💾 Archived View for mirrors.apple2.org.za › archive › www.textfiles.com › apple › THELAMP › TLMP2004… captured on 2024-12-18 at 03:30:15.
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| || | | | / __ \ | | / \_/ \ | ___ \ | |
| || |__ ____ | | / / \ | | /\ /\ \ | | \ \ | |
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Lighting Your Apple II Path | |
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-----------------------------------
>>> WELCOME TO THE LAMP! <<<
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
THE BEST OF THE A2 BULLETIN BOARD ON Syndicomm Online
AND THE BEST OF THE DELPHI A2 AND A2PRO MESSAGE BOARDS
"Teaching the Apple II user how to fish since 1998"
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
The Lamp! An Onipa'a Software Production Vol. 7, No. 3
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Publisher................................Ryan M. Suenaga, M.S.W., L.S.W.
Editor.....................................................Lyle Syverson
Internet Email, Publisher.........................thelamp@sheppyware.net
Internet Email, Editor................................lyle@FoxValley.net
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
TABLE OF CONTENTS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
March 15, 2004
HIGH ABOVE THE ROCK RIVER---------------------------------------------[OPN]
Going Out for Lunch
Going Out to Dinner
A2 FORUM AT Syndicomm Online (A2Central.com) DISTILLATIONS------------[DAS]
Batch Deletion of Email in Pine----------------------------------[BDE]
BoxWorld Available in Library------------------------------------[BWA]
LocalTalk on the ROM 3 Apple IIgs--------------------------------[LGS]
Managing Web Sites-----------------------------------------------[MWS]
Port the SCI Engine to the IIgs?---------------------------------[SCI]
Build Your Own Mach II OR Mach III Joystick----------------------[JSK]
The Cheese Box - VGA Monitors on the Apple II--------------------[TCB]
Recipe for Joystick----------------------------------------------[RJS]
Dead Battery Harmful to IIgs?------------------------------------[DBH]
Linux on a PC Transporter?---------------------------------------[LPT]
Current Status of GW-FTP-----------------------------------------[CGF]
Enhancement to Orca/Pascal---------------------------------------[EOP]
8-Bit Driver for the LANceGS Ethernet Card-----------------------[EBD]
Backing up Bank Street Music Writer------------------------------[BMW]
AppleWin Emulator------------------------------------------------[AWE]
Another Challenge Using KEGS-------------------------------------[ACK]
KEGS for UNIX With Solaris 9 Workstation-------------------------[KSW]
ActiveGS Updated to v2.0-----------------------------------------[AGS]
Developer Contact Information------------------------------------[DCI]
Juiced.GS V9I1 on the Way----------------------------------------[OTW]
ILLUMINATING THE LAMP-------------------------------------------------[ITL]
An overview of GEnieLamp A2 and The Lamp!
2000
ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM SYNDICOMM------------------------------------------[ANS]
To Sign up for Syndicomm Online----------------------------------[TSU]
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR-------------------------------------------------[LTE]
No Letters to the Editor This Month
An Invitation
KFEST 2004------------------------------------------------------------[KFF]
KansasFest 2004--------------------------------------------------[KF4]
Registration is Now Open for KFest 2004--------------------------[KFR]
EXTRA INNINGS
About The Lamp! ------------------------------------------------ [INN]
[*] [*] [*]
READING THE LAMP! The index system used by The Lamp! is designed to make
""""""""""""""""" your reading easier. To use this system, load this
issue into any word processor or text editor. In the index you will find
something like:
EXTRA INNINGS
About The Lamp! ------------------------------------------------ [INN]
To read this article, simply use your search or find command to locate
[INN]. There is a similar tag at the end of each article: [EOA].
[OPN]-------------------------------
HIGH ABOVE THE ROCK RIVER |
------------------------------------
From The Editor
"""""""""""""""
by Lyle Syverson <lyle@FoxValley.net>
Going Out for Lunch
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Early morning observation High Above The Rock River reveals a deep
blue sky and budding of the trees... a promise that Spring will soon burst
forth. A great day for a drive in the country with lunch at a favorite
restaurant as a destination.
Highway 2 meanders south along the Rock River. We stop every few
miles at one of the turnoffs to get a close view of the river. A climb to
the top of Castle Rock is especially inspiring.
Twenty some miles to the south we stop at Maxon's Riverside
Restaurant.
John Maxon established Maxon's Manor in a beautiful old house fifty
some years ago. The large enclosed porch, which faced the river, served as
the dinning room. This afforded the diners a fabulous view. The
centerpiece of the view was a statue of Chief Blackhawk standing on a cliff
High Above The Rock River. By adding great food and great service to this
atmosphere, he established a large and loyal base of customers.
When Mr. Maxon reached retirement age he sold the restaurant.
Business went well for the new owners. Then one night tragedy struck...
the house which provided the special atmosphere of the restaurant burned to
the ground.
Eventually another building was built. It is a rustic building that
goes well with the site. The dinning room is built on two levels, one
about four feet above the other. The riverside wall is almost all glass.
This takes full advantage of the same great view the original house
provided.
Add great food and great service to the present building and you have
a winning combination.
Going Out to Dinner
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
KFesters go out to dinner a couple of times during KFest. Dinner at
the K.C. Masterpiece is quite enjoyable. They have an uncanny ability to
provide seating at this busy restaurant for all of us Apple II enthusiasts.
Seating is at tables of four to six. This provides a nice sized group of
people for you to become better acquainted with. The food is great. Your
glass of iced tea will never run dry.
Come join us at KFest this year. Registration information is
available now. Drop by the KFest Home Page at: http://www.kfest.org/
and follow the registration link.
[EOA]
ASCII ART BEGINS
_________ _ _ _
|__ __| | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | |___ ____ | | _____ __ ___ _ _ _____ | |
| | | ___ \ / __ \ | | /____ \ | v v | | v ___ \ | |
| | | | | | | /__\ \ | | ____| | | /\ /\ | | / \ \ | |
| | | | | | | _____| | | / ___ | | || || | | | | | |_|
| | | | | | | |_____ | |____ | |__| | | || || | | \___/ / _
|_| |_| |_| \______| |______| \____^_| |_||_||_| | |\____/ |_|
| |
| |
|_|
ASCII ART ENDS
[EOA]
[DAS]----------------------------------------------
DISTILLATIONS FROM The A2 FORUM at Syndicomm.com |
(A2Central.com) |
---------------------------------------------------
by Lyle Syverson <lyle@foxvalley.net>
[BDE]
BATCH DELETION OF EMAIL IN PINE
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
I'm getting more spam every day! I was using Pine to delete all my email
before Eudora downloaded it, but I finally just quit letting Eudora get my
Syndicomm email.
Is there any way to do a delete of all email, rather than deleting each
individual email? (in Pine)
Thanks,
Cindy
(CINDYADAMS, Cat 2, Top 3, Msg 134)
>>>>>
"""""
From your Pine inbox index, type this string of commands to delete all
messages:
;AADXY
Translation:
; = select the following range
A = all
A = apply the following command
D = delete
X = expunge
Y = yes
-Ken
(KGAGNE, Cat 2, Top 3, Msg 137)
>>>>>
"""""
>;AADXY
Thank you!!
Now I can keep my spambox empty!
Cindy
(CINDYADAMS, Cat 2, Top 3, Msg 138)
[EOA]
[BWA]
BoxWorld AVAILABLE IN LIBRARY
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
There is a new upload in the games/strategy/prodos8 directory:
File: boxworld.bxy
Size: 27520
Date: Feb 26
BoxWorld is a puzzle game. You have to replace several boxes situated at
various places in the world to complete each level.
Freeware.
Tony Ward, A2 Librarian
(A2.TONY, Cat 2, Top 37, Msg 27)
[EOA]
[LGS]
LOCALTALK ON THE ROM 3 Apple IIgs
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
I thought I'd spend a few minutes here and talk about my recent adventure
with Localtalk on my ROM 3 Apple IIgs.
I have a LANceGS in my IIgs and have been using that for file transfers and
it works pretty well. It is better now since Geoff has released
GW-FTP v1.1b4 and also upgrading Spectrum to v2.5.3 so that I can run SAFE.
However after reading Ryan's article in Juiced.GS V8I4 about setting up a
Localtalk bridge on a Mac, I decided to try it out using a Macintosh
7200/90 as a Localtalk Bridge and a Windows 2000 Advanced Server for a file
server that I'm using for a course I'm taking. Win2KAS has Macintosh
File/Print Services available so I though that would give me a nice central
place to store files that would be accessible by my entire home network.
Setting up File/Print services was easy enough on the Win2KAS box. The
only thing not obvious was how to set up a shareable folder for Appletalk.
After poking around the help files, I found a CLI based utility called
"Macfile" that was able to create a share for Appletalk. Initially I was
pretty disappointed that there wasn't a GUI interface but I think I found a
way to do that afterwards.
The next step was setting up Localtalk Bridge on the Macintosh 7200/90.
Re-reading Ryan's article made it real easy. I was also able to test that
the Mac could see and mount the Win2KAS volumes so I knew that was working
fine.
The last step was setting up Appleshare on the Apple IIgs and it was here
that I started to run into problems. On my ROM 3, setting slot 2 to
Localtalk, installing the Appleshare software from System 6.0.1 and
connecting the cable between the Mac and the IIgs was easy enough. Once
that was done I was able to see the Mac with the IIgs's Chooser, but not
the Win2KAS box. I thought this was strange since the Mac could see the
Win2KAS box but for some reason wasn't passing that over the Localtalk
Bridge. I had the feeling that I might be cooked. :/
Playing around with the Mac I found out that if I rebooted the Mac that the
Win2KAS did show up in the IIgs's Chooser for a few seconds before
disappearing. If I was quick I could select it and attempt to log in.
However doing this resulted in a "unknown login sequence" error from the
IIgs. This didn't look good so I decided to Google it and see if anyone
else had similar problems.
The best information I got was from Google's usenet archive. What I found
out was that I actually had two problems not related to each other.
1) The Win2KAS box not showing up in Chooser.
2) The "unknown login sequence" error.
The first item ended up pretty easily addressable. The problem was that
Localtalk Bridge, for whatever reason, didn't pass Win2KAS servers
properly. The work around for this was to configure Win2KAS to enable
Appletalk routing and set up an Appletalk zone. Once I did this the
Win2KAS server was able to be seen by the IIgs all the time.
The second issue was a little more difficult to determine what to do.
However after searching around I discovered that a lady named Marsha
Jackson had run into the same problem accessing her Linux box running
Netatalk. What she did, to my amazement, was to disassemble System 6.0.1's
Appleshare CDEV and debug it. She identified the problem, fixed the CDEV
and posted it on her website. I downloaded it and tried it out. Bingo!
After all of this I can now use Windows 2000 Advanced Server as a central
file repository accessible by everything. I'm so happy that I'm writing a
big, long post to Syndicomm's BB for posterity. :)
Mark Percival - Apprentice
Delivered by Spectrum v2.5.3 & SOAR v1.0b11
The Apple ][ Fanatic and Wednesday Night RTC Host
"Midweek Madness!" from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM Pacific Time
(MARK, Cat 10, Top 6, Msg 45)
>>>>>
"""""
Very interesting Mark. I've put on my list setting something like that up,
I just have never had all the correct hardware pieces.
Does using Appletalk add much in the way of overhead to a system? Cause
more crashes make things run more sluggishly etc? I've used LocalTalk
before, I just haven't used it much.
Thanks,
Dain
(A2.DAIN, Cat 10, Top 6, Msg 46)
>>>>>
"""""
Appletalk is an interrupt based process so it does require a little bit of
processing power when it is active. Under normal accelerated GS use such
as the Finder, editing files, etc., there is no noticeable difference when
it is running compared to when it is not.
It is most noticeable when running another highly intensive interrupt based
processes such as Marinetti. TCP/IP will slow down significantly, but
still be usable.
Running Appletalk software on the GS will not directly make it more
unstable to use. If you are using buggy software that stomps on memory
that it shouldn't, then having Appletalk around is another potential area
that can get affected resulting in a system crash.
Apple engineers were always running Appletalk so I would trust its overall
stability. And for a network architecture that was built into the GS
almost 18 years ago, it is cool to see that it not only works, but works
great.
Geoff
(GEOFF, Cat 10, Top 6, Msg 47)
[EOA]
[MWS]
MANAGING WEB SITES
""""""""""""""""""
As determined uptopic, the web server I employ supports ASP, but not PHP.
I asked someone to write me a routine in ASP. He gave it to me in
JavaScript. Are there any advantages or disadvantages to this method?
If I decided to use the JavaScript version, is there a way to include the
definition routine in the header of all my HTML files, without manually
inserting it into each one? Can it perhaps be listed in a .css file which
is already being called?
Thanks,
-Ken
(KGAGNE, Cat 11, Top 29, Msg 86)
>>>>>
"""""
If ASP works like PHP, there should be an ASP command to include a file as
part of your HTML.
I don't know how CSS engines would like Javascript passed to them. What
does the CSS documentation say?
Geoff
(GEOFF, Cat 11, Top 29, Msg 87)
>>>>>
"""""
You can include a javascript file with standard html like this:
<script language="JavaScript" src="site.js">
</script>
where site.js is a file of javascript code. However, you will need to edit
every file where you wish to include it.
Javascript is run on the client machine, not the server machine, so if the
user has javascript turned off, or a buggy browser, it might not work as
expected.
Kelvin
(KWS, Cat 11, Top 29, Msg 88)
>>>>>
"""""
Geoff & Kelvin,
Thanks. As Tony showed me in message 10 of this topic, I've used
<!--#include virtual="filename.html"--> statements before, and was
wondering if something similar could be done with JavaScript. Ideally, I'd
include the JavaScript file reference in a file already being included, but
the only such file in my HTML header is a .css file, which probably won't
accept JavaScript.
To create the site.js file you suggested, Kelvin, I had to remove the first
and last lines of the JavaScript routine, which were
<!--
and
// -->
Now the script works - most of the time, in Safari. It always works in
iCab and MSIE. Odd.
I wonder if it is better to go with ASP. That's my main concern, before
I figure out how to implement either version.
-Ken
(KGAGNE, Cat 11, Top 29, Msg 89)
>>>>>
"""""
If there is a choice between letting the server do all the work or the
client--always choose the server. Users with slow devices such as a
modems, slower systems, etc. will see a decrement in page generation when
it has to retrieve separate pieces. Web servers should be considered fast
so they can do that processing much more quickly.
As you noted already, the Javascript solution can be flaky--so if the
information is important, you probably don't want to use the Javascript
method. You can probably find the ASP solution that you are looking for by
using google with a search of: "asp reference" "include file"
Geoff
(GEOFF, Cat 11, Top 29, Msg 90)
[EOA]
[SCI]
PORT THE SCI ENGINE TO THE IIgs?
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
I found an Open Source SCI engine at http://freesci.linuxgames.com/ . What
is SCI you ask? It is the engine which the newer (1989 and later) Sierra
Online adventure games used. Word was that Sierra was working on an engine
for the IIgs at one time, but stopped development due to poor IIgs sales
and that the IIgs hardware was not fast enough to run a common platform
engine.
Now that we have accelerators and emulators which speed up the IIgs,
running the newer Sierra Online games should not be an issue. Are there
any takers who would want to port the SCI engine to the IIgs?
Geoff
(GEOFF, Cat 14, Top 2, Msg 68)
>>>>>
"""""
In the past, I have thought about attempting to port one of the SCI engines
to the IIgs, or one of the AGI engines (AGI was used for KQ 1-4, SQ,
goldrush, and other sierra games that were available on the IIgs).
I think they had 2 generations of SCI. The first only allowed 16 colors,
but the 2nd allowed more, so the IIgs experience would be diminished.
I still think it would be neat to do.
Kelvin
(KWS, Cat 14, Top 2, Msg 69)
>>>>>
"""""
I'd sure like to see that done, but I'm pretty swamped. :)
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
Building communities, bit by bit.
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 14, Top 2, Msg 70)
[EOA]
[JSK]
BUILD YOUR OWN Mach II OR Mach III JOYSTICK
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
See my post in the Hardware forum under Joysticks. You can build your own
brand-new, factory quality Mach II or Mach III using OEM components from CH
Products. Cost is about $140, but we could make it considerably less by
buying in bulk.
(GPH_II, Cat 14, Top 3, Msg 16)
>>>>>
"""""
I already have a CH Apple II joystick. It's the platinum model with the
button on top of the stick. It's a really nice one, and building one would
be a neat project.
One thing I've wondered is if one could build an arcade quality stick.
I know they were pretty much a different kind of stick though since the
sticks that the Apple II used were more of an analog device and I think
arcade sticks were more of a digital device (on/off) versus some range of
values.
Seeing Apple II stuff built is always fun:)
Dain
(A2.DAIN, Cat 14, Top 3, Msg 17)
>>>>>
"""""
That wouldn't be too hard. Atari sticks worked the same way, and many
Apple games (pre-GS, pre-Prodos) offered an "Atari Joystick" option. Not
sure what the wiring was like; I assume that bottom-right made a
PDL(0),PDL(1) value of 255,255, and top-left, 0,0.
I've got a CH Products joystick too - a Mach I, and I love it. It was
originally for PC, but I ripped out the PC cord and replaced it with the
one from my previous Apple II stick, a nice 3-button Kraft that broke.
I played several games of Archon II and BoulderDash 2 today with it :-)
Actually, what inspired this project were two things. 1) a desire to play
Apple II games on my PC emulator (since I've already got a Mach I on the
][e), and 2) a backup. Joysticks do wear out over time, and I don't want
to be caught in a position where I can never use the type of joystick I
grew with again. The Mach II is almost identical to the Mach I but with
superior internal components (this from CH Products' Director of Sales and
Marketing, who was good enough to e-mail answers to my questions today).
If anyone else is interested (hint hint) we could order in bulk and get
that $127 price way down. If you order 100 of them, it's only $43 per
unit. Even 20 would provide a significant savings.
Greg
(GPH_II, Cat 14, Top 3, Msg 18)
>>>>>
"""""
I'm curious to see how many people you could get in on this. The problem
is that even at that quantity 100 level, it's awfully expensive for a
joystick, and then there's the fact that they have to be assembled, which
most people can't do, and would just jack up the price even more.
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
Building communities, bit by bit.
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 14, Top 3, Msg 19)
>>>>>
"""""
Yes that's true. Sometimes being a diehard Apple II fanatic means you feel
like you're being discriminated against. We pay many times what PC users
pay for hard drives, Etherenet, etc.
It might be best to have a queue of people needing new joysticks, and when
it reaches a certain threshold, everyone sends their money to someone they
trust (like you) who could do the ordering and then ship the pieces to the
recipients. Just one idea. I could do the assembly for a nominal cost for
anyone who didn't feel comfortable doing it themselves.
(GPH_II, Cat 14, Top 3, Msg 20)
>>>>>
"""""
I think it would be important first to find out what price point at which
people become willing to buy one.
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
Building communities, bit by bit.
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 14, Top 3, Msg 21)
[EOA]
[TCB]
THE Cheese Box - VGA MONITORS ON THE Apple II
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Doesn't anyone know about the Cheese Box? Used VGA monitors can be had for
cheap, and you get all the benefits of color on any Apple II (IIe, IIc,
IIgs) without the hassle of having to have special "Apple" hardware.
Cheese Box sells for about $60, and worth every penny. Has switchable
VGA/composite inputs.
(GPH_II, Cat 17, Top 17, Msg 6)
>>>>>
"""""
I do, I just didn't find the quality of the video acceptable when I have
some fine working GS monitors as is. :)
Ryan
(A2.RYAN, Cat 17, Top 17, Msg 7)
>>>>>
"""""
The Cheese Box doesn't look like you can plug it into the Apple IIgs RGB
port, but only the composite port, which isn't as good.
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
Building communities, bit by bit.
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 17, Topic 17
>>>>>
"""""
This is absolutely correct, and is the one downside: I'm constantly
switching in the control panel between color and monochrome. For my IIe,
it's excellent.
In our case it's a space issue. I've got four computers in this room where
I work:
Windows 2k Desktop PC
Windows 95 PC (works great with ApplePC's Mockingboard emulation and sound)
Apple IIGS
Apple IIe.
There are three VGA monitors. One is on the IIe, which is on the floor for
access by our 1-year-old daughter. It's just a space issue.
The perfect solution would of course be VGA output from the GS RGB, but
there isn't anything that does this. I try to stay away from Apple's
proprietary stuff like the monitor where possible, as I believe the Apple
II's future will be with inexpensive PC hardware...
(GPH_II, Cat 17, Top 17, Msg 11)
>>>>>
"""""
How does it work with a IIe?
(MARGARET, Cat 17, Top 17)
>>>>>
"""""
I expect it would work great with a IIe.
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
Building communities, bit by bit.
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 17, Top 17, Msg 10)
[EOA]
[RJS]
RECIPE FOR JOYSTICK
"""""""""""""""""""
(Posted on Applefritter.com, by yours truly.)
RECIPE FOR A BRAND-NEW, FACTORY QUALITY, OLD-STYLE APPLE II JOYSTICK
Remember your Apple II joystick? I am not talking about the huge toy
luggers sold today, the ones that require you to use your whole arm to
control them.
Rather, Ibm talking about the old ones that offered high precision because
the stick was small enough to control with the thumb and forefinger. The
one you used playing Archon II, BoulderDash, and Stellar 7. The ones that
haven't been sold for about a decade. Those joysticks.
So, where are they today? Wanting to get a brand new backup to my aging
Mach I (a 10-year old PC joystick converted to work on the Apple II), as
well as a similar style joystick for the PC, I had to search long and hard.
It turns out, all the parts for these old-school joysticks are still made,
and in fairly large quantities. Nowadays, they are just used for high-end
medical applications and to fly jet fighters. Imagine that! While kids are
enjoying Combat Flight Simulator their toy "fighter sticks", many real jet
fighters are using the same type of joystick many of us grew up with.
(Personally, I prefer a yoke to a stick for PC flight sims, but that is
another topic).
Here is the poop: you can build your own Mach II or Mach III replica for
the Apple II for about $140. The casing and assembly is still made, and
available from CH Products. Together, they will cost you $127. Here is the
recipe for a brand new Mach II:
Ingredients:
* 1 OEM component, part # C100B0J-CJ from CH Products.
* 1 old serial cable with male (pins, not holes) connector.
* Cord sheath OR hot glue gun.
* Soldering iron w/ solder.
* Volt Meter/Continuity tester.
* Wire stripper, or sharp knife
1. Order a C100B0J-CJ from CH Products. You can visit their OEM website,
and click the "Traditional" link at the left. You should see some
familiar-looking sticks. This model will give you the assembly and housing
for a Mach II.
2. Get yourself an old serial cable with a male connector (meaning with
pins, not holes). You may want to try to get a base sheath to protect the
rubber at the point it enters the joystick casing. Hot glue will work, but
it can be messy. Apply the sheathing to the cord, leaving enough slack in
the wiring to get to the various connector points.
3. This is the most effort-intensive step. You will need to strip and
solder the appropriate wires to the correct terminals. At this point, it
helps to have a reference Apple II joystick, as you can simply open it up
and test continuity between the terminal pins that plug into the CPU and
the various connection points on the joystick potentiometers and buttons.
Wiring diagrams are also available on the web.
4. Put the housing back together. This should consist of tightening four
screws.
Voila! One brand new Apple II joystick, for years of enjoyment.
As a variation, you should be able to build a Mach III replica exactly as
above, with one extra button to connect. You would need to decide whether
it is to be Button 0 or 1.
If enough people were interested in this, we could order the CH Products
parts in bulk and reduce costs considerably&
(GPH_II, Cat 17, Top 20, Msg 1)
>>>>>
"""""
Looks pretty cool, but which stick did you put in the housing?
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
Building communities, bit by bit.
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 17, Top 20, Msg 2)
>>>>>
"""""
I did this years ago, when it was much cheaper. It's a Mach I, originally
for the PC. It is still in service after all these years.
(GPH_II, Cat 17, Top 20, Msg 3)
[EOA]
[DBH]
DEAD BATTERY HARMFUL TO IIgs?
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
My ROM 01 GS has had a dead battery for four years now. I currently have
no desire to replace it. Will there be any long term ill effects if I
leave the dead battery in the system (i.e. battery corrosion, chemical
fires, etc.). If I cut the battery out and leave it out, will any normal
GS operations fail?
The nice thing about having a dead battery is that I don't have to worry
about the GS time rolling over in 2040 :)
Geoff
(GEOFF, Cat 17, Top 23, Msg 14)
>>>>>
"""""
I don't think so, but I've not cut out any of the batteries before. You'd
need to restore your clock and other settings, but that's not something
that anyone who doesn't have a UNIX box with a dead battery (me) has to do
when there's a power outage.
Ryan
(A2.RYAN, Cat 17, Top 23, Msg 15)
[EOA]
[LPT]
LINUX ON A PC TRANSPORTER?
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Has anybody installed Linux on a PC Transporter? Is it even possible?
I think that would be really cool if that was accomplished.
Geoff
(GEOFF, Cat 17, Top 29, Msg 43)
>>>>>
"""""
I assume Linux would require a machine that can support virtual memory.
Can an 8086 PC do that?
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
Building communities, bit by bit.
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 17, Top 29, Msg 44)
>>>>>
"""""
Everything I've ever seen indicates that Linux requires a 80386 32-bit
processor. Of course you never know if small parts of it could be ported.
(I know nothing about this, so I'll shut up now:)
Beside..SCO would get you if you tried;)
Dain
(A2.DAIN, Cat 17, Top 29, Msg 45)
>>>>>
"""""
The minimum specifications are a 386 proc for linux but the AT&T 6300+
http://www.trailingedge.com/~dlw/comp/texttemp.html?att6300p Could run Unix
(TECHNERD, Cat 17, Top 29, Msg 46)
>>>>>
"""""
Linux 2.6 (the recently released kernel) has microController
support--allowing Linux to run on systems without MMU support. I thought
I heard that there was 8086/80286 support with that, but I am unable to
verify that now.
I did find ELKS ( http://elks.sourceforge.net/ ) which is a ported version
of Linux for the 8086/80286 processor level. Its FAQ even mentions that
the NEC V20 should work with this kernel.
Geoff
(GEOFF, Cat 17, Top 29, Msg 47)
>>>>>
"""""
I think the PC Transporter used the elusive 80186. Minix was designed for
8086 computers with 5.25" drives, so that might work better.
Kelvin
(KWS, Cat 17, Top 29, Msg 48)
>>>>>
"""""
The PC Transporter used the NEC V20.
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
Building communities, bit by bit.
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 17, Top 29, Msg 49)
>>>>>
"""""
The NEC V20 was made to be pin-compatible with the Intel 8088, the CPU
found in the original IBM PC, XT, and other clones. The 8088 is an 8-bit
bus version of the 8086, resulting in less efficient operation.
The NEC V20 was 30% faster than the Intel counterpart due to its better
designed microarchitecture.
It does include additional instructions found in the 80186/80188. The V20
could also emulate the Intel 8080.
That was probably more than you wanted to know :)
Geoff
(GEOFF, Cat 17, Top 29, Msg 50)
[EOA]
[CGF]
CURRENT STATUS OF GW-FTP
""""""""""""""""""""""""
Geoff,
What is the current status of GW-FTP? Like what is the latest version?
What works and what doesn't? And of course, is it available for download
anywhere currently?
Thanks,
Dain
(A2.DAIN, Cat 20, Top 13, Msg 62)
>>>>>
"""""
I'd like to make gwFTP Open Source, but it is a pain to do everything that
is required:
* modify source
* add GPL notices
* write documentation to assemble, install, and use
* create a Web site
* write a press release
* etc.
It is just much easier to hand it off "as-is" to be put on a disk. So it
is more or less copyrighted freeware at the moment. And since it really is
a beta releases (there are known crashing and hanging problems), I see no
reason for a limited distribution method.
All copies of gwfTP have been made available this way. It should be noted
that none of proceeds of disk sales with gwFTP go to me.
Version 1.1b4 was announced and released at KFest 2004. I gave a copy to
Andrew to put on the Marinetti 3.0b1 CD, but I heard reports that it wasn't
to be found. It is available on the Marinetti 3.0b1 disk that is sold by
Syndicomm (and at $4.00, it is cheaper than the $5.00 disks sold by
Shareware Solutions II and Juiced.GS).
If gwFTP is used enough, memory gets all messed up resulting in a crash (at
least on my system). Most of the code was written during a time when
I had no idea what I was doing.
gwFTP also doesn't handle error conditions well. It can do anything from
ignoring them gracefully to hanging.
gwFTP doesn't handle file globbing. I have no desire to write that code.
gwFTP does do what it promises: uploads and download files by passive mode
FTP as binary or text. It operates like the ftp program that you find on
Windows, Mac, and UNIX systems. But unlike those, it doesn't handle stdin
and stdout to be used within a script (again, that was because I didn't
know what I was doing when I wrote it).
Much of the code within gwFTP needs to be scrapped and rewritten (let's
just say that it was a coincidence that earlier released versions actually
worked for anybody).
At some point, I'll probably put a copy up on to Syndicomm for download,
but it would require a lot more work that just ftping a copy of itself.
Geoff
(GEOFF, Cat 20, Top 13, Msg 63)
[EOA]
[EOP]
ENHANCEMENT TO Orca/Pascal
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
I've coded up an enhancement to Orca/Pascal others might be interested in.
It's a patch to allow forward declaration of objects, eg:
Type
forwardObject = object; (* forward declaration *)
myObject = object
count: integer;
procedure init;
function createForwardObject: forwardObject;
end;
forwardObject = object (myObject)
procedure init; override;
procedure doThis;
procedure doThat;
end;
This is the same syntax as delphi/turbo pascal for forward definitions
(they use class instead of object, but they're otherwise equivalent).
The code changes are available here:
http://www.syndicomm.com/~kws/pascal/
Kelvin
(KWS, Cat 22, Top 6, Msg 15)
>>>>>
"""""
Kelvin,
I'm going to try that, once I actually get back in coding shape.
Ryan
(A2.RYAN, Cat 22, Top 6, Msg 16)
>>>>>
"""""
One of these days I'm going to have time to roll together these patches
into something I can deliver somehow. Not sure how yet. :)
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
Building communities, bit by bit.
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 22, Top 6, Msg 17)
[EOA]
[EBD]
8-BIT DRIVER FOR THE LANceGS ETHERNET CARD
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
So, Some initial 8-bit work on the LANceGS card is being done.
It would be kind of neat if there were some kind of text based AIM chat
client for my IIe:)
One can dream.....
Dain
(A2.DAIN, Cat 27, Top 2, Msg 67)
>>>>>
"""""
A telnet client and a FTP client would do it for me :)
Ryan
(A2.RYAN, Cat 27, Top 2, Msg 68)
>>>>>
"""""
Yeah... I'd sure like to see some software. I've got a request in to
Joachim for a copy of the driver. I'm curious to see just how much stuff
the developer will have to do to actually make it usable. I'm betting
lots.
Joachim says the driver's been done for "ages" and is surprised nobody
asked for a copy before. I pointed out that it helps to tell people. :)
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
Building communities, bit by bit.
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 27, Top 2, Msg 69)
>>>>>
"""""
I was wondering if anybody has seen the Prodos8 drivers for the lanceGS and
if they could be adapted to be used in the Apple port of Contiki.
(TECHNERD, Cat 27, Top 2, Msg 70)
>>>>>
"""""
I've signed up to get them, but haven't yet.
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
Building communities, bit by bit.
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 27, Top 2, Msg 71)
[EOA]
[BMW]
BACKING UP Bank Street Music Writer
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
ImageMaker:
I have a particular 140K disk called Bank Street Music Writer. There's an
investment of hundreds of effort-hours of music I've composed using it.
I've never been able to successfully back it up. Can Imagemaker make raw
images of copy-protected 140k disks? How should I solve this problem?
(GPH_II, Cat 29, Top 5, Msg 19)
>>>>>
"""""
No, ImageMaker really isn't good for doing 140K images, although I plan to
add that capability in the future.
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
Building communities, bit by bit.
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 29, Top 5, Msg 20)
>>>>>
"""""
BSMW uses a proprietary OS and cannot be copied, even by Nibble copiers.
It must be cracked. I'm working on this as time avails. It will end up
being an entirely NEW program, runnable from ProDOS but necessitating a
reboot when finished (because the crack involves overwriting all of lower
64k, incl. P8). It will still save to its proprietary format, so I'll need
140k disks. It would be nice to get it reclassified as Public Domain so
everyone could have a copy.
Then, it would be even nicer to add a "GS" option, whereby all of its songs
could play on either Mockingboard or GS. Then, add a "wave maker" (similar
to its existing "voice editor") to make a simple 256-byte looped-wave for
each of the six voices in GS mode. You'd be amazed at the complexity that
can be achieved with simple looping waves instead of huge one-shot samples.
SynthLab is a prime example.
It is probably the best music program I've used, and a great teaching tool
as well.
(GPH_II, Cat 29, Top 5, Msg 21)
[EOA]
[AWE]
AppleWin EMULATOR
"""""""""""""""""
AppleWin 1.12.3 is quite nice.
http://www.tomcharlesworth.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/
Full source code is available. I fixed the Mockingboard tone and volume
emulation (noise, envelope, and speech support are still not there).
Ultima III, IV, and V music now sounds almost EXACTLY like it does on the
Apple IIe, without the nasally SoundBlaster tone. This is a first on a
Windows-based emulator. Sent the code to the (new) author, Tom
Charlesworth. Hopefully, he'll incorporate it into the next release.
Greg
(GPH_II, Cat 29, Top 14, Msg 1)
>>>>>
"""""
Are there screen captures of the Color TV emulation mode anywhere to be
found?
Geoff
(GEOFF, Cat 29, Top 14, Msg 2)
>>>>>
"""""
I can send you one, but it would be simpler to just try it (unless you
don't have access to a PC). It does seem to work as advertised, as you see
solid yellows and grays on standard HiRes displays. You can turn it off,
too, for the old color-monitor look.
(GPH_II, Cat 29, Top 14, Msg 3)
[EOA]
[ACK]
ANOTHER CHALLENGE USING KEGS
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Thanks for the link!
I now have KEGS running under FreeBSD 4.9-STABLE. The POOF1 HD I created
won't let me install, though, GSOS says it's write-protected, but Unix says
its chmod777 all the way. Are there any prebuilt (empty) ProDOS formatted
2MG harddrive files available? Or maybe I missed something... I did see
some mention of write-protected volumes in another thread in another
category, but I didn't find the original posts or replies.
Tim Kellers
(KELLERS, Cat 29, Top 31, Msg 18)
>>>>>
"""""
The A2Romulan CD has a bootable 32-meg system 6 image on it.
I've used it with kegs and it works great.
Kelvin
(KWS, Cat 29, Top 31, Msg 19)
>>>>>
"""""
>> The POOF1 HD I created won't let me install, though, GSOS says it's
write protected, but Unix says its chmod 777 all the way. <<
Don't run KEGS as root. I've never had to_pro produce a bad disk image.
Geoff
(GEOFF, Cat 29, Top 31, Msg 20)
>>>>>
"""""
UNIX shell commands to turn on and off write protection with KEGS disk
images is easy.
Write protection on: chmod u-w <image-filename>
Write protection off: chmod u+w <image-filename>
Geoff
(GEOFF, Cat 29, Top 31, Msg 21)
>>>>>
"""""
>> Unix says its chmod 777 all the way <<
It's pretty hard to get more "write-enabled" than that!
I don't suppose it's something silly like the permissions of one (or more)
of the directories in the path?
Peter peterw@syndicomm.com
Palm OS Community Bulletin Board Manager
(PETERW, Cat 29, Top 31, Msg 22)
[EOA]
[KSW]
KEGS for UNIX With Solaris 9 Workstation
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
I built a new Solaris 9 workstation (Yay, finally get to use GNOME!).
I copied my Solaris 7 binaries over and they worked fine (there is no
native Solaris sound support with KEGS, but everything else was ok). KEGS
was running around 28 MHz on a 750 MHz native host. I noticed that KEGS
(and the system) would be intermittently sluggish so I decided to increase
the RAM to 256k. The sluggishness went away and KEGS screamed along at
38 MHz. I think I was more surprised to see how much a little RAM would
help with performance.
Geoff
(GEOFF, Cat 29, Top 31, Msg 23)
>>>>>
"""""
It turns out that there is some code available to have sound available in
KEGS from Solaris. See
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=kegs+solaris+sound&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm=Pine.GSO.4.31.0104031022360.1252-100000%40sockmonkey.thoughtwave.net&rnum=2
Of course, I found that posting after I wrote similar code to do the same
thing. A little modification to the provided code would also allow SunOS
and *BSD systems to have sound as well.
Geoff
(GEOFF, Cat 29, Top 31, Msg 24)
>>>>>
"""""
Well, rolling your own code is more fun anyway. ;)
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
Building communities, bit by bit.
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 29, Top 31, Msg 25 )
[EOA]
[AGS]
ActiveGS UPDATED TO v2.0
""""""""""""""""""""""""
As posted on the a2central home page, ActiveGS has been updated to version
2.0. The new feature which I like in this version is the ability to show
how fast the emulated megahertz that the GS is running at.
To my surprise, I found that the ActiveGS 2.0 runs around 25% faster than
KEGS 0.85. Running Platinum Paint, ActiveGS clocked in at 51 MHz which
KEGS on the same machine ran at 41 MHz. This test was run on a 850 MHz
Pentium III PC.
I couldn't believe that ActiveGS was that more efficient than KEGS.
I didn't spend too much time to determine all the difference between the
two GS emulators, but I did notice that ActiveGS doesn't emulate border
effects exactly the same way as KEGS. When ActiveGS runs the Split Demo as
part of the Christmas Demo, an area in the lower border does not get drawn.
KEGS reproduces the GS screen with accuracy.
Are there any other obvious differences between KEGS and ActiveGS which
explains the speed difference? Or is ActiveX just more efficient than
applications (I Would have thought that ActiveX would be less efficient
than applications).
Geoff
(GEOFF, Cat 29, Top 41, Msg 18)
[EOA]
[DCI]
DEVELOPER CONTACT INFORMATION
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Greg Hedger
1248 Cork Elm Dr.
St. Louis, MO 63122
hedger@sbcglobal.net
http://pages.sbcglobal.net/hedger
Developed Adventure Alive, Artillery King, and working on AA2.
(GPH_II, Cat 50, Top 1, Msg 5)
[EOA]
[OTW]
Juiced.GS V9I1 ON THE WAY
"""""""""""""""""""""""""
Juiced.GS V9I1 mailed to US subscribers today. It should arrive over the
next week or so.
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com
Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com
Building communities, bit by bit.
(SYNDICOMM, Cat 23, Top 2, Msg 527)
[EOA]
[ITL]------------------------
ILLUMINATING THE LAMP |
-----------------------------
An overview of GEnieLamp A2 and The Lamp!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By Steven Weyhrich
A WHOLE NEW WORLD
Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) was a prolific writer of non-fiction and
science fiction during the 20th century. One of his most popular fiction
series told stories of a galactic empire in the far distant future, one
whose duration spanned many thousands of years. In a three-book set
published in the early 1950's, "Foundation", "Foundation And Empire", and
"Second Foundation", Asimov told of a time in which this empire was in
decline, heading to an unstoppable regression into barbarism. A
mathematician named Hari Seldon had devised the science of "psychohistory",
a complex set of equations that helped him make this prediction of decline
and fall. His equations furthermore forecast that it would take thirty
THOUSAND years until things improved and a new galactic empire rose again.
However, Seldon also found that by manipulating events in just a small
fashion here or there it was possible to alter this impending disaster,
much as making a slight adjustment in steering a car on a highway could
minimize or avoid an accident. If he could arrange the right conditions, he
found that it would be possible for the interregnum between the first and
second galactic empires to be reduced to a mere ONE thousand years. He
planned for a small group of scientists to be placed on a resource-poor
world at the edge of the galaxy, isolated from most of the rest of the
events happening at the central galactic capital world. As this center of
power for millions of worlds deteriorated and fell to nothing, his
Foundation would grow and flourish, the predetermined events pushing them
along to the desired future.
What I enjoyed about these stories was seeing how events would
progress for the small group of people Seldon had placed on Terminus, the
planet at the edge of the galaxy. Problems would arise, they would find
their choices of action constricted to the point where only one possible
path lay ahead of them, and that path pushed them along to the next step on
the road back to that new galactic empire. And after the crisis would pass,
a holographic recording of Seldon himself, made before the Foundation was
established, would appear in the Time Vault he had placed on Terminus. His
recording would tell them about the events that had just happened, events
which he had already predicted many years earlier. It was satisfying seeing
how events didn't just "happen", but happened in a way that Seldon already
had known and anticipated.
Although I do not have the use of Seldon's psychohistorical equations
to predict a FUTURE Apple II historical path, I do have the benefit of
reading the events of the PAST through the eyes of those who wrote about
and recorded them in each issue of GEnieLamp A2 and The Lamp! And my
reading tells me that there was just something about this year 2000 that
seemed to be a turning point. It was a transition from the state of being
moved here or there by powers over which we had no control (Apple Computer,
GEnie/Genie, America Online, CompuServe, or even Delphi) to a state of
taking control and determining the future ourselves. As with any event, it
took the actions of leaders who had a vision, but also the cooperation of
many others to make the vision a reality. And the reality was of a place
where the creative minds that still guarded the legacy of the Apple II
could meet and share ideas to keep the platform alive and functioning.
But I am getting ahead of myself. As the new century opened on January
1, 2000, and the world was relieved to learn that all civilization had not
come crashing down in flames due to the Y2K bug, the Apple II had continued
to chug merrily along. It was not directly affected by the calendar change
any more than it had been during the prior twenty-three years. Those who
used AppleWorks for their word processing, ProTERM for telecommunications,
or Print Shop for greeting cards and posters barely noticed the new
millennium, at least as far as their computers were concerned.
ROCKIN' PNEUMONIA AND THE BOOGIE WOOGIE FLU
World events that shaped the year 2000 included the crash of the
Concorde jet near Paris in July, killing 113 passengers. Yugoslavian
president Slobodon Milosevic was ousted from power by a national uprising.
Terrorists attacked the U.S. naval destroyer Cole while it was in Yemen.
The stock market, after the boom of the 1990's, began to turn around and
start a decline. The U.S. presidential election results were delayed for
weeks, awaiting recounts done by hand in Dade County, Florida. Eventually
George W. Bush was declared the winner, amid much controversy. America
Online, riding high on the Internet boom, bought media giant Time-Warner
for $165 billion, creating AOL Time-Warner.
In the computer world, Bill Gates turned over his title of CEO to
Microsoft president Steve Ballmer. Microsoft Windows 2000, a blend of their
network and personal versions of the operating system, was released in
February. Bill Clinton made the first-ever webcast of a presidential
speech. The first 1 GHz AMD and Intel Pentium processors began to appear on
the market. "Denial of service" attacks on major web sites begin to be a
problem.
Apple Computer's iCEO (interim CEO) Steve Jobs announces at the
MacWorld Expo in January that he was taking on the job of CEO on a
permanent basis. The "Pismo" PowerBook made its debut in 400 and 500 MHz
versions, and was the first PowerBook to be released without a SCSI port.
The Power Mac G4 Cube was released mid-year, and new dual processor Power
Macintosh G4 desktop units became available. The iMac colors were changed
to ruby, indigo, sage and snow, at similar 400 to 500 MHz processor speeds.
The long-promised next generation operating system, Mac OS X, appeared in
September in the form of a public beta.
THE LAMP! INFO
The year started with a new editor, Lyle Syverson, as mentioned in
this article last time. Syverson was an Apple II veteran of over twelve
years. He got his start with the Apple II through his position as a
chemistry lab tech at Rock Valley College in the city of Rockford in north
central Illinois. When he started there in 1987, one of his
responsibilities was to manage an inventory of over seven hundred
chemicals. This was done on an Apple IIe running AppleWorks 1.2. He liked
using the program so well that he eventually purchased a Laser 128 for his
own use at home.
To supplement his knowledge of his new computer, Syverson started
reading Apple II magazines. Their enthusiastic reports of the wonders of
the online world prompted him to invest further in a 2400-baud modem, which
he bought by mail order in 1993. It came "complete with cable and
software", but refused to work properly for him. He decided to purchase
Talk Is Cheap (TIC) by mail order, and was finally able to connect to a
local bulletin board system. That was enough to hook him, and after one
evening online, he sent in his shareware fee for TIC. He then tackled GEnie
and learned of the significantly improved 4.0 version of TIC that was soon
to be released. The author allowed him to apply the shareware fee to the
updated version.
GEnie was a fun experience for Syverson, further increasing his
knowledge of the Apple II. He found it great to be able to post a question,
then log back in an hour later and already find two or three answers. He
found it somewhat of a challenge to keep up with the volume of traffic on
the A2 Roundtable, and used to keep a pile of 5.25-inch disks on hand to
use in saving the TIC message buffer when it got full.
At the time of the release of System 6.0.1 on GEnie, he was able to
upgrade to an Apple IIGS. With some effort, he downloaded the six disks (at
2400 baud, 75 minutes per disk image) one at a time to a RAM disk, which he
then unpacked to a 3.5-inch disk.
With the 1996 transition of GEnie to Genie, and its significant price
increases, Syverson escaped to CompuServe's APPUSER forum, and was able to
stay there until early 1999 when its text access was terminated. He then
made the move to Delphi A2, where many Apple II faithful were migrating as
the shakeouts in the online world continued.
Though he had not previously had any experience with newsletters,
Syverson had been a regular reader of GEnieLamp A2 and The Lamp! He had
noticed Ryan Suenaga's request for an editor to take his place, and with
his impending retirement in the summer of 1999, he wrote and asked to be
considered for the job. Ryan accepted his offer, and with the January 2000
issue, the newsletter was Syverson's.
He started his first issue with the same editorial column title
"Opening Pitch" that Suenaga had used during his run as editor. By the
second issue, however, Syverson settled on a more personal title. At the
time, he was living in the Skyrise Apartments in Rockford, which was
located on the west bank of the Rock River that ran through town. This
inspired him to make his own editorial title, "High Above The Rock River".
The new Lamp masthead read as:
________________________________________________________________________
| |
|::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::|
|The Lamp! An Onipa'a Software Production Vol. 3, No. 1|
|::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::|
|Publisher................................Ryan M. Suenaga, M.S.W., L.S.W.|
|Editor.....................................................Lyle Syverson|
|Internet Email, Publisher.........................thelamp@sheppyware.net|
|Internet Mail, Editor.................................lyle837@delphi.com|
|::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::|
|________________________________________________________________________|
By the end of the year, the only change of note in the masthead was
Syverson's address change to "lyle@FoxValley.net", apparently to reduce
dependence on Delphi for his e-mail.
Starting as new editor of The Lamp!, Syverson took the opportunity to
make some modifications to the format. Whereas Suenaga's layout had been a
close copy of the classic GEnieLamp A2 format, renaming the columns, but
otherwise using them the same way, Syverson made some further adjustments
to suit his own style. Instead of "A Funny Thing Happened", where the
messages from Delphi were reprinted, he chose to call this section first
"The Innings" (staying with the baseball motif), and then in his second
issue "A2 Distillations". Another change was a more frequent use of the
three-letter index symbols. Where previous editors used these only for a
specific article, and had only a single index code for ALL of the reprinted
forum messages, Syverson made these codes more specific by assigning a
different one to each individual topic, even in the A2 Distillations
section. The advantage of this was the ability to specifically find an
article by its index code (when in the future an index might finally be
made).
In August it was announced that The Lamp! back issues now had an
additional home on a subdomain of the Sheppyware.net server.
DELPHI A2 FORUM
Joe Kohn continued his weekly Monday Night Chat events, sadly reduced
in size from the multi-system events of past years.
Delphi, the last of the old-style online services to still offer
text-based access was making changes that it was hoping would help it
survive in the Internet tidal wave that had swept away other services. In
the new digital world where web access was THE way to do things online,
Delphi had successfully been adding access to its forums via a web-based
interface, attempting to modify itself to appeal to both the old and new
online computer user. The management was trying various ways to maintain
income, but was apparently finding it to be a struggle. They had a "Premium
Plan", but it was no longer available beginning in May. Technical glitches
were also becoming more of a problem, with the service being unable to
consistently keep the text and web sides of the forums reliably in sync
with each other.
Finally, there was a good news/bad news announcement by Delphi
management in August. The good news was that as of November 1, 2000 Delphi
services would no longer be billed. The bad news was that after that date
their "legacy services" (which included text-based access) would continue
but would not be supported. For those who connected to Delphi by telnet,
this meant that any day after the end of October the access to this latest
A2 home could be threatened.
GENIE INFO
After January 1, 2000 arrived, the old text-based Genie was completely
gone, and the "new" Genie was running. This new service was completely
web-based. It still offered some dial-in options (though not to the extent
that it had in the past), and that now at speeds up to 56K. According to a
usenet post on alt.online-service.genie by Andy Finkenstadt (who had been
with GEnie from the beginning), there were many problems with the new
service. Any e-mail from the old system was completely gone; the content
had been ported "imperfectly and haphazardly" to www.genie.com, and even
then did not completely function there. Users who DID go to the web site
did not see any announcement of the end of the old service, and found that
some of the links (such as the one for e-mail) did not even work.
Several people found themselves continuing to receive bills on their
bank statements for Genie Online, even though they were not using (and
could not use) the new service. One person who posted his story on the
above-mentioned usenet newsgroup tried calling the customer service number.
He was told that an e-mail had been sent in April 1998 (!!) and on December
27, 1999 telling about the changes in the service, and offered to get him a
username and password for the new service. He had previously tried to send
them e-mail at the end of December asking about the changes; the customer
service representative told him that they would have to look for it before
any of the new charges on his account could be refunded. Days passed
without any contact from Genie about his question, and when he finally WAS
able to talk to them again, he was told that since his e-mail did not
specifically ask for cancellation of his account he would not be issued a
refund. Although he finally DID cancel his membership, he was unable to get
a refund on the charges that had been already been collected.
A2CENTRAL.COM / SYNDICOMM
Syndicomm had originally been founded by Tom Weishaar to manage the
Apple II Roundtables on GEnie. Around 1992, when it began to branch out to
some of the non-Apple II online areas (the Macintosh and PowerPC
Roundtables), Weishaar sold the operation to Dean Esmay and Gary Utter. At
its height, Syndicomm was responsible for the management of ten to twelve
forums each on GEnie and Delphi, two on America Online, and had contracts
to administrate online helpdesk services. Over the years, of course, the
AOL and GEnie connection faltered and failed, and during 2000 Delphi was
looking shaky as well. By this time, Esmay had not been active in the
business for a while, and Utter was having health problems that limited his
involvement. He was looking for an opportunity to get out of direct
operation of Syndicomm.
Delphi, which had been hailed as a safe haven from the long, slow
death spiral of Genie, was itself showing disturbing signs of instability
(as mentioned above). Its long-term plan was apparently to change from a
service that itself hosted specific, moderated forums to one that was more
member-based, where ANYBODY could start a forum if they wished. More
importantly, the end of support for text-based access on November 1, 2000
had the potential to be a big problem for those Apple II users who still
needed text access.
In June of 2000, Eric Shepherd had started his own Apple II-related
web site, www.A2Central.com. He had picked the name because of some other
sites that he had seen on the Internet, such as MacCentral.com and
BeOSCentral.com. It occurred to him that an A2Central.com web site was
needed, and registered the domain as soon as he thought of it. It was not
until later, when he was beta-testing the site that a comment came from
someone on Delphi that it might be confused with the newsletter
"A2-Central" started years earlier by Tom Weishaar. Regardless, Sheppy
liked the name and decided to keep it.
When Sheppy first started the A2Central.com web site, its purpose was
to be a collection of articles, reviews, press releases, suggestions and
tidbits of use to Apple II users. Within a month of the launch of the site,
he was envisioning a broader role for it, including the addition of a
message board, chat room, and an area for files accessible via FTP. While
at KansasFest in July, Sheppy discussed the A2Central.com expansion in
private with Gary Utter and Dave Miller. Utter enthusiastically supported
his plans, and went so far as to ask Sheppy to take over Syndicomm. At that
time, however, he declined the offer.
After the event was over, and Sheppy was back home in California, he
and Ryan Suenaga discussed Gary Utter's offer. As they considered the
possibilities, he decided that it made sense to accept it. However, he
realized that in order to make it work as a business it would be necessary
to widen his vision beyond the Apple II. Out of this came the concept of
hosting a variety of forums dedicated to several different computer
platforms or topics -- in actuality, creating an online service that
emulated the best of GEnie and Delphi at their prime. Making this work as a
business would require a good business name; "Syndicomm" worked well, and
had favorable recognition within the Apple II community. Additionally, it
provided the benefits of an experienced and dedicated volunteer staff.
Sheppy contacted Utter and Esmay and began to negotiate the purchase of
Syndicomm. The deal was completed on November 1, 2000.
Sheppy chose a DSL connection to the Internet for A2Central.com and
Syndicomm.com, as it was less expensive than a T1 type of connection, and
could have its bandwidth adjusted as the customer base changed. When he
first started the A2Central.com web site in June, it ran on a BeBox Dual/66
computer, using the BeOS R3 operating system, on his own personal DSL
connection. Within two weeks, the traffic had increased to the point where
the hardware had to be upgraded to handle the load, so he changed to a
refurbished Pentium 133, this time using Red Hat Linux 6.2 as its operating
system. Another older PC functioned as a firewall. With further growth of
the system and his Syndicomm expansion plans beginning to take shape, he
moved the system to its own dedicated DSL connection by the fall of 2000.
The design of the A2Central.com web site had been done entirely by
Sheppy. In order to make an online service that would act like GEnie or
Delphi a different approach was required . Dave Miller, using the Perl
language and MySQL databases, designed a front end for the multi-forum
Syndicomm.com site that would allow web access to forums, but would also
have text-based telnet access to satisfy most Apple II users needs. In the
first part of October, he designed chat rooms that worked like GEnie's
"Real Time Conference" rooms. During the rest of October and into November,
Miller worked on creating the bulletin boards (forums).
All of this was happening behind the scenes. A press release in
December finally announced the sale of Syndicomm to Sheppy, and further
stated that Dean Esmay and Gary Utter planned to continue to be involved in
the operations of the company under its new ownership. By December 8, 2000,
the Syndicomm.com service was ready for an open beta test, which ran
through the end of the month. The open-beta launch of the service was
accompanied by "door prizes" for those who first entered some of the Real
Time Conference rooms. After the start of the new year, membership would be
priced at $15 per month, which included 10 megabytes of personal disk space
on the Syndicomm server.
A2Central.com continued to exist as the web-face of Syndicomm A2.
During September, the cost of improvements to the web site was supplemented
by income from an eBay auction of a never-used RamWorks III card. Sheppy
also got the site officially licensed by Apple for distribution of Apple II
system software, and was also authorized to make the software available in
archive formats useful to Apple II users (not just the Macintosh Disk Copy
format as it would be found on the Apple Computer FTP site). By November,
the web site was offering Apple II system and starter kit disks, and had an
online store that worked through the Kagi ordering system. Items sold
initially were ComputerEyes GS video capture cards (still available today
in 2004!), and the A2-Central Font Collection.
As Syndicomm.com started operations, A2Central.com continued to exist
as what it was originally designed to be -- a web site with articles,
reviews, etc., while the real interactive experience was on the Syndicomm
forums.
HARDWARE NEWS
Most of the hardware news that appeared in The Lamp! during 2000
involved re-education of new users about old hardware.
o February saw discussion of available RGB monitors that could be used as
replacements for the Apple IIGS monitors if they went bad.
o March posts reviewed RamFAST cards and ways to get them updated. Various
large-capacity floppy disk alternatives (floptical and magneto-optical
drives) were also discussed, as was the Laser 128 and its various models.
The care of cables for the ZipGSX was presented in the March issue. Also
fielded were questions about the PC Transporter.
o April saw Tony Ward explaining distinctions between and uses of the Apple
II Super Serial Card and the Turbo ASB baud rate generator. Mitchell
Spector described modifications that could be made to the Apple IIc.
o In May, the hot topic of discussion was how to create a "SuperGS"
computer, with the pros and cons debated back and forth.
o June reviewed the Apple IIGS battery and its replacement.
o August discussions involved the use of hard drives on an Apple II Plus,
and available models of CD-ROM drives for the Apple IIGS. In addition, the
No Slot Clock resurfaced as a topic (as it had previously in The Lamp! in
1998).
o During September, Ryan Suenaga wrote an article that described the Apple
IIc modem cable, and how to build one. The Forum discussed faster CD-ROM
drives.
o October's big news was the release of more information about a new piece
of hardware. An Ethernet card for the Apple IIe and IIGS was released by
///SHH Systeme, the creators of the BlueDisk and TurboIDE cards. This
Ethernet card, called "LANceGS", made it possible to connect an Apple IIe
or IIGS to an Ethernet network. Full file-sharing in GS/OS was not possible
with the card as was possible with an AppleTalk connection, since the
operating system had not been designed to support it. However, file
transfer could be done via FTP with terminal software, and connection to
the Internet was possible using Marinetti.
o November's messages highlighted various models of sound cards for the
Apple IIGS.
o And in December, Ryan Suenaga wrote a followup to his September article
about modem cables. This time the topic featured the Apple IIe with a Super
Serial Card.
EMULATOR NEWS
Sheppy updated the Sweet16 Apple IIGS emulator to v1.3, then quickly
to 1.3.1 and 1.3.2. Version 1.5 was released in May, and 1.5.1 by
September.
F.E. Systems updated their Macintosh-based IIGS emulator Bernie ][ The
Rescue to v2.6. This version added "CataDog", a Finder-like disk-cataloging
feature that made it easier to browse ProDOS disks outside of the emulated
computer. This was soon followed by a 2.5.9 version, as it had been
discovered that v2.6 was not compatible with some older versions of the Mac
operating system (those prior to Mac OS 8.5). At KansasFest 2000 an upgrade
to v3.0 of Bernie ][ The Rescue was announced.
SOFTWARE NEWS
:: COLLECTIONS ::
A common announcement to appear during 2000 was that of yet another
collection on CD-ROM of Apple II software of one type or another. Ryan
Suenaga announced at KansasFest a collection called "Time In A Bottle", a
two-disc CD collection of Syndicomm's A2 and A2Pro libraries from the
now-defunct Genie. Juiced.GS got into the act with a CD-ROM called "The
Compleat Lamp!", which contained all issues of GEnieLamp A2, GEnieLamp
A2Pro and The Lamp! in every format in which they had ever been released.
Joe Kohn announced a two-CD-ROM collection from France, "DeluxeWare" and
"Le CD-ROM", both from Brutal Deluxe.
Mike Westerfield inquired as to whether or not there was sufficient
interest in a CD-ROM containing all of The Byte Works products. Having
received a positive response, he decided to move forward with the project.
By December, "Opus ][" was ready to ship, containing every Apple II program
ever released by The Byte Works, including sixteen never-released
applications. The Lamp! that month included two long articles by
Westerfield describing the collection.
:: PRODUCTIVITY SOFTWARE ::
Gareth Jones put together an FAQ (which is still available) about
WordPerfect IIe and IIGS at
http://www.intergate.ca/personal/gslj/wp.faq.html.
Howard Katz as Lost Classics Project coordinator was busy during 2000.
He was able to announce the release of Will Nelken's Marin MacroWorks
products, as well as TimeOut Graph and other TimeOut products and the
BeagleWrite word processor. Uploaded in June was Beagle Graphics, and in
August extra graphic patterns for Beagle Graphics, and Diversified
Accountant Job Cost System. ZBASIC, an 8-bit BASIC compiler for the Apple
II, was also made available through this project.
Geoff Weiss released another Spectrum script called SCAP ("Spectrum
Create A PDF"), which converted AppleWorks Classic, Teach, Text, or Source
files into PDF format files.
:: TELECOMMUNICATIONS SOFTWARE ::
Crock 'O Gold was updated to v3.3. Don Elton released the source code
for Talk Is Cheap on his FTP server; it was also posted on the Delphi A2
library.
Kim Howe contributed a short article about Arachnid, his Apple IIGS
web browser, and had his first preview release up in May. By August,
Preview 2 was available for download.
Spectrum was updated to v2.2, then to v2.3, and by November was up to
v2.4 and was being sold through Shareware Solutions II. Ewen Wannop also
introduced SAM (Spectrum Automated Mailer) in April. Requiring at least
v2.3 of Spectrum and v2.0 of Marinetti, it was an e-mail message management
program for the IIGS, using Internet protocols. Shareware Solutions II was
chosen as the publisher of the program.
Richard Bennett announced that Marinetti was changing to open source
status as of August 2000, and further development by any interested parties
was welcomed.
:: UTILITY SOFTWARE ::
The Lost Classics Project was also busy in this category. Diversi-DOS
by Bill Basham and ProntoDOS by Tom Weishaar was released into freeware
status, thanks to the efforts of Gareth Jones and Howard Katz. Also
released were Beagle Compiler and Program Writer, as well as System.II from
Kitchen Sink Software.
Sheppy released ImageMaker 1.2, a bug fix revision, and then in
September released v2.0.
For those wishing to WRITE utility software routines, the tricks to
reading multiple keys down on the Apple IIGS were explained by Sheppy in
March. In August, one topic of discussion was the use of a Macintosh server
and booting an Apple IIGS from that Mac. A related recurring theme was file
transfer between Apple II and some other foreign computer. Accomplishing
this between a IIGS and an IBM PC was discussed in March.
:: GAMES ::
Jeff Fink worked feverishly on his adventure game Silvern Castle
during 2000. He first updated it to version 3.0, with an Expanded Scenario,
and then to v4.0 and v4.1 by May. In August, v5.0 of the game was
available, and some hints were posted as well. Along with some feature
improvements, this new update included a new expert-level scenario "Time
Master" for registered owners. A revision to v5.1 and v5.2 followed soon
after, as did the announcement that Fink had decided to change the status
of the game to freeware, as he had received only a measly NINE shareware
registrations since he had released the game in July 1999. He hoped that
making it a freeware product would increase the penetration of the game,
and therefore the interest in it. Not willing yet to rest on his laurels,
he released v6.0 by November. The changes in this revision were primarily a
recoding to operate under MicroDot, which allowed the program to be more
compact and to fit more game into the same amount of space. By December he
announced yet another update, this time to v7.0.
Other game-related events included:
o Kim Howe released his first Apple IIGS game, Shipwrecked, which operated
under HyperCard IIGS.
o Joe Kohn arranged for the re-release of Ultima I IIGS.
o NinjaForce updated their web site, and made a version of Defender Of The
World in "2MG" format for use with emulators.
o Tom Zuchowski released a CD filled with Eamon text adventure scenarios,
suitable for use with an emulator or an Apple II with access to a CD-ROM
drive.
o At KansasFest, Sheppy released Lemonade Stand GS, an updated version of
the classic Applesoft game.
o An update of GShisen to v1.2.1 was uploaded in September.
o Ancient Art Of War At Sea, DuelTris and Xenocide were again made
available through the Lost Classics Project.
INTERNET NEWS / NETWORKING
June discussions included ways to use a PC running Linux to act as a
server for an Apple IIGS, allowing an indirect connection to the Internet
via a DSL or cable modem. (The web site referenced, www.linuxrouter.org, is
still available, but no further development is being done with it).
PUBLICATIONS
Juiced.GS continued its run, concluding its fourth year and starting
its fifth. Each issue was described in a post on the Delphi forum that
outlined its table of contents.
KANSASFEST
Dubbed "Y][KFest", this 2000 edition of KFest was again held in late
July at Avila College in Kansas City, Kansas. As early as January, a
registration form for the event appeared in each issue of The Lamp!, up
until the month before the event. Ryan Suenaga's "Y][KFest Compliant" KFest
FAQ appeared in the March issue.
KFest this year featured a keynote address by Ryan Suenaga, and a
roast of Eric Shepherd. Those events and the regular sessions were
available for the first time via web-cam. Sessions this year included
"AppleWorks GS and MusicWriter" by Stan Marks; "ProTERM Mac Tips & Tricks"
and "ProTERM Scripting" by Jerry Cline and Dave Miller; "Desktop
Publishing" by Max Jones; "Lost Classics Update" by Howard Katz; and
"Linux: The Apple II Cable Modem Adapter" by Ryan Suenaga and Kirk
Mitchell.
The one HackFest entry mentioned in The Lamp! (and not until November)
was from Ken Gagne. His program, Maxster, was a hoax made to look like a
Napster client for the Apple IIGS. It would APPEAR to search for,
download, and play the first few seconds of MP3 audio files. It was
uploaded in its 0.79 version during November.
Editor Lyle Syverson had an opportunity to attend the event this year,
and he gave his comments on his first KansasFest in an article in the
August issue.
REVIEWS
Ryan Suenaga reviewed the book "APPLEDESIGN: The Work Of The Apple
Industrial Design Group" in the February issue. Lyle Syverson reviewed the
Time In A Bottle CD set in September, and Mike Thomas did his own review of
it in November.
WRITERS
Ryan Suenaga again wrote "The Lamp Salutes" in January, presenting the
Apple II Achievement Awards. Best Commercial Product was awarded to GSoft
BASIC 1.2, with runner-up given to Spectrum Internet Suite 1.1. Best
Shareware Product was awarded to Silvern Castle and ImageMaker. Best
Freeware Product was given to the reclassified Modem MGR telecommunications
program. Best World Wide Web Site was awarded to the Apple II Information
Resource by Tony Diaz, and to David Kerwood's A2-Web. The Best Publication
award went to Juiced.GS, with honorable mention to Shareware Solutions II.
Outstanding Apple II-Related Development went to Bernie ][ The Rescue and
Sweet16. Outstanding Individual Achievement went to Howard Katz.
Suenaga also appeared again in August with "The Publisher Strikes
Back", an article that announced the outcome of his project of several
months of work, that being the production of the Time In A Bottle CD set.
He also announced "A2 News And Notes", a short newsletter that he would
write on a monthly basis to give headline-style updates of events in the
Apple II world.
Although it was not a major article, posts by Mark Percival (current
host of the A2 "Midweek Madness" chat on Wednesday evenings) began to
appear as quotes in The Lamp! during 2000. He joined in a spirited
discussion on the preservation of Apple II software.
MISCELLANEOUS FEATURES
Editor Syverson wrote an article about his thoughts on a dream
computer, an Apple II that would allow multitasking.
A joint teleconference was held between the Aurora Area Apple Core of
Aurora, Illinois, and the AppleByters of the Quad Cities of Illinois and
Iowa, over one hundred miles apart.
In August, it was announced that Glen Bredon had passed away. He was
the prolific author of ProSel, the Merlin (and Big Mac) assembler, and
numerous other utilities for the Apple II and IIGS over the years. As
mentioned in the previous article in this series, the web site Bredon had
put up posting pictures taken with his digital camera is still working (see
the February 2004 "Illuminating The Lamp" article for details).
STATS
Here are statistics for the first nine years of GEnieLamp and The
Lamp! The numbers refer to the size of each issue in "K" (kilobytes):
Year Min Max Avg
---- ---- ---- ----
1992 116K 212K 156K
1993 80K 256K 172K
1994 124K 216K 165K
1995 92K 176K 125K
1996 80K 192K 116K
1997 44K 124K 85K
1998 68K 156K 102K
1999 59K 120K 91K
2000 47K 81K 60K
YOU MAKE ME FEEL BRAND NEW
The Apple II world continued to contract during this year. However,
despite the undeniable fact that the World Wide Web ruled the Internet at
large, through Windows, Mac and Linux computers, there was still a ray of
hope. This was thanks to the efforts of the busy people who spearheaded the
effort to create a real home for the Apple II, one that was not dependent
on those who barely knew what an Apple II was. The new year was bright in
many ways, and continued to look better every day. Come back next month as
we move closer to convergence with the present, and review the events of
2001.
Steven Weyhrich
a2history@syndicomm.com
http://apple2history.org
References:
Computer History For The Year 2000
http://www.computerhope.com/history/2000.htm
The History Of Computing Foundation
http://www.thocp.net
Information Please: 2000
http://infoplease.lycos.com/year/2000.html
Macintosh History: 2000
http://www.lowendmac.com/history/2000.shtml
[EOA]
[ANS]-------------------------------
ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM SYNDICOMM |
------------------------------------
by Lyle Syverson <lyle@foxvalley.net>
[TSU]
TO SIGN UP FOR SYNDICOMM ONLINE
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Please visit our web site at http://www.syndicomm.com for information or to
sign up!
(Logon message)
[EOA]
[LTE]-------------------------------
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR |
------------------------------------
Enjoying the Monthly Column, "Illuminating The Lamp"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
The mail box for Letters to the Editor remained empty this month.
[EOA]
AN INVITATION
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Express your opinions about the comings and goings in the world of the
Apple II computers.
Send your comments to Lyle Syverson, Editor <lyle@FoxValley.net>
The Editor reserves the right to edit any material submitted.
The Editor reserves the right to reject any material he considers
unsuitable for publication in _The Lamp!_.
[EOA]
[KFF]------------------------------
KFest 2004 |
-----------------------------------
[KF4]
KansasFest 2004
"""""""""""""""
KansasFest 2004 is planned for July 20-25, 2004 at Avila University in
Kansas City, Missouri.
(Heading: Cat 5, Top 22)
[EOA]
[KFR]
REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN FOR KFest 2004
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Visit the KFest Home Page at: http://www.kfest.org/
and follow the registration link.
[EOA]
[INN]------------------------------
EXTRA INNINGS |
-----------------------------------
About The Lamp! The Lamp! is published on the fifteenth of every month on
""""""""""""""" the WEB at: http://lamp.a2central.com/
This publication produced entirely with real or emulated Apple II computers
using Appleworks 5.1 and Hermes. Apple II Forever!
* The Lamp! is (c) copyright 2004 by Ryan M. Suenaga, M.S.W. All
rights reserved.
* To reach The Lamp! on Internet email send mail to
thelamp@sheppyware.net
* All issues of The Lamp! are available at The Lamp! Home Page,
http://lamp.a2central.com/
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors, and do not
necessarily represent the opinions of A2Central.com, Delphi Online
Services, Syndicomm, Ryan M. Suenaga, or Lyle Syverson. Forum messages are
reprinted verbatim and are included in this publication with permission
from the individual authors. A2Central.com, Delphi Online Services,
Syndicomm, Ryan M. Suenaga, and Lyle Syverson do not guarantee the accuracy
or suitability of any information included herein. We reserve the right to
edit all letters and copy.
Material published in this edition may not be reprinted without the
expressed written consent of the publisher. Registered computer user
groups, not for profit publications , and other interested parties may
write the publisher to apply for permission to reprint any or all material.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
[EOF]