much help is way neater. I just had to share this.......
Chuck
(A2.CHUCK, CAT13, TOP25, MSG:253/M645;1)
>>> HOT TOPICS <<<
""""""""""""""""""
APPLEWORKS 5 BUG FIX! Bug fix! Peter Hinchliffe of Australia reported
""""""""""""""""""""" that AW5 crashes when you attempt to save a Data
Base file which has multiple label-style reports containing background
text. To solve the problem, patch the following bytes in SEG.AW:
Offset Original Change to
------ -------- ---------
47C6 2D 20
47E6 20 3F
47E7 6F A9 32 8D BA 5C AD AA 77 60
4F30 AD 20 5B 55
Note: In the latter two, only the original first byte is given.
Obviously other bytes are being replaced by the new sequences.
(BRANDT, CAT17, TOP31, MSG:1/M645;1)
MACRO CAPTURES CELL MEMO TEXT I figured out how to capture up to 70
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" characters of a memo, even if it's much
longer, without crashing. The trick is to set the column width of the
hidden column to the max then use < .getcell x,y,1 >. The 1 tells UM to
grab what would be displayed on the screen, if it were displayed, not the
literal value.
Here's my last effort on cell memos. I made one change that pokes a
width of 80, actually an illegal value, into the colwidth table for the
hidden category that contains the memo. I stopped at 80 because that's the
maximum length of an Ultra string variable.
start
M:<asp:
posn c,r : // get current position
c = c + $80 : // set hi bit
$1 = .getcell 121,1,0 : // grab memo "map"
$2 = chr$ c : // stuff c in $2
x = .substring $2, $1, 1: // search for current cell in map
if x > 0 x = x + $79 : // calculate which hidden column
poke #colwidths + X, 80: // set hidden col to 80 width
$1 = .getcell x,r,1 // get up to 80 characters of memo.
$1 = .zapchar $1, $d : // remove crs from string
msg $1 >! // show memo
Z:<asp:
posn c, r : // get current position
for I = $809b to $80a0 : // range to search
M = peek I : // look for column in memo table
ifnot M = C :
Next I else : // didn't find try again
A = I - $809a + $79 : // found memo for current cell
poke #colwidths + A, 80: // set hidden col to 80 width
$1 = .getcell A,r,1 : // get up to 70 characters of memo
$1 = .zapchar $1, $0d : // remove crs from string.
msg $1 >! // show memo
(S.BEVILLE, CAT17, TOP18, MSG:{571}/M645;1)
AW5 PRINTER PROBLEMS Appleworks 5.0 keeps changing the on-line status of
"""""""""""""""""""" my Imagewriter II from NLQ to Draft Mode before each
print. I'd like to have the option of setting the on-line status from the
Imagewriter panel. Previous versions of Appleworks would allow this but
this one doesn't. Any suggestions?
thx
George Carmichael
(G.CARMICHAE1, CAT17, TOP29, MSG:42/M645;1)
>>>>> Remove the ImageWriter printer from AW 5 and then reinstall it. The
""""" one that shipped pre-installed with some versions of AW5 had some
extraneous code in it.
|
-(+)-
|
|
...Will
(W.NELKEN1, CAT17, TOP29, MSG:44/M645;1)
DON'T DO THIS! Here are a couple of AW5 don'ts:
""""""""""""""
Don't attempt to duplicate an existing labels report format in the
data base if the report contains background text unless there is background
text for each line of the report. If you have background text on every
line of the report, even 1 character, it works OK. Otherwise a =serious=
crash results.
Don't try to use the TimeOut Menu from the Clipboard. I call this a
blunderbug 'cause I just accidentally blundered into while not paying
attention. You won't like the results of that one either :)
I think Dan has duplicated and worked up a fix for the first one.
Can't remember if the second one has ever been reported but both are easy
to avoid if you're aware of 'em.
[irrelevant portion of message omitted--Ed.]
>> sa-ctrl-r in SEG.AX
Got a msg through the Internet from someone who wanted to know why
the Revert to the last saved version of a file macro (sa-ctrl-r) only works
with word processor files. It's supposed to be a global, <all>, macro but
I guess I put in <awp> by mistake. I don't think I've looked at this thing
or used it since it was written, so evidently it's been that way since
AW4.0 was released. If you want to use it, just find the macro in the
SEG.AX.source file on /Extras/macros and change awp to all. Recompile the
macro, then save it as a hidden task file using Ultra Options. Be sure to
save the changed source file to your BACKUP copy of the /Extras disk, says
Install Disk on the disk label. Never alter your original disks.
(S.BEVILLE, CAT17, TOP18, MSG:402/M645;1)
>>>>> > Steve, what kind of a serious crash
"""""
You're using a //e, right? Might be a different. I get one of those
"arcade" crashes on the gs. Border color changes, speaker clicks, drive
access ( which can be very dangerous ), nice colored pixels flashing all
over the screen. Ctrl-reset does no good. oa-ctrl-reset doesn't reboot. I
have to power down and start over. I think Randy said Dan was trying to do
a getblock on a pointer to the background text when the pointer was 0. The
memory manager doesn't like that.
I get the same type crash trying to access a TimeOut from the
clipboard.
> You want to give us the steps to a crash? :)
You some kinda masochist :)
Load the file backgroundtext from the /Extras disk. Create a labels
report from the existing layout. Try to duplicate the report. See the
pretty colors. Watch the lights come on.
(S.BEVILLE, CAT17, TOP18, MSG:409/M645;1)
>>> WHAT'S NEW <<<
""""""""""""""""""
SPECTRUM VERSION 2.0 IS SHIPPING IN JANUARY 1995! Even if that means
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" 1/31/95, it IS shipping
this month! :)
Version 2.0 fixes the little "quirks" that were discovered (in-house
and by users like you) after releasing version 1.0. Although most of you
have probably never experienced these problems, here are some highlights:
+ Compressing Spectrum with HardPressed is no longer a problem; Spectrum
is quite happy running in compressed form.
+ Spectrum's rBundle has been fixed so your Desktop file won't get bigger
each time Spectrum is launched.
+ The "black text" and bogus memory errors when opening Editor files has
been fixed.
+ Downloaded files always go into the correct folder (a lot of CoPilot
users saw this one).
+ Fixed a problem that could have corrupted some memory when creating or
editing a phonebook entry.
+ The "Copy File" script command can now copy even very large ("tree")
files, where previously it showed an "access not allowed" error.
BUT VERSION 2.0 IS NOT MERELY A "BUG FIX" VERSION! We jumped from
v1.0 to v2.0 because of all the new features and capabilities we crammed
into Spectrum!
Here's an EXTREMELY short list of "new or changed features":
+ Spectrum v2.0 plays its sounds by event number, which means you can use
the Sound CDEV to pick which sound is associated with each event.
+ Resuming Zmodem now works with GEnie, and is even more reliable on all
systems when receiving unique files that happen to be named the same.
+ The Scrollback buffer can now be set to contain the "filtered" data
(just like the Capture buffer) or the "raw" data (just like version
1.0).
+ Most Online Displays now support an EDITABLE chat line (using the Arrow
keys).
+ Each Online Display has been updated to some degree. One big
improvement to the Spectrum SHR displays is that they now show _23_
lines down!
+ Phonebook entries can remember an Online Display choice.
+ Scripts execute up to 300% faster than they did in version 1. WOW!
THE SCRIPTING LANGUAGE ALSO HAS A *BUNCH* OF NEW FEATURES! These new
features will benefit you even if you don't write scripts, because people
are already writing useful scripts for working on services such as GEnie.
Here are a few of the new scripting capabilities:
+ Use any reasonable number of NAMED variables (no longer limited to
variables 0 through 9)!
+ Create up to 32 "HitZones" so your script can respond to mouse clicks.
+ Work with "Spectrum External Commands" (XCMDs), which greatly extend
Spectrum's capabilities. For example, a "Line Edit" XCMD lets scripts
display a custom window with up to 8 LineEdit boxes (the script
specifies the labels and the kind of data to enter).
Other XCMDs include:
AlertWindow -- gives scripts COMPLETE access to the AlertWindow tool
call
Chatterbox -- lets scripts manage "private" messages while in a live
chat, by displaying each private chat in its own custom
window)
Debug -- helps script authors to debug their scripts
HodgePodge -- several utilities, such as number conversions, text
conversions, etc.
Inform -- display a custom window containing a Teach file
Lister -- lets scripts manage lists of information, and lets the user
interract with them in a custom window
RadioCheck -- display a window with radio buttons and checkboxes
rVersion -- reads rVersion info out of files which contain that info
ScriptEditor -- access advanced TextEdit tool functions
Speech -- speak any given phrase, IF Byte Works' "Talking Tools" is
installed
Twilight II -- controls the Twilight II screen blanker so it blanks only
at appropriate times, and completely inactivates it
during file transfers
XLoader -- provides an easy way to activate and inactivate Spectrum
External Commands while using Spectrum
Don't Have Spectrum Yet? Now is the perfect time to "trade-up" to
'''''''''''''''''''''''' Spectrum version 2.0!
If you already own some other telecom program (which you obviously
do, since you're reading this message online) then you can "trade up" to
Spectrum for just $65!* When you place your order, just tell us what
software you are trading up from; it's THAT simple.
*Plus tax (in FL) and shipping & handling; keep reading...
Already Own Spectrum Version 1.0? Upgrade from Spectrum version 1.0 to
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' Spectrum version 2.0 for the Special
Introductory Price of just $25!*
If you purchased Spectrum in Dec94 or Jan95 then the upgrade is
free*; see the end of this message for further details.
*Plus tax (in FL) and shipping & handling; keep reading...
Hey, Check This Out! If you're ordering Spectrum or the Spectrum Upgrade
'''''''''''''''''''' then you'll be interested in two more great deals
we've worked out!
DEAL #1 -- BALLOON is a new desk accessory (NDA) that lets you easily
create and maintain NuFX (ShrinkIt) archives on your IIGS. Because Balloon
is a NDA, you don't have to quit Spectrum (or any other IIGS application)
just to pack or unpack files!
Dealing with NuFX archives has never been easier. In the Finder you
double-click an archive and instantly see what's in it...and extract the
files right there! And creating an archive is just as easy--simply
highlight some icons then choose "Archive Files" from the Extras menu.
Now, that's cool enough, but it gets EVEN BETTER: With Balloon you
also get a Spectrum External Command (XCMD) that transparently keeps track
of all the files you download. As soon as you log off and it's "safe" to
unpack, Balloon pops open and automatically unpacks the files you received!
(Of course there are preferences to tailor Balloon to your desires...opt
for the completely automatic/no prompting/automatic extraction of your
archives, or go with full prompting, or something in between.)
The Balloon XCMD even adds several new commands to Spectrum's
scripting language! That right, with Balloon and the Balloon XCMD, you can
write script to open existing archives, create new archives, add files to
archives, and extract files from archives.
Joe Wankerl at GS+ Magazine wrote this great utility, and you can
purchase it from EGO Systems for $25...OR you can take advantage of the
special deal we've worked out, where you can purchase it direct from Seven
Hills Software for only $18!*
*Plus tax (in FL) and shipping & handling; keep reading...
DEAL #2 -- TALKING TOOLS is set of system tools which provide "voice
synthesis" (computer-generated speech) for your Apple IIGS! Because the
speech is computer-generated instead of being recorded, these tools let you
speak ANY phrase at will.
To make this happen we created the "Speech" external command for
Spectrum v2.0. Using the Speech XCMD you can control various speech
settings (Male or Female voice, pitch, volume, etc.), and you can write
scripts that actually SPEAK to you!
This capability is fun, but it's also useful. Imagine being able to
truly _listen_ to a GEnie Roundtable while doing something else (building a
model, reading the newspaper, etc.)!
Because Ewen Wannop wrote the Speech XCMD which controls the speech
tools, we are able to provide the Speech XCMD for FREE with Spectrum v2.0.
But the XCMD won't do diddly unless you've actually got the speech
synthesis tools from Byte Works.
You can purchase "Talking Tools" from Byte Works for $35...OR you can
order direct from Seven Hills Software and get it for just $25!*
*Plus tax (in FL) and shipping & handling; keep reading...
Great! Where Do I Send My Money? When you place an order please give us:
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
+ Your name
+ Your complete address
+ Your area code and phone number
+ What you are ordering and how much you expect to pay*
+ Your Visa/MasterCard/Discover card number WITH expiration date (we
DO accept checks and money orders by mail)
*Add tax (in FL) and shipping & handling, as follows:
- Calculate Subtotal (add cost of all the products you're ordering)
- If in Florida, add 7% tax
- Add $3.50 for shipping and handling
Online orders: Send email to SEVENHILLS here on GEnie
By FAX: 904-575-2015 (anytime)
By phone: 904-575-0566 (M-F, 9am-5pm ET)
By mail: Seven Hills Software
2310 Oxford Road
Tallahassee, FL 32304-3930
Important If you qualify for the free Spectrum upgrade (i.e., you
''''''''' purchased Spectrum in Dec94 or Jan95) we need a photocopy of
your dated sales receipt UNLESS you purchased directly from Seven Hills
Software.
If you did NOT purchase Spectrum directly from us then you MUST
submit your order (with dated sales receipt) either by mail or by FAX.
If you DID purchase Spectrum directly from us then you may submit
your order by any method, but be sure to tell us you're eligible for the
FREE upgrade, and to look up the invoice in our records.
(SEVENHILLS, CAT43, TOP15, MSG:{639}/M645;1)
BALLOON V2.0 IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR THE IIGS! EGO Systems is pleased to
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" announce that version 2.0 of
Balloon is now shipping!
Balloon is a new desk accessory (NDA) that allows you to easily
create and maintain NuFX (ShrinkIt) archives on your IIGS. Since Balloon
is a NDA, you no longer have to run GS-ShinkIt to extract files from
archives! So, if you use a desktop telecommunictions program, like
Spectrum from Seven Hills Software, you can manipulate your ShrinkIt
archives while still online!
Here are a few of Balloon's features:
* Balloon can extract files from ShrinkIt archives.
* Balloon can create new ShrinkIt archives.
* Balloon can add/remove files to/from existing ShrinkIt archives.
* Balloon recognizes ShrinkIt archives that are enclosed in Binary
II, MacBinary and America Online for Macintosh "wrappers."
* Balloon works properly in both 640 and 320 modes, just like all
good new desk accessories should!
* Ballon allows you to have multiple ShrinkIt archives and file
information windows open at once.
* Balloon is Finder friendly. Double-click on a ShrinkIt archive
and Balloon opens it automatically! Balloon can also communicate
with other system extensions to automatically open files after they
are extracted from an archive!
The Balloon v2.0 package also comes with the Balloon XCMD for
Spectrum v2.0. By using this XCMD with Spectrum v2.0, you can have Balloon
AUTOMATICALLY expand the ShrinkIt archives that you download with Spectrum!
You don't even have to open Balloon!
In addition, the Balloon XCMD for Spectrum v2.0 lets you write
Spectrum scripts that give you full access to the Balloon new desk
accessory and all its capabilities. For example, you can write a script
that will create a new archive and add files to it. Or, you could write a
script that would open an existing archive and extract all the files from
it to a folder that you specify.
As if that weren't enough great stuff, the Balloon v2.0 package also
includes a copy of our popular new desk accessory text editor, EGOed lite.
With EGOed lite installed in your system, you can quickly and easily read
and print text, Teach, AppleWorks Classic and AppleWorks GS word processor
files. Balloon and EGOed lite will even work together to let you
automatically open and read the word processing files that you extract from
your ShrinkIt archives!
So, how much does all this cost? Believe it or not, the retail price
for Balloon v2.0 is just $25! This price includes first class shipping to
anywhere in the United States, Air Mail shipping to Canada and Mexico, and
surface mail shipping to anywhere else in the world. (For Air Mail
delivery outside North America, add $3, for a total of $28.) As an added
bonus, when you send in your Balloon registration card, we'll send you a
FREE issue of GS+ Magazine, the only Apple IIGS Magazine and Disk
publication! (If you are already a GS+ Magazine subscriber, sending in
your Balloon registration card will get you a free magazine-only back issue
of your choice!)
Speaking of GS+ Magazine, if you are a GS+ Magazine subscriber, you
can get Balloon v2.0 at a special introductory price of only $20! When you
order, just let us know that you are a subscriber and include your customer
number (it's on your GS+ Magazine mailing label above your name) to qualify
for the special introductory price. But hurry! This special offer ends on
April 3rd, 1995!
The Ever So Fine Print Balloon requires System Software v6.0.1, at least
'''''''''''''''''''''' 2MB of RAM, and a hard drive. Spectrum v2.0 is
required to use the Balloon XCMD for Spectrum v2.0, it will NOT work with
earlier versions of Spectrum. (However, the Balloon new desk accessory
WILL work with older versions of Spectrum.)
Balloon v2.0 is a complete rewrite of the original Balloon Finder
extension that appeared in GS+ Magazine V5.N2. Balloon v2.0 is a
stand-alone product and will NOT appear in GS+ Magazine! Only current GS+
Magazine subscribers can purchase Balloon for the special introductory
price of $20. However, if you subscribe when you place your order for
Balloon, you can get the special pricing. This special offer expires on
April 3rd, 1995.
To order Balloon, give us a call at 1-800-662-3634 between 9 a.m. and
5 p.m. Monday through Friday. (Outside the United States, call
615-332-2087. We accept Visa and MasterCard for all phone orders.) You
can also FAX your order to us at 615-332-2634. If you prefer to order by
mail, send your check or money order (made payable to "EGO Systems" and in
US funds only), or credit card information to:
Balloon
EGO Systems
P. O. Box 15366
Chattanooga, TN 37415-0366
America Online, Delphi: GSPlusDiz
GEnie: Diz
Internet: Diz@genie.geis.com
(DIZ, CAT33, TOP2, MSG:475/M645;1)
CRY FOR HELP Yes, this is a cry for help. My name is Michael Lutynski
"""""""""""" and I am starting a small business called Animasia. My
first product, Animasia 3-D, is finally ready to begin shipping in the next
several days. However, the cost for printing the first run of manuals,
registration cards, and disk labels have monopolized my expenses and almost
completely offset the orders received so far.
I am asking for anyone who is interested in Animasia 3-D to consider
purchasing it now. This is not meant to be an advertising campaign. I
need only four orders to help me meet my pressing financial obligations.
What Is It? In brief, Animasia 3-D is a desktop application that creates
''''''''''' animations using three-dimensional models. Animasia 3-D also
can be used to create images and clip art for other applications. A more
descriptive press release is available upon request.
What You Will Receive You will receive the following:
'''''''''''''''''''''
Two manuals: Tutorial and Reference
Four disks: Application, Tutorials, Animations, and Projects
Registration card
The manuals are laser printed with spiral bindings. Of the 300+
total pages, there is an illustration on almost every page. The Tutorial
manual contains twelve complete lessons and the Reference is thorough.
The disks contain the application, tutorials, sample animations,
projects, and 3-D clip models. One animation entitled "Warning" is 40
seconds long. For HyperCard IIgs users, there are also two new animation
player XCMDs written by Brian Gillespie.
There is a 30 day satisfaction guarantee. If Animasia 3-D just isn't
for you, you can return it for a full refund. All in all, the package is
professionally done.
You will need an Apple IIGS with System Software 6.0.1 and at least
2Mb of memory. 4Mb, a hard disk, and an accelerator are strongly
recommended.
Why Is It Shipping Now? Animasia 3-D was supposed to be released on
''''''''''''''''''''''' December 10th. The release has been pushed back
to correct a few significant bugs and generally to make everything as
perfect as can be.
As of today, 1/26/95, the only issues that remain are to determine
which animations and 3-D clip models will be included and to type up a few
disk notes. All other materials are ready to go.
About Animasia The Animasia 3-D project began as a test in the summer of
'''''''''''''' 1989. Not until 1991 was it seriously developed. Since
that time, I have written several articles for GS+ magazine, created the
Addressed For Success label printing application, and worked as technical
support for Econ Technologies.
Animasia 3-D was demonstrated at this summer's KansasFest. User
suggestions were implemented, like faster operation and support for
gray-scale images and animations.
Conclusion If you've already ordered, thank you very much. Your Animasia
'''''''''' 3-D will be arriving shortly. If you'd like to order, I'm
asking that you please do so now; the funds are greatly needed. The cost
is US $99 plus $3.50 shipping and handling. Overseas orders add $5.
Florida residents add 6% sales tax. At this time, only checks or money
orders are accepted.
The address is:
Animasia
3324 Vishaal Drive
Orlando, FL 32817
USA
If you would like to contact me by voice, by all means, please do so
at 407-380-9932. Business hours are 10 AM - 4 PM Eastern Time, Monday -
Friday. I can also be reached on-line at animasia@genie.geis.com.
Please distribute this message where you think it may reach an
audience.
Sincerely,
Michael Lutynski
President
Animasia
(ANIMASIA, CAT2, TOP27, MSG:46/M645;1)
OFFICE PRODUCTIVITY SOFTWARE TAKES LEAVE OF ABSENCE Office Productivity
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Software will be
curtailing support for AppleWorks and Apple II computers in general. The
one and only employee of OPS, (me), has accepted a conventional job with a
regular paycheck. You way still order old products such as TO.DiskTools
and TO.About Time at the old address, but work on new programs and updating
old prducts for AppleWorks 5.0 will not resume for several months at least.
(D.GUM, CAT13, TOP7, MSG:75/M645;1)
>>> THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE <<<
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
DIGISOFT CD FOR IIGS I know we have been pretty quiet lately, and the
"""""""""""""""""""" truth of the matter is that the CD has been finished
since September. However, several unexpected problems and a lack of time
to deal with them has delayed the production of the disc until now. We
will be sending the data off to the CD plant within the next two weeks,
and beyond that it should take another three weeks to be replicated, so we
expect to ship somewhere in the first half of February. Price will be
around $60, more details will be announced soon. This is a 100% Apple II
CD with over 600 megabytes of files useful to Apple II owners.
Thanks for your support and interest. If you would like to be added
to our electronic mailing list to receive more info on the CD as it is
available, please email your preferred internet email address to
jagaroth@leland.stanford.edu with CD mentioned in the subject of the mail.
Regards (and happy holidays!),
<<Jim
(DIGISOFT, CAT13, TOP34, MSG:11/M645;1)
FUTURE OF II ALIVE I'm not sure what we're going to do with II Alive.
"""""""""""""""""" It's likely we'll continue publishing it in some form
or another, but what that form will be is currently up in the air. With
the shrinking subscription base, I don't think we can continue to publish
it as a "glossy" much longer.
I personally won't be working on it very much; my job
responsibilities at QC have changed somewhat recently, and I'm not doing
much writing.
I'll keep y'all informed.
(II.ALIVE, CAT42, TOP10, MSG:130/M645;1)
INTERVIEW WITH WOZ Is there a question you have always wanted to ask
"""""""""""""""""" STEVE WOZNIAK? (the Woz, Saint Woz, Da Man, etc. <g>)
Well, now's your chance! PowerGS will be interviewing Steve Wozniak
for the next issue!!! Yes, it's true, and you can be a part of this first
interview with Woz since '86.
(yea yea it's free! :))
Email to A.RAHIMZADEH -- I will also check my internet account
periodically (on gellersen for those who have it in PowerGS issue 4), but
to insure that I get the questions you have, please send it to my GEnie
account!
Happy Holidays and Apple II FOREVER!
-Auri Rahimzadeh
Editor in Chief
PowerGS Diskazine(TM)
(A.RAHIMZADEH, CAT13, TOP38, MSG:121/M645;1)
<<<<< The interview with Steve Wozniak has _not_ been cancelled.
""""" Actually, it was just delayed since we had some difficulties in
California. I am pleased to announce, however, that Woz and I are doing
the interview through e-mail now, and that Issue Number Five of PowerGS
should be released sometime in February.
Yes, there IS an interview with The Woz. If you have any questions,
please email me at A.RAHIMZADEH or arahimza@gellersen.valpo.edu on the
internet.
I hope you had a wonderful new year!
Sincerely,
Auri Rahimzadeh
Editor in Chief
PowerGS Diskazine
(A.RAHIMZADEH, CAT13, TOP38, MSG:123/M645;1)
FAXINATION DELAYED, FEATURES CUT Sorry to hear, and report, a slight
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" delay in Faxination. I talked with them
today (Tuesday) and was told that there was a "minor" bug found and it
would be fixed before shipping. As sad as I was that I would not have my
new toys for Christmas, I told them I appreciated them holding it back
until they fixed the bug.
Michael E.
(M.EWEN, CAT40, TOP2, MSG:139/M645;1)
>>>>> Faxination will allow you to forward faxes to one new address at a
""""" time, and the new addresses can be selected from your phone book.
It looks like we may have to defer the batch send feature until a (maybe
free) upgrade due to delivery delays. Also, compatibility concerns fueled
the decision to NOT include a "timed send" feature, so you will have to
start your fax transmissions manually. For the same reason, no redial
feature is being included in the initial release. The limit for the number
of entries in the phone book is about 32,767, but the practical limit for
your machine may be smaller due to RAM or disk space limits.
Steve Bernbaum -
Many regrets, but every time I look at the serial routines, the
entire program seems to break. :) I now plan to include alternate port
support, but the lateness of the program prevents me from including it in
the initial release. I think ProTerm allows you to use the Modem port even
if it is not enabled in the Control Panel, and Faxination certainly does.
Perhaps you could simply put your modem in the Modem port and only
reconfigure your communications software? (Hope so, been there with the
mass reconfig -- several times! :)
Da Programmer
(S.MCQUEEN1, CAT40, TOP2, MSG:142/M645;1)
>>>>> We're hoping to be shipping by January 15, 1995
"""""
Lowell Erbe
Vitesse, Inc., Technical Support
(VITESSE, CAT40, TOP2, MSG:155/M645;1)
WOLFSTEIN 3-D FOR IIGS When will Wolf be out? Only the dead will tell!!
""""""""""""""""""""""
Truely, I can't give a date yet. Bill is busy with a emergency
project near final along with Wolf GS. So, he is working as fast as he can
to finalize two projects at the same time!
I can tell you that all the main art is done. The walls and game
sprites are all completed. Misc stuff like interface screens and junk like
that still need to be done, but are trivial stuff.
I'll keep you all posted. :)
(S.EVERTS, CAT40, TOP6, MSG:26/M645;1)
>>>>> "Bill is busy with a emergency project near final along with Wolf
""""" GS." ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Whuzzat?
Scott, you seem rather knowledgable abt Wolf... how about some specs?
Blood, automap, hounds, are they all included? (especially the former :)
-Ken
(KEN.GAGNE, CAT40, TOP6, MSG:27/M645;1)
<<<<< Yes, I'm quite familiar with it since I did all the artwork
""""" conversion. :)
It's based on the Mac "Third Encounter" version. It has blood,
automap, and hounds. ;)
The main difference is the artwork was reduced from 128x128 pixels to
64x64 pixels and of course reduced to 16 colors. It was a major job but I
think you'll like the results. I'm quite happy with the final art.
There will be 90 levels!!! It will have the original 30 which is all
that was included in the "Jaguar", "Super Nintendo", and "Mac shareware"
versions. Plus it includes all 60 levels of the original "IBM" version
which are broken down into 6 missions of 10 levels each.
There will be at least 3 screen resolutions you can pick. Maybe more
in the final version. An accellerator card is HIGHLY recommended.
I'm right now finishing up the interface screens, so it is getting
close. I'll keep you posted on the progress. I'm expecting a new version
next week for test.
(S.EVERTS, CAT40, TOP6, MSG:28/M645;1)
<<<<< The mac "third encounter" has the original 30 levels which were
""""" used in the Jaguar and Super Nintendo versions. They were heavily
modified levels from the IBM version.
The 60 extra levels are the entire levels that came with the full IBM
version.
It gets kind of confusing. Basicly, the IBM full version had 6
missions, each with 10 levels.
When the SNES and Jaguar versions came out, they made a new set of 30
levels based on the IBM version.
Then the Mac version came out and took those 30 levels. They then got
the original IBM levels and added them back. Thats why it has 90 levels.
When you play the IBM levels, you may notice half of them are familiar, but
they were heavily changed. Rooms were moved, deleted, or added, doors
change, etc.
So... On the mac version, they had three versions. One with the 3
levels, one with the 30 levels, and one with all 90 levels.
The gs version will only be released with all 90 levels.
I'm sure I confused all of you now! :)
On the question of compatibility... The game will NOT be compatible
with IBM WAD files. The formats are very different. We are building in a
feature to allow you to load in new levels. We aren't making a level
editor, but hopefully some brave programmer will decide to make one for it.
Hint, hint!! So if someone does do an editor, I'm sure we'll see tons of
new levels. Bill says its possible to edit the art too, so someone can
make an art editor too!
Wolf Barney, here we come!!
-Scott
(S.EVERTS, CAT40, TOP6, MSG:33/M645;1)
>>>>> We don't yet have a project release date for Wolfenstein 3D. We're
""""" working out some final details and a few bugs, but hope to begin
shipping by February.
Vitesse is taking orders for Wolfenstein 3D NOW. The current price is
$39.95. After it begins shipping, however, the price will go up to $49.95.
Lowell Erbe
Vitesse, Inc., Technical Support
(VITESSE, CAT40, TOP6, MSG:35/M645;1)
APPLEWORKS 5 ON A MAC? The emulator, tentatively titled "Phoenix II" and
"""""""""""""""""""""" heretofore referred to as "Phoenix" or "the
Phoenix project," allows you to run AppleWorks 5 on a Mac. AppleWorks 4
will likely be supported as well. There will be some trade- offs, at least
in version 1.0, such as no double hires graphics, but on the other hand,
you'll actually being running AW5 on your Mac. That means macros and pokes
and all that stuff is the same; this isn't _similar_ to AppleWorks, it's
running your _actual_ AW5 software on a Mac or Power Mac.
(BRANDT, CAT17, TOP28, MSG:52/M645;1)
SECOND SIGHT CARD STILL IN THE WORKS > Shipping soon??? I hear it was a
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" > question of the manual being
> delayed??
Manual? What manual? :-)
No, we're doing a slight hardware revision. We want to do everything
we can to keep your interest on our product, so there will likely be a new
feature: TrueColor. (Actually, by luck, it looks like we'll get this
almost for free :-)
The firmware is progressing nicely. I'm nearly done with lores,
leaving only double lores, hires, and double hires to do. BTW, AppleWorks
looks GREAT on a VGA monitor. :-)
Jawaid
(PROCYON, CAT20, TOP14, MSG:260/M645;1)
QUICKDRAW II SUPPORT FOR SECOND SIGHT? OK, I wasn't going to say anything
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" again just yet, but the QuickDraw
II support IS being worked on! I've managed to get about a third of QD
disassembled and understood so far (it's about 32K of code in total), and
I've started work on the driver structure. At this point, I believe it to
be possible to support higher resolutions in many programs, though of
course not any that write directly to screen memory, even though this is an
Apple supported method. You will not get more colours out of existing
programs, and I'm also concerned about the display being rather odd looking
because of the large difference in aspect ratios.
The best I can offer is, we'll have to wait and see how it works out.
Initially I was quite excited about the prospects of using the Finder,
AppleWorks GS, etc., at 1024x768, but now I realize that the display is
going to look very squished unless I add special code to, for example,
double the height of 640 mode icons and also change the system font.
I also do not have any official affiliation with Sequential and have
not seen any documentation on how to access the board. Hopefully I'll have
everything else pretty much ready when the board and developers' docs are
released so I can put together the driver for the SS very quickly.
I still think that the best use of the board will come from new
programs written with the Second Sight in mind, but my driver system should
help with at least some of the older programs that will not be updated.
Mike
(M.HACKETT, CAT20, TOP14, MSG:245/M645;1)
TURBOREZ CARD ALSO BEING WORKED ON Re: TurboRez. It exists. It's real.
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" It's under tremendous pressure to be
completed. There actually are people who develop things but do not feel the
need to continually toot their own horn.
On the other hand, it would be nice if RezTek popped in here so I'll
e-mail Bill St. Pierre and ask him to reply to this topic.
Michael
(ANIMASIA, CAT6, TOP16, MSG:32/M645;1)
>>> MESSAGE SPOTLIGHT <<<
"""""""""""""""""""""""""
Category 5, Topic 2
Message 396 Wed Jan 11, 1995
M.DYE at 00:00 EST
I know I should be happier about this than I am, but Woz made the
cover of the latest "Apple Developer Tools Catalog" hustling Mac
development tools. The blurb on page 1 prattles on thus:
"No, you're not seeing things... that's Steve
Wozniak on our cover. Woz heard about our great
subscription products that automatically deliver
regular updates. He got so excited that he couldn't
resist getting in on the action!
... While Woz probably won't deliver these
terrific products personally, you're sure to be more
than satisfied! Just like Woz!
I know things, especially in technology, more faster and faster, but I
really like my IIGS. The macs I make use of at work are just boxes,
ClarisWorks is OK; it just doesn't compare to the feeling I get helping at
an Apple II user group meeting. Words can hardly express the gratitude I
feel towards what Woz and all the others for Apple II hardware and software
and I know the Power Mac and MacOS are Apple's future, but it doesn't feel
the same. Maybe Woz has something to say beyond that bogus blurb.
Mark Dye - Lurking in Otego, NY
[*][*][*]
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 GEnieLamp 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.
[EOA]
[HUM]//////////////////////////////
HUMOR ONLINE /
/////////////////////////////////
Fun & Games On GEnie
""""""""""""""""""""
by Douglas Cuff
[EDITOR.A2]
>>> TOO MUCH TIME ON MY HANDS <<<
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
A long, long time ago, I used to run a computer BBS on my trusty
Apple IIe. Some of the callers knew each other, but most of the denizens
knew each other only as names. After a year or two, some of the more
regular callers organized a "night out", when we all met for dinner to
remind ourselves of the faces behind the names.
The first time we did this, there was a distinct lack of
organization. The time, date, and place of the event floated in limbo.
One participant asked, innocently enough, "So what's the story on the
banquet hall?" All she wanted to know is what progress had been made in
making reservations at the proposed venue. A simple enough question.
Well, you know how it is when you have a lot of stress. Sometimes
you expend a lot of energy on trivial things just to keep yourself sane.
That was and is my excuse for my following reply to the innocent question
"What's the story on the banquet hall?"
[*][*][*]
Once upon a time, far, far away, there was a banquet hall named
Ermintrude. She was a very jolly and good banquet hall most of the time,
but unfortunately she had a very low tolerance for the inane drivel that
passes as dinner conversation in modern-day North America, and so, throwing
off her tablecloths and curtains, she set out to seek her fortune.
As she was trundling down the road with no thought in her mind other
than the fact that it was quite chilly to be out without one's foundation,
she ran into three little children named Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and
Peter. She noticed that they looked quite sad.
"Why do you look so sad?" Ermintrude asked, going for the obvious,
and addressing all three at once, so as to save time.
"Yea, though would fain break bread--" began one.
"All right, knock it off!" warned Ermintrude. "Speak English, or
French, or both, but not something you've obviously mugged up out of a book
published about the same time that King Arthur was in rompers."
"We're starved!" cried all three at once.
"Starved?" echoed the puzzled Ermintrude. "How can that be? Surely
your mothers have given you your Family Allowance cheques."
"No, money is not the problem," Mopsy explained, and indeed,
Ermintrude noticed that the children's pockets were fairly stuffed with
loonies.
"Then I don't understand. There is a McDonald's right behind us, a
Burger King in front of us, and an Arby's just down the droke a piece.
Fast food to the right of us; fast food to the left of us; fast food all
around us; char-broiled and sundry."
"With a clarity unparalleled in an inanimate object, you have
mentioned the solution and the problem in the same breath," said Flopsy,
who, to be absolutely frank, was a trifle too verbose. "We have partaken
of the fare at all three emporiums..."
"...and we're still hungry!" finished Mopsy.
"Not overly surprising, considering that there's about as much food
value in their containers as in the muck they dish into said containers,"
said Ermintrude sourly. "Come with me, children, to a land beyond the blue
mountains, where food is nourishing and no one tries to serve you while
wearing a thing that looks like telephone operators' gear."
So the three hungry and apparently boundlessly optimistic children
bundled into Ermintrude, and they all set off for the land behind the blue
mountains.
[Join us for an exciting installment of the story of the banquet
hall, to presented at approximately the same time that it has been reliably
determined that hell has frozen over.]
[*][*][*]
But I'm feeling much better now.
--Doug Cuff
[EOA]
[REF]//////////////////////////////
REFLECTIONS /
/////////////////////////////////
Thinking About Online Communications
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
by Phil Shapiro
[P.SHAPIRO1]
>>> NURTURING THE EMOTIONAL BOND BETWEEN WRITERS AND READERS <<<
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Last month I finished reading an excellent new book, "The Metaphysics
of Virtual Reality." Having finished the book, my mind was swirling with
ideas. So I sat down and wrote a lengthy e-mail message to the author of
the book, Michael Heim. His Internet address was printed right there in
the preface of the book.
Within a day of sending the message, I received a friendly reply.
Incredibly enough, the very person who had spent months and months of work
writing this book was ready and able to respond to my own reactions to the
book.
The excitement of being able to communicate with someone whose book
you just read is hard to describe. The experience is akin to going
backstage after a play to chat with the director and actors of the
production. Or being invited backstage at the end of a rock concert to
chat with your favorite performers.
Truth is, I was already familiar with Heim's work from his earlier
book, the uniquely insightful, "Electric Language: A Philosophical Inquiry
Into Word Processing." I had written a feature length review of this
earlier book, so I e-mailed Heim a copy of the review .
Heim was duly appreciative to receive a copy of the review I wrote.
Actually, it took me all of five seconds to send him the review. The
review was already sitting on my hard drive as a text file. The least I
can do to show my appreciation of an excellent book is to send the author a
copy of a review I have written about the book.
Last year I engaged in an equally invigorating e-mail exchange with
syndicated columnist Michael Schrage, whose 1990 book, "Shared Minds: The
New Technologies of Collaboration," has some immensely interesting things
to say about collaborative creativity. Schrage is currently working at
MIT's Media Lab, a place whose mission is to dream and play with all the
possibilities of converging technologies. (For a probing report on the
goings on at MIT's Media Lab, see Stewart Brand's top-notch 1987 book,
"Media Lab: Inventing the Future at MIT.")
The excitement of direct communications between writers and readers
is something that results in great benefits to both. Writers, after all,
derive emotional sustenance from the feedback they get from readers. The
very purpose of writing becomes real and tangible when readers are able to
respond to your books right in your own e-mail mailbox.
Online communications transforms the "imagined audience" into a "real
audience." By doing so, it nurtures the emotional bonds between writer and
reader.
The possibilities of writer/reader interaction got me thinking about
the experiences I had writing a column for my college newspaper. While an
undergraduate, I wrote a regular commentary column on the back page of my
college newspaper. The words I would write on Sunday evenings at my desk,
in my room, would be be multiplied 10,000 times to appear in bundles of
newspaper around campus on Thursday afternoons. I'd often receive feedback
from friends within an hour or two after the papers hit the sidewalk.
The positive feedback created by hearing reader reaction to my ideas
served as a potent source of creative energy for my next column. This same
type of tight feedback between writer and reader is made possible by online
communications.
It's only fair to admit, though, that there are some downsides to
having book readers communicate directly with book authors. A popular
author might receive several hundred fan e-mail messages per day.
Naturally, fans will come to learn that not each and every e-mail message
can be responded to personally, in detail.
On the other hand, online communications allows book authors to
personally involve themselves with the publicity for a book. Book
publishers will naturally start favoring those authors ready and able to
put in the hours to answer online reader responses. Grueling and expensive
book signing tours will thankfully take on a lesser role in book publicity.
Authors who write books on telecommunications subjects, especially,
will be expected to be available to interact with reader fan mail. Before
the turn of the century, it won't be surprising to hear the comment, "I
can't for the life of me understand why this author didn't include his/her
Internet address in the beginning of this book. Perhaps they're one of
those 'recluse' authors, or something."
-Phil Shapiro
[*][*][*]
Addendum: Copies of the book reviews mentioned in this article
can be found as text files in the Digipub RoundTable file
library, and in the new "Readers" RoundTable file library here on
GEnie. To locate the particular number of the file, search under
the uploader: p.shapiro1
To navigate to the Digipub RoundTable, simply type "digipub" or
"m1395" (no quotes) at any standard GEnie prompt. To navigate to
the new "Readers" RoundTable, type "readers" at any standard
GEnie prompt.
Also, persons interested in following (and contributing) book
reviews with the Internet community in general may enjoy the
newsgroup titled: rec.arts.books.review. This moderated
newsgroup tends to have a broader and more interesting selection
of book reviews than the New York Times book review section. To
contribute book reviews to this newsgroups, read the instructions
given in the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) file for the
newsgroup, which is posted periodically as a message to the
newsgroup.
Shapiro takes a keen interest in the social and psychological
dimensions of online communications. He can be reached at:
p.shapiro1@genie.geis.com and pshapiro@aol.com. This is the
twentieth column in his ongoing series, "Thinking About Online
Communications".]
[EOA]
[ASA]//////////////////////////////
ASCII ART GALLERY /
/////////////////////////////////
Valentine Art
"""""""""""""
by Susie Oviatt
[SUSIE]
ASCII ART BEGINS
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........... ...........
............. .............
............. .............
ASCII ART ENDS
[FOR VISUALLY IMPAIRED READERS: The above ASCII art consisted of two
pictures: a teddy bear holding a balloon bouquet, titled "Be Mine", and a
little girl holding a valentine.]
[EOA]
[HUN]//////////////////////////////
THE TREASURE HUNT /
/////////////////////////////////
Yours For the Downloading
"""""""""""""""""""""""""
by Charlie Hartley
[C.HARTLEY3]
Welcome back to the Treasure Hunt! This month we will take a look at
a variety of files available in the A2 Library. Let's get started. :)
[*][*][*]
MAH.JONGG.BXY File #18729 154240 bytes GS STRATEGY GAME
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Mah Jongg
By Chris Heckman and Scott Mathews
Copyright 1991, 1992. All rights reserved.
Wedge Software.
Shareware - $5.00
Joe Kohn uploaded this game for Wedge Software. He describes it as a
"fabulous implementation of the ancient game of Mah Jongg. Similar to
Shanghai, but better, as each game is completely different as tiles are set
at random."
The following information is based on the READ.ME text file that
comes with the download.
The object of the game is to clear all the tiles from the screen. To
clear the tiles, you must first find a pair of tiles that match
identically. Only matched pairs can be removed from the playing field.
Also, a tile must be considered as 'free' in order to be removed.
A tile is considered 'free' if there are no tiles on top of the tile
you would like to remove, and the tile has either no tiles immediately to
its left, or no tiles immediately to its right. Think of it as having to
slide tiles out to the left or right without disturbing the board.
Tiles are highlighted and removed by using the mouse. Error messages
will prompt you when you try to remove or match up a tile in error.
A background image sits underneath all the tiles. If you can clear
the board, you'll get to see it in its entirety.
You can load in a new set of tiles if you get bored of the default
set. Four tile sets are included with this download. There are several
other tile sets in the A2 library.
S.DASILVA1 has recently uploaded several tilesets for Mah Jongg. Here
is a list of them.
File# File Name Description
23864 ENGLISH.BXY English Tileset for Mahjongg
23865 FLAGTILES.BXY Flag Tileset for Mahjongg
23808 FRENCH.TILE.BXY French Tileset for Mahjongg
23897 HARPOON.BXY Harpoon Tileset for Mahjongg
23899 HEBREW.TILE.BXY Hebrew Tileset for Mahjongg
23807 LAKE.TILES.BXY Lake Side Tileset for Mahjongg
23581 NIGHT.TILES.BXY Night Tileset for Mahjongg
23721 PATTERN.TIL.BXY Patterns Tileset for Mahjongg
23896 SPHERE.TILE.BXY Sphere Tileset for Mahjongg
All of these are fairly short downloads, so I recommend that if you
like Mah Jongg, download all of these are try them out.
Instructions for creating your own tilesets are included in the
READ.ME file.
I like this game a lot. It requires concentration and foresight.
There are no "shoot 'em up" tactics here, just solid strategy and a bit of
luck.
[*][*][*]
DESKTOP2.BXY File #23867 37248 bytes GS INIT/PROGRAM
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
DeskSets v1.0
by Larry Badten
May 1994
JesusAware (similar to Freeware)
Pat Kern, who uploaded this program, said about it, "Tired of looking
at the same startup/background screen each time you use your GS? Here's a
program that will select from several different desktop patterns that can
be changed daily, each bootup, or find one you like & use it all the time.
31 patterns are included and you can add others as desired.
Larry Badten, the author of this program said about it: "This is a
combination of an init (DeskSets) and a GS/OS program. The init must be
loaded into the boot disks' System/System.Setup folder to become active at
boot time. This init looks for two things: 1) a folder called "DeskTops"
(located in your boot disks' System folder) which contains the patterns and
2) a preference file which will be in your boot disks' System/Preferences
folder (the program and/or init will create and update this file).
"The init has several options. They are: 1) Load a different pattern
after each x boots (you will enter the value for x); 2) Load a different
pattern if the date has changed since the last boot; 3) Don't change the
pattern; 4) Show the boot icon; 5) Hide the boot icon.
"The above options may be changed with the program "SetDesks", which
may be launched from any ProDOS or HFS volume or directory. Another option
is to set the next desk pattern to be selected. If you set a new desk
pattern, you may elect to have it redraw your current desktop (this allows
you to view each desktop)."
This program works as advertised. I've viewed each of the available
screens and selected one of them to permanently (until I get tired of it,
anyway) replace the plain blue screen you normally see with the Finder and
other desktop programs like ShrinkIt GS.
Directions are also included explaining how to create your own
background screens.
[*][*][*]
BIRTHDAYS.BXY File #23887 28672 bytes DESKSET PICTURES
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
This upload by Pat Kern contains six more desktop backgrounds for the
Apple GS DeskSets program by Larry Badten, review above.
These novelty backgrounds all have something to do with wishing you a
happy birthday. Encourage Pat to create more backgrounds by downloading
these.
[*][*][*]
GRNSLEEVE.BXY File #23872 107648 bytes MOD SONG
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Ken Gagne uploaded this Christmas favorite, Greensleeves, better
known as the Christmas carol "What Child Is This?" Play it with MODZap,
Sonobox, or any other Amiga MOD player.
I've played it with Sonobox, and it sound nice. Download this one
now and you will have it ready for next Christmas.
[*][*][*]
APPLE.SALE.BXY File #23948 17664 bytes ADB OF PROGRAMS
'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
This is an interesting upload. Mr. Nissel [J.NISSEL1] has a list of
733 pieces of Apple II software that he would like to sell in one large
package. While there are some duplications (indicating more than one copy
of a piece of software available), this is an impressive list of Apple II
software.
I recommend that you download this AppleWorks data base file and take
a look. If nothing else, it's interesting to see what software he has
accumulated. Contact Mr. Nissel for details about what he is asking for
this package.
[*][*][*]
ELECREP95.BXY File #23940 20992 bytes ELECTED OFFICIALS
'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
This download contains a listing of all currently elected Federal
Senators, Congresspeople, and Representatives of the US Territories, their
phone #'s and office assignments, as well as the seated Governors for all
50 States. It also includes information on how to write to the elected
officeholders, as well as the President and Vice-President. All
information is stored in AppleWorks 3.0 format. The information is current
as of 1-15-95.
This is useful information in an easy to access format. Mr. Katz
[H.KATZ] is to be commended for making it available.
[*][*][*]
GODZILLABAR.BXY File #23953 26240 bytes APF GRAPHIC
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Joe Kohn uploaded this grayscale graphic titled Barney vs Godzilla:
The first (and only) chapter. It is a $C0 filetype SHR graphic.
The Barney-haters among you will get a kick out of this graphic. The
rest will no doubt send hate-mail to Joe (Just kidding, please don't!).
This is what I call a throwaway download. Get it because you're curious
and because it's a small download. But then, who knows, you might find a
real use for it. :)
[*][*][*]
UNISYS.LZW.TXT File #23959 5760 bytes TEXT FILE
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
This file contains a statement titled "Unisys Clarifies Policy
Regarding Patent Use in On-Line Service Offerings." This covers Unisys's
actions to enforce it's copyright of LZW against Compuserve, as well future
licensing needed for the use of LZW.
Since the LZW compression is used in GIF graphics, as well as in
products such as ShrinkIt which use it to compress and decompress files,
this issue of potential copyright infringement is of great importance to us
in the Apple II Roundtables.
This statement clarifies some of the facts, and answers some of the
questions that have been asked recently both here and on the Internet. I
recommend that you get this file and read it.
[*][*][*]
BLOSSOM.NO1.BXY File #23937 143744 bytes NEWSLETTER
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
The Apple Blossom
by
Steve Cavanaugh
According to Steve, "The Apple Blossom is a 4 page newsletter about
current products for the Apple II in AWGS PL format. It uses Bookman,
Palatino and Times (included in the archive if you don't have them.) I am
sending it to local schools who often don't know about things like the new
AppleWorks or Quick Click Calc. If you would like to print this and send
copies, please feel free to do so. I have around 120 names in my database
for my area now, and as I am doing this out-of-pocket, I can't put in too
many more names. Maybe we'll start taking ads in the future? Enjoy."
This version of The Apple Blossom requires that you have AppleWorks
GS and Pointless for TrueType fonts. If you have AWGS, but not Pointless,
then download file #23943, which uses bitmapped fonts instead. Steve
includes Palatino, Times, and Bookman bitmapped fonts with this second
download.
I can't actually comment on this newsletter, since I don't have
AppleWorks GS; but I can tell you that the comments in the bulletin board
about is have been quite favorable.
[*][*][*]
ANSITRMRTC.BXY File #23874 9472 bytes RTC TRANSCRIPT
'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
This is an edited transcript of the ANSITerm Real-Time Conference
held on Monday, January 9, 1995. The guest speaker was Paul Parkhurst,
author of ANSITerm Telecommunications Software for the Apple IIGS.
ANSITerm is a full-featured terminal program that offers
compatibility with PC-based bulletin board systems that use PC-ANSI
emulation to display colored text and special graphical characters, as well
as support for VT52 and VT100 emulations.
ANSITerm also works well on GEnie and will support CoPilot.
If you are looking for a new telecommunications program, I suggest
you take a look at this file. It provides a wealth of information that may
help you to decide what to get.
[*][*][*]
SPECTRUMRTC.BXY File #23925 19456 bytes RTC TRANSCRIPT
'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
This is the edited transcript of the Spectrum 2.0 Real-Time
Conference held on January 16, 1995, in the A2 RTC. Read this transcript
for details on Spectrum 2.0's new features and when it will be available.
Spectrum 2.0, which is a true GS Desktop telecommunications program,
promises to be a nice piece of software, particularly for those who like to
write their own scripts. Even if you are looking for a plug-and-play
program, you should take a look at this transcript.
[*][*][*]
SLOTSCAN162.BXY File #23871 13184 bytes UTILITY
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
SlotScan - Version 1.62
Freeware for Noncommercial Uses
Robert Claney has created this program, which will run on any
computer with 16k. It will tell you what kind and version of Apple
computer you have, and how much memory you have.
What gives this program it's name, though, is the fact that it scans
your computer's slots and/or ports, telling you what is present in each
one. It will describe in detail the individual devices attached to
SmartPort cards or ports, and SCSI cards which may be in your system. It
will identify the capacity of any drives which are supported by ProDOS.
If, for some reason, you transfer SlotScan to DOS 3.3, it will work
there too. It does require at least 16k in order to run, though. This is
probably how you will have to run it on a ][ or ][+.
The program comes with a detailed documentation file. While it is
freeware for noncommercial uses, those who find a need for it in
conjunction with a commercial product should contact Mr. Claney. His
address is included in the documentation.
[*][*][*]
AW5MACROS.BXY File #23883 5632 bytes APPLEWORKS 5 MACROS
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Steve Beville has uploaded a corrected version of the AppleWorks 5.0
Macros file which contains a description of the default macros for this
program.
This file contains a list of the default macro set contained in
SEG.UM and SEG.AX on the AppleWorks 5.0 disk. These macros are
automatically installed when AppleWorks is booted with UltraMacros
activated.
If you have AppleWorks 5.0, and especially if you use macros with it,
you should download this small file.
[*][*][*]
While we're on the subject of AppleWorks 5.0, there are five archives
of bulletin board messages related to this program now available in the
library. These are archives of the messages posted to the "AppleWorks 5.0
Is Shipping!" topic. Download the following files and read through them to
gleam some jewels of information about AppleWorks 5.0 from folks who know
it well.
The files are
23917 AW5GENDIS01.BXY Messages from 8/5/94 - 10/16/94
23918 AW5GENDIS02.BXY Messages from 10/17/94 - 12/9/94
23919 AW5GENDIS03.BXY Messages from 12/10/94 - 12/23/94
23920 AW5GENDIS04.BXY Messages from 12/24/94 - 12/31/94
23921 AW5GENDIS05.BXY Messages from 1/1/95 - 1/13/95
[*][*][*]
That's it for this month. I hope you have found something here to
whet your interest. Drop me a line and let me know what you think of this
column and offer any suggestions you might have about what should be in it.
Until next time, happy downloading!
-- Charlie Hartley
[EOA]
[PRO]//////////////////////////////
PROFILES /
/////////////////////////////////
Who's Who In Apple II
"""""""""""""""""""""
by Charlie Hartley
[C.HARTLEY3]
>>> WHO'S WHO? <<<
""""""""""""""""""
~ GEnieLamp Profile: Doug Cuff ~
This month we will profile our own editor, Doug Cuff. Doug is not
only the editor of the GEnieLamp A2, he is also the editor of the monthly
disk magazine A2-Central, and the author of the delta manual for the new
AppleWorks 5.
GEnieLamp> Tell us about your job as editor of GEnieLamp A2.
'''''''''
Cuff> About the most interesting thing about it is how I got the job! I
'''' had just rejoined GEnie after a short absence, and heard that Dean
Esmay was looking for an editor for GEnieLamp A2. Since it had been
GEnieLamp A2 that was responsible for making me come back to GEnie--I
couldn't bear to be left out of the fun any more!--I applied, despite the
fact that almost no one knew who I was. I got the job, for the usual No
Good Reason (no, I was not the only one to apply :-), and GEnieLamp
editor-in-chief John Peters showed me the Reader's Digest version of the
ropes.
An important part of each edition of GEnieLamp is the HEY MISTER
POSTMAN column, in which each editor selects a digest of the messages
posted that month on the respective RoundTable. This requires me and my
fellow editors to read every single message in every single category. (You
don't know how much I sometimes long for the luxury of IGNoring a category
PERmanently.) Actually collecting the messages only takes three hours a
week, but reading them takes much longer. I have to read every message
carefully, too, since I'm always on the lookout for Quik Quotes to sprinkle
throughout the magazine.
My favourite part of the magazine has always been the profiles. I'm
not sure what I've done that's worth profiling. I only report the news,
after all. Others--like Jawaid Bazyar, Randy Brandt, "Brutal Deluxe", Bill
Heineman, Michael Lutynski, Steven McQueen, Greg Templeman, Bill Tudor,
Eric Shepherd, Dan Verkade, Joe Wankerl, Mike Westerfield, and dozens of
others, most of whom I'm just offended by not thinking of their names off
the top of my head--MAKE the news (by writing the programs).
My least favourite part of the job is its deadline. GEnieLamp A2 and
A2-Central are both due on the same day! Do you have any idea what it's
like to edit two monthly magazines, both of which depend on the previous
month's events, and both of which are due on the same day? I manage, but
anyone who thinks it's a lot of fun would have made an ideal companion for
the Marquis de Sade.
GEnieLamp> Tell us about your job as editor of the A2-Central.
'''''''''
Cuff> It gives me the chance to pretend to be Tom Weishaar (which I
'''' ain't, however much I'd like to be), and it gives me the chance to
work with Steve Weyhrich. Steve is great. He'd written columns for
GEnieLamp A2 for quite some time before he started working at A2-Central,
but we didn't meet until KansasFest 1994.
It's also great fun working with Uncle DOS, who writes our letters
column. As fictional characters go, he's pretty three-dimensional. It's
an amazing kick to be the editor of a newsletter you're a charter
subscriber of.
Professionally, it's an odd sort of situation. ICON, which publishes
A2-Central and almost a dozen other disk newsletters, is a not-for-profit
group. Yet A2-Central pays for submissions (not much, I'm afraid, but we
do pay), and ICON pays me a small amount (out of which I have to pay the
authors, which is kind of unusual). I suppose it's this anomaly that
causes people to assume we're a major magazine, instead of the newsletter
Tom Weishaar always envisioned us as being.
Anything else you'd like to know about working at A2-Central? I'm so
close to the subject, I can't imagine what anyone would find interesting
about it.
GEnieLamp> Some of our readers may be interesting in submitting to
''''''''' A2-Central. Tell us what you might be looking for in the way
of articles, etc.
Cuff> If I knew the answer to that, I'd probably write and research the
'''' articles myself! I guess what I'm looking for is something I
haven't thought of so far. I have two pieces of advice for aspiring
authors, both good for all magazine and newsletter markets: First, be sure
you're not submitting an idea that your market has already handled.
Second, realize that "think pieces" are the prerogative of the editor.
I've had a few submissions in which the author is basically trying to point
out that the future isn't so bleak for the Apple II... whether to console
him/herself, or to console A2-Central's readers, I don't know. None of
this is bad, but neither is it good enough.
To simplify: Only editors of literary magazines are likely to be
interested in a piece based on what an author _thinks_. Editors of news
magazines are more likely to be interested in what an author _knows_.
(Editors particularly like authors who research to fill in the gaps where
they _don't_ know.) I've got dozens of people who can give me their wry
observations on the Apple II's mistreatment by Apple Computer, but no one
so far who has offered to explain exactly what Big Red Computer will be
offering in 1995.
Of course, A2-Central is still interested in what Apple II users
think, same as always. Just write Uncle DOS and tell him--he's glad to
listen! If you have a question or an answer to one, he's just as glad to
get those. Be sure to use the new address, though: 6405 Metcalf Avenue,
Ste. 106, Box 22, Overland Park, Kansas 66202-4080.
GEnieLamp> Tell us about your experiences as you wrote the Delta manual
''''''''' for AppleWorks 5.
Cuff> It was complete and utter madness, and I'd do it again in a minute
'''' if they asked me to.
It began when Jerry Kindall asked me, in early September, if I'd be
interested in the job. When I said yes, he asked me how much I charged.
I'd already been helping in the beta testing of AppleWorks 5, knew about
how much work had been done on the program, and made a guess of a week, or
two at the most.
Two weeks to write the update manual for AppleWorks 5. Right. You
know, if they held a contest for estimating time to project completion,
Randy Brandt, Jerry Kindall, and I would all tie for last. I ended up
working over 30 days on the manual, and they weren't 9-5 days, either.
Over the entire period, I think the earliest I went to bed was midnight,
and there were quite a few nights when I kept working until 3 AM. All this
despite the fact that Randy had already written huge chunks of the manual!
(For instance, I adapted the portion on the Outliner from his Outline 3.0
manual.)
All the time I was writing, AppleWorks 5 was still in development, so
it was possible to write a page in the morning and have it be either
obsolete or flat-out wrong by the evening. (It was also possible to spend
three hours trying to circumvent a bug that prevented me from being able to
document a feature.) Randy Brandt couldn't have been nicer. He read
several drafts of the manual, and corrected my errors with patience and
good humour.
I wrote the manual using AppleWorks 5 itself, but the last few days
were spent putting the document into a Rich Text Format, so that Jerry
Kindall could read it on his Mac with my original formatting intact. This
saved Jerry so much time, he actually arranged for me to be paid a bonus!
I uploaded my final draft in mid-October... and that same night, Randy
phoned me to say he'd added one last feature and ask if it was too late to
have it in the manual. (Jerry added those paragraphs, so it wasn't really
too late.)
GEnieLamp> How did you first get interested in the Apple II computer?
'''''''''
Cuff> It's all thanks to--or possibly the fault of--my younger brother
'''' Leslie, who in turn owes his interest to his high-school chum Steve
Garland. My brother Les used to play games on his friend's Apple II-Plus,
and asked for an Apple II for Christmas of 1982.
On Christmas morning, Les had an Apple II-Plus to play with. He
wrote a simple program in BASIC that drew random dots on the hi-res screen,
and that looked pretty cool. Not only was it my first glimpse of a
personal computer--which explains why I was impressed by a pretty quick
hack--but the hi-res display of random dots looked like a star field.
(Years of Star Trek had convinced me this was the loveliest possible view.)
The computer kept drawing dots, which quickly became boring, and the other
members of the family drifted away.
"How many dots is it going to draw?" I asked Les.
"Five thousand," Les replied.
"Can you make it show how far along it is?" I asked.
"Sure," said Les, and he interrupted the program. He added one
line--one line!--of code, and started the program going again. Sure
enough, it was now counting the dots it was drawing. That was it. I was
hooked. You could make the darned thing respond to your wishes.
In retrospect, I realize that all Les did was insert a PRINT
statement in the middle of a FOR-NEXT loop. Never mind. At that time, I
was enormously impressed at how easily you could control the machine.
GEnieLamp> Do you have any anecdotes you can share with us about your
''''''''' first experiences with the Apple II?
Cuff> Not long after my younger brother Les wowed me with a simple PRINT
'''' statement, I picked up the Applesoft BASIC manual that came with
the machine and started writing programs. These programs, when run, were
singularly unimpressive... but I didn't write them to run them. I wrote
them to list them, to remind myself of how various commands worked and what
their syntax was.
My favourite early moment came when Les borrowed Mission: Asteroid
(Hi-Res Adventure #0) from his pal Steve Garland. For weeks, Steve and Les
had been stuck at the first screen of the game, where you have to get past
a receptionist by giving a password. I watched Les type increasingly wild
guesses for the password, then walk away from the computer in frustration
with the game still running. I quickly sat down in his place, never having
seen an adventure game before. I had seen Les type "INVENTORY", so I tried
that. Practically all that "I" was carrying was a watch, so I typed "LOOK
WATCH". It had a button on it, so I typed "PRESS BUTTON"... and the game
told me the password! I gave the password to the receptionist, and
proceeded with the game. At that point, Les came back into the room. It
was a couple of seconds before he could choke out, "How did you _do_ that?"
Only then did he tell me how long he and his friend had been working on the
problem.
With that, I was hooked on adventure games. Les and I finished the
game in no time, returned the disk to his friend, and started buying our
own adventure games. I remember buying Mystery House (Hi-Res Adventure
#1)--_years_ after its original release--and finishing it in one weekend.
I bought Softporn Adventure, the text adventure that later metamorphosed
into Leisure-Suit Larry, and finished it in one day. Don't get me started
on the Infocom adventures, or GEnieLamp A2 will be twice its normal size
this month!
For the same reason, don't get me started on when I used to run a
BBS. That doesn't qualify as "early years" material anyway.
GEnieLamp> Running a BBS sounds like an exciting adventure. Tell us
''''''''' about your experiences.
Cuff> Not letting me off that easily, eh?
''''
My fondest memories of running a BBS are of the friends I made,
people I wouldn't otherwise have met, and whom I still keep in touch with
via E-mail. One of my bulletin board system's leading lights was a young
lady named Kirsten, who took to dropping by in person every second week or
so. One day she brought along her best friend... which is how I met Tara,
the lady who is now my wife!
I made other friends, too (didn't marry a one of 'em!) and got to
visit with them this Christmas just past. After I closed my BBS, about a
dozen of us gathered in my living room for a wake! We celebrated with a
parody of Poe's poem "The Raven", co-written by my wife and myself.
(You'll find it reproduced in the October 1994 issue of A2-Central.)
Running a BBS also provided me with an education--one I needed, but
one I didn't much relish at the time. "The astonishing thing," someone
once said, "is not that most people have a price, but how low that price
is." It was frightening to learn how many people considered that they had
a right to break the rules, because they personally were on the side of the
angels. In practice, it didn't matter much, but I lost a few of my
illusions about human nature.
More of a problem was a user named Ron who began by applying for
accounts in several names. He rapidly moved on to trying to hack in to
other accounts, including the system operator's (mine), which is a black
crime. Fortunately, he wasn't very good at it. I banned him from the
system. In his attempts to get back on, he tried blackmail, he tried
bribery, he tried threats, he tried ruining my reputation, and he tried
portraying himself as persecuted. All of this stopped when his employer
had him arrested for stealing equipment to the value of--I think--$75,000.
He was convicted and sentenced to jail. To replace my lost illusions about
human nature, I gained some respect for the justice system.
GEnieLamp> Tell us a bit about your family.
'''''''''
Cuff> Well, my wife Tara and I have been married for three years, and we
'''' haven't any children yet, so we're an abbreviated family. We both
come from Newfoundland, Canada's easternmost province. (You pronounce
"Newfoundland" to rhyme with "understand": nyu-fnd-'LAND. People who
stress the middle syllable drive Newfoundlanders crazy.) We're living in
London, Ontario while Tara takes her computer science degree at the
University of Western Ontario.
My mother and father were both teachers, though by the time I was
born, my mother had become--well, a mother--and my father was a university
professor. I have three brothers: Jeff and Bob, both older, and Les, who
is younger.
The family history really got interesting when my father decided to
start a publishing company, Harry Cuff Publications. I started there as a
shipping clerk, and taught myself most aspects of the business. I'm
insufferably proud--according to my brothers, anyway--of the fact that I am
neither the eldest son, nor the one who joined the firm first, yet was
still the one who was second in command until I let the firm to join Tara
in London, Ontario. Whoops, I've started talking about myself again, and
not the family. Next question, please?
GEnieLamp> What do you consider your proudest accomplishment?
'''''''''
Cuff> Our marriage. It's a wonderful thing. My wife and I communicate
'''' in extremely efficient but sometimes confusing ways. At a casual
get-together, we once utterly confounded our hostess--my wife by uttering
the sentence, "Well, that went through my head like a pregnant earwig!" and
me by _understanding_ it. (All Tara meant was "That remark went over my
head.") Understanding someone that well produces a warm feeling. Like
Fezzik in _The Princess Bride_, my private picture of hell is being left
alone with everybody going "BOOOOOOOOOOO" at me forever. Now that I've met
Tara, I don't have to worry about that any more, and neither does she.
GEnieLamp> Who do you look up to as your mentors?
'''''''''
Cuff> These days, I find it's hard to find anyone with the time to act as
'''' a mentor, don't you? In any case, I prefer jobs that have a
certain amount of autonomy. With those sorts of jobs, your superiors throw
you in at the deep end. They don't hang about to give advice. Some of
them only check back months later, presumably to see if they need to have
your remains fished out of the pool.
While they may not have been my mentors, I'd like to use this
opportunity to compliment a few people: Jerry Kindall, managing editor of
_II Alive_, is the best editor I've ever written for. He often finds a way
to make my articles just a little bit better and still remains sensitive to
the author's original intentions. GEnieLamp chief John Peters provides his
clear head--none clearer!--when mine is muddled, volcanic, or narcissistic,
and often provides a shoulder to sob on, too.
Probably the closest thing I've had to a mentor is my father, whom I
love dearly. Oddly enough, he rarely gave me professional advice when I
was working for the family firm, but outside the office, he sure shapes my
values and behaviour.
GEnieLamp> What sorts of things do you like to do for fun (i.e.
''''''''' non-computer hobbies)?
Cuff> I guess programming doesn't count, does it? I like programming,
'''' but it will never be more than a hobby.
I enjoy theatre. For several years, I was a stage manager with
amateur theatre groups in Newfoundland. I enjoy theatre-going, too, but
that's definitely a luxury when you're looking for work, as I am these
days. Before I started working on A2-Central, I'd occasionally volunteer
to usher at one of the professional local theatres, which meant I could see
the show for nothing, but there's no time for that now. This past summer,
my wife and I splurged to see _Othello_ at the world-famous Stratford
Festival. I've wanted to attend ever since I was a young'un, and since
Stratford is only 50 minutes' drive from where I live, the temptation was
too great.
I enjoy reading and writing, and am starting to worry at how little
time I have for reading now that I'm writing for GEnieLamp A2 and
A2-Central regularly. I agree with Stephen King's assertion that authors
who say "I don't have time to read" are like people who start up Mount
Everest while claiming that they didn't have time to buy rope or pitons.
GEnieLamp> What do you read for pleasure?
'''''''''
Cuff> In my early adolescence, I read Agatha Christie; while a university
'''' undergraduate, I read P. G. Wodehouse; and as a graduate student, I
read Harlan Ellison.
That's actually a gross oversimplification, and worse, it doesn't
address the question of what I'm reading now. Alas, I no longer read as
much fiction, though I do try to pick up everything by Spider Robinson, and
occasionally dip into my wife's Heinlein collection or try to borrow a
Vonnegut I haven't read. And I still read Harlan Ellison. When I feel
like a touch of humour, I'll re-read William Goldman or British author
Keith Waterhouse. As a stage manager, I read hundreds of play scripts, and
still enjoy reading those and television scripts from British series such
as "A Bit of Fry and Laurie", "Yes, Minister", and so on. I've read and
enjoyed exactly one Stephen King book--_Misery_--because it dealt with the
horrors one human being can inflict on another. Now _that's_ terrifying.
Vampires and devils don't do a thing for me, not on the printed page.
Running into one in real life, however...!
I read a lot of "light" reference books, ones that present
information in an entertaining way--Trivial Pursuit could well have been
invented as a way to make me appear clever--and am constantly searching for
a well-written biography. It's astonishing how many poorly-written bios
there are. People are fascinating, so why are so many books about them
dull?
GEnieLamp> Are computers a part of your daytime job? Please tell us a
''''''''' little about what you do between 9 and 5.
Cuff> Unless you count editing GEnieLamp A2 and A2-Central, I don't have a
'''' daytime job. (I don't really consider either a day job. I don't
get paid for editing GEnieLamp A2, and while I do get a small amount for
editing A2-Central and that _is_ my only income at present, it pays too far
below poverty level--which isn't ICON's fault, by the way--to be considered
a day job.) I'm looking for work, and that--plus keeping the household
running--takes up most of my daytime hours.
GEnieLamp> How long have you been a member of GEnie?
'''''''''
Cuff> Boy, I'm lucky I keep all my credit card statements--I wouldn't
'''' have been able even to estimate the answer to that one: I joined
in 1988, when Tom Weishaar began promoting GEnie in A2-Central. I called
infrequently at best, partly because the nearest node was an extremely
LONG-distance call from Newfoundland, and partly because of the atrocious
user interface. I didn't become a regular caller and full-fledged member
of GEnie's A2 community until 1993.
GEnieLamp> What new services do you think GEnie should provide its
''''''''' subscribers?
Cuff> It should provide better access for modems operating at 9600 baud
'''' and higher, and it should do so as soon as possible. It's already
waited too long. It should provide a more efficient upload protocol than
XMODEM. It should provide full access to the Internet, and of course
they're actively working on that last one.
One service GEnie doesn't have that CompuServe does is Phone*File, an
online telephone book--the "white pages"--for the USA. There's also a
"Yellow Pages" version that covers Canada and the US. I like it a lot, and
hope that GEnie will implement something similar.
An "old" service GEnie should keep is ASCII-level service, so that
you don't have to use a fancy-shmancy graphics interface just to log in.
Businesses that don't have time for the lowest common denominator are going
to find that their supply of new customers is limited.
GEnieLamp> What one piece of advice would you pass along to a new
''''''''' Apple II telecommunications enthusiast?
Cuff> First of all, join GEnie. I realize that sounds as though I'm
'''' drumming up trade for the service that publishes GEnieLamp A2, but
it's genuinely what I advise. GEnie is _the_ place to be if you use an
Apple II. These days, you have to be online to get the best support for
your Apple II. CompuServe is no longer the fun place it was. America
Online doesn't want to know you any more. Delphi is still an unknown. The
Internet has too much strife too often. GEnie is the clear winner.
The only problem is that GEnie's user interface is about as intuitive
as the second law of thermodynamics. Therefore, my second piece of advice
is that you start using an offline message processor like CoPilot or GEnie
Master (GEM). I resisted using message processors for years, figuring they
would require me to abandon the spontaneity of being online. I was wrong.
(This happens sometimes.) Now I recommend CoPilot and GEM every chance I
get.
GEnieLamp> What do you see as the future for the Apple II and its owners?
'''''''''
Cuff> I prefer not to prophesy. All I can tell you is that it's not over
'''' yet. I have a feeling that some of us will use our Apple II
computers until there is no longer a way to patch them up. Probably Joe
Kohn and I will be duking it out for the title here, but don't schedule the
match for any time soon.
GEnieLamp> Can you offer some advice about software and hardware that a
''''''''' new Apple II user might invest in? What do you have and use?
Cuff> Much depends on what they want to do! I love AppleWorks, and
'''' wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone who has a need for a
word processor or a data base or a spreadsheet. (UltraMacros also provides
a satisfying programming environment.) I _would_ hesitate to recommend it
to someone who wants to play games.
I happen to like Talk is Cheap, the telecommunications program by Don
Elton. It's easy to write scripts for it, and it works on Apple IIe's and
IIc's as well as IIgs's. If it had ZMODEM, I might never need anything
else.
I personally prefer a monochrome monitor because I work with my Apple
II all day, every day, and the eyestrain that a colour monitor causes in
ridiculous. Luckily, I use text-based applications 95% of the time, since
I'm either using a word processor or telecommunications software, and
colour is not likely to be vital to either task. I can't say I recommend
it for anyone who doesn't do at least 8 hours of word processing in a day,
though.
Our computer equipment consists of a ROM 01 IIgs with 4 megs of RAM,
two monitors (one monochrome and one RGB colour), a 105-meg hard drive, a
21-meg Floptical drive, a 9600-baud modem that only connects reliably at
2400, and an ImageWriter II printer. There's also a IIe with a 20-meg hard
drive and a 1200-baud modem.
We also have a 286 laptop on extended loan from my eldest brother,
but I haven't used it since I dragged it to KansasFest. It literally
gathers dust. MS-DOS is not my friend.
GEnieLamp> Where do you see the future of telecommunications moving in
''''''''' the next five to ten years?
Cuff> This is a difficult question for those who try not to prophesy! I
'''' have fears that the Internet as we know will be taxed or legislated
out of existence, but I don't really know how likely that is. I predict
that, in ten years, telecommunications will have evolved even beyond my
capacity to predict. We're all in for some thrilling, frustrating times.
GEnieLamp> Doug, it as been a pleasure talking with you. The Apple II
''''''''' world is blessed by dedicated, articulate folks like you.
Keep up the good work! :)
Cuff> Thanks very much for speaking with me. If anyone has any questions
'''' about GEnieLamp A2 or A2-Central, I hope they'll drop me a line at
editor.a2@genie.geis.com (or just EDITOR.A2, on GEnie). I love to get
mail!
[*][*][*]
A note to our readers: If you want to know more about a particular
person and want him/her to be interviewed for the GEnieLamp A2 profile
column, send E-mail to C.HARTLEY3 or EDITOR.A2 and we'll see what we can
do. In your E-mail message, tell why you think this person is a good
candidate for the profile.
//////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE ////
/ /
/ The Oscar sound and icon vanished because the Children's /
/ Television Workshop found out about it and apparently /
/ threatened lawsuits to protect their copyrights. /
/ /
/ Well, that's very un-Muppet of them. /
/ /
/////////////////////////////// POWERPC.PRO & KEN.GAGNE ////
[EOA]
[LOG]//////////////////////////////
LOG OFF /
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>>> GEnieLamp STAFF <<<
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GEnieLamp o John Peters [GENIELAMP] Publisher/Editor
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""" o Nancy Thomas [N.NOWINSON] MultiMedia Editor/Writer
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""""""" o John Osarczuk [J.OSARCZUK] Asst Editor/Columnist
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