[HEA] _____________________ ___ _ |___ ______________| | | | | | | _ | | | | | || | | | | | | || | | | | | | || | | | ____ _ _ _ _ ______ | | | || | | | / __ \ | | / \_/ \ | ___ \ | | | || |__ ____ | | / / \ | | /\ /\ \ | | \ \ | | | || _ \ | _ \ | | \ \__/ | | | |_|| | | |__/ / | | | || | | || |_|| | | \___/|_| |_| |_| | ____/ |_| | || | | || |__ | |____________________ | | _ |__||_| |_|\____/ |________________________| | | |_| | | Lighting Your Apple II Path | | |_| ----------------------------------- >>> 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. 6, No. 4 :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 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 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ April 15, 2003 HIGH ABOVE THE ROCK RIVER---------------------------------------------[OPN] Anticipation... the Excitement is Building A2 FORUM AT Syndicomm Online (A2Central.com) DISTILLATIONS------------[DAS] Buy an Apple 1?--------------------------------------------------[BA1] Yellow Folders - White Folders-----------------------------------[YWF] The Versatile SpreadSheet----------------------------------------[TVS] SAFE v1.3 Now Available------------------------------------------[SNA] Apple II User Rolodex on the Web---------------------------------[AUR] Spammer Spammed--------------------------------------------------[SPM] Apple II Image Viewing Program for the Mac-----------------------[AVP] Silvern Castle v7.5 Changes--------------------------------------[SCC] The Emulator KEGS For Windows------------------------------------[KFW] ILLUMINATING THE LAMP-------------------------------------------------[ITL] An overview of GEnieLamp A2 and The Lamp! Endings and Beginnings ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM SYNDICOMM------------------------------------------[ANS] The April Issue of Syndicommotion Now Available------------------[ASA] To Sign up for Syndicomm Online----------------------------------[TSU] THE TINKERER'S CORNER-------------------------------------------------[TTC] Build Your Own Computer Cart You are Invited LETTERS TO THE EDITOR-------------------------------------------------[LTE] No Letters to the Editor This Month An Invitation KFEST 2003------------------------------------------------------------[KFT] KFest 2003 - Plan to be There!-----------------------------------[PBT] KFest Registration Form------------------------------------------[KRF] It's Here! KansasFest 2003!-------------------------------------[KFH] No 2-Bag Limit This Year :)--------------------------------------[TBL] KFest Road Trip--------------------------------------------------[KRT] KFest Roastee Announced------------------------------------------[KRA] Transportation, Airport to KFest---------------------------------[AKF] Money Saving Offer for KFest Attendees Announced-----------------[MSO] New Unofficial 802.11B Antenna Contest Announced-----------------[ACA] New Unofficial 802.11B Antenna Contest Rules---------------------[ACR] Getting Excited About Another KFest------------------------------[GEA] Two Great Prizes Added to KFest 2003's Stash---------------------[TGP] Online Conference Scheduled to Discuss KFest 2003----------------[OCS] The KFest FAQ Version 4.0----------------------------------------[KFQ] For More Information Visit The KFest Home Page-------------------[VKF] 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 Anticipation... the Excitement is Building ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ High Above The Rock River, in the 14th floor Community Room, the grapevine was reporting that Elvis had been seen in the hallway... Ya, Sure... Uh, Huh... The rumor persisted... reinforced by multiple sightings by several people. Then rumors were replaced by facts. The Elvis look-alike was simply visiting one of the residents of the building... his mother. And he purposely made an effort to look like Elvis... called himself an "Elvis Celebrator". Furthermore (for a fee) he would come to a location of your choosing and present a "Program by Elvis". Then it was announced... Elvis was coming to the Community Room High Above The Rock River next month. Anticipation was in the air. The excitement grew day by day. The evening was a huge success. For two hours we were taken back in time by an Elvis fan who lived his passion for remembering Elvis. Anticipation is in the air for KFest 2003. The excitement is building. Is this the year you are finally coming to KFest? Is this the year you are finally coming to KFest again? See the KFest section in this issue to sample the growing excitement over KFest and for registration information. That is July 22-27, 2003... mark your calender... send in your registration. [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 [BA1] BUY AN Apple 1? """"""""""""""" A gentleman is intending to build and sell replica Apple 1 machines: http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,56426.html (KGAGNE, Cat 2, Top 15, Msg 29) [EOA] [YWF] YELLOW FOLDERS - WHITE FOLDERS """""""""""""""""""""""""""""" I use System 6.0.1 most of the time but every now and again I need to boot into System 5.0.4. This is no problem except if I view files from Finder, System 5.0.4 turns the color of my folders white. How do I easily reset all my folders back to their original yellow without going to each folder individually and manually change the color? Mark Percival - Syndicomm.com Apple II RTC Host "Midweek Madness!" every Wednesday night. 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM PDT (MARK, Cat 7, Top 13, Msg 1) >>>>> """"" You could try, in Finder 5.0.4, under settings, turning off "save folder information". The option is called something like that, but that's not it exactly. It's responsible for creating lots of little finder.data files in all your folders. I think that's where the color information is stored as well. Also, Richard Bennett-Forrest wrote a finder extra called 'scarabadie' (sp) which deletes all the finder.data files from your disks for you. Kelvin (KWS, Cat 7, Top 13, Msg 2) [EOA] [TVS] THE VERSATILE SPREADSHEET """"""""""""""""""""""""" If you used the Spreadsheet module for everything--writing documents, storing lists of data, etc. then you can use the Spreadsheet functions to perform "macro-like" functions. You may laugh at that thought, but when I interned at the local power company while I was in college, the staff in some departments was encouraged to the use Lotus 1.2.3. (DOS version) to write documents. The reasoning consisted of: less confusing for the staff to know multiple applications, all of the text/data files are loadable from one common program, and enforcing a standard. I had to write a number of reports with Lotus 1.2.3 and got pretty good with it as a word processor. On the other hand, If you wanted dynamic results based on a user input, the Spreadsheet module would be the appropriate tool for the job. I don't remember how feature-rich the AppleWorks GS commands/functions are since I have only used Excel and StarOffice/OpenOffice in the last 3+ years. Geoff (GEOFF, Cat 9, Top 37, Msg 7) >>>>> """"" In the early 1980s my mother used The Spreadsheet (DOS 3.3) for making worksheets. It was much easier to do multicolumn layouts. I occasionally use AppleWorks classic spreadsheet the same way for the same reason. Of course, it is really handy for setting up surveys, where you can design the form and then tally the results (and do whatever else you want) on the computer without doing the form over again. Margaret (MARGARET, Cat 9, Top 37, Msg 8) [EOA] [SNA] SAFE v1.3 NOW AVAILABLE """"""""""""""""""""""" I have now fixed all the bugs that I know of with SAFE. Many have been found through my experiences trying to get Greg Nelson running with SAFE. Unfortunately Greg has severe problems with his setup somewhere along the line, such that a 30K file will take over 55 minutes to download. I have pointed him in many directions to look for solutions to this, but so far he has not found the problem, and we have just been going round in circles for weeks. He may have to wait till he gets to KFest for someone to take him through his system and sort it all out. Meanwhile, SAFE 1.3 has been uploaded to my web site. The bugs fixed were minor, and were partially related to the different settings made from within Spectrum and SAFE itself. Hopefully you will find no problems with it, but as before, please let me know of anything as soon as you can. My email address can be found in the docs. Ewen Wannop - Speccie - Tue 18 Mar 2003 - 126 days till KFest '03 Delivered without using a IIgs by Spectrum v2.5.3 & SOAR 1.0b11 Setup: Bernie ][ the Rescue 3.0 and a dual G4/800Mhz GeForce3 http://www.ewannop.btinternet.co.uk/ (CONDUCTOR, Cat 10, Top 60, Msg 56) [EOA] [AUR] Apple II USER ROLODEX ON THE WEB """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" There's a rather extensive Apple II user home page rolodex on the A2-Web at http://www.wbwip.com/a2web/a2hmpgs.html If you have a home page, why not check that site to see if you're listed and updated? -Ken (KGAGNE, Cat 11, Top 12, Msg 24) [EOA] [SPM] SPAMMER SPAMMED """"""""""""""" A judge ruled in favor of an antispammer who got a spammer spammed: http://news.com.com/2100-1029-996002.html?part=dtx&tag=ntop (KGAGNE, Cat 11, Top 26, Msg 71) [EOA] [AVP] Apple II IMAGE VIEWING PROGRAM FOR THE MAC """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Lazarus Long has updated his Apple II image viewing program for the Mac, a2pix, to v3.0b12: http://www.versiontracker.com/moreinfo.fcgi?id=11141&db=mac http://www.lazilong.com/apple_II/a2pix/ (KGAGNE, Cat 12, Top 1, Msg 14) [EOA] [SCC] SILVERN CASTLE v7.5 CHANGES """"""""""""""""""""""""""" Well, Jeff you know me. I'd like more scenarios. That would give me a reason to fire it back up. Sure a great playing interface. Wow I loved it. Bruce (BBAKER, Cat 14, Top 7, Msg 117) >>>>> """"" More scenarios may be in the future, only if I could find the time... However, I have been tweaking the playing interface so some things are much faster than before. I'll have a list shortly. One thing I'm toying with is allowing one to keep ALL spells when changing class. So a mage changing to a cleric could also cast all the cleric spells known at that point (with current level restrictions), but could only add mage spells while a mage. Changing to a fighter, or other non-natural caster with previous spells would also retain spells. You would just be unable to cast or add any spells until your reached the level needed, as before. For fighters that would be level 30, so multiclass fighter/mage would probably not be a good goal, although you would retain your spells so if change back to a mage or any other class. What do you think about this? -Jeff Fink (FINKSTERJ, Cat 14, Top 7, Msg 118) >>>>> """"" Well, as someone who learned the hard way big time about losing spells, I think it is better the old way. To me it's understandable. But hey at first I thought it would work the way you are planning to change it to. So obviously at first I thought your new way seemed more "natural". You get that I don't know what I'm talking about? Thought so. Bruce (BBAKER, Cat 14, Top 7, Msg 119) >>>>> """"" Now you have a choice. By default now you keep the spells. If you don't want to lug around the spellbook after changing class, you can discard it while in camp. -Jeff (FINKSTERJ, Cat 14, Top 7, Msg 120) >>>>> """"" Upcoming Silvern Castle v7.5: Major Changes: o Changing class keeps ALL spells; multi-class spell-casting possible o Text mode 2D maze plotting coded in machine-language, twice as fast as before, and now text mode outline boxes shown o Inn healing routine tweaked, much faster than before o Post combat loot item routine tweaked, now much faster o Combat order sorting much faster o Fighters can now cast mage spells at level 25 (adjusted for intelligence) o Read spells command displays level @ which you can begin casting o Fixed bug in v7.4 that caused some high level spells to be cast be monsters on lower levels. -Jeff (FINKSTERJ, Cat 14, Top 7, Msg 121) >>>>> """"" >> o Text mode 2D maze plotting coded in machine-language, twice as fast as before, and now text mode outline boxes shown << Ooooh :) Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com Building communities, bit by bit. (SYNDICOMM, Cat 14, Top 7, Msg 122) >>>>> """"" If a fighter reaches level 25 without being 18 intelligence, well I just don't know how. Bruce (BBAKER, Cat 14, Top 7, Msg 123) >>>>> """"" Mmm. Should I re-think starting spell casting levels? Does anyone have any suggestions about this? Currently (if I remember correctly): Thief level 14 Monk level 8 Assassin level 12 Ranger level 18 BTW, a 21 intelligence starts spell casting @ level 19 for fighters. -Jeff (FINKSTERJ, Cat 14, Top 7, Msg 124) >>>>> """"" More SCv7.5 changes: o When entering combat choices you can now redo the previous character option with the new Go B)ack command (instead of which will redo all characters) o New camp command: M)inimum weapon damage allows you to determine how much damage you can inflict depending on the weapon selected, strength, and class. Mostly for FYI purposes o If you try to cast a spell or add a scroll that is too powerful, you are now informed at the level you can use it (FINKSTERJ, Cat 14, Top 7, Msg 125) >>>>> """"" That last change about when you can use scrolls is very cool. I was just muttering about fighters. It's obvious you would have to include that requirement but also as obvious that fighters will have that one done since 2 or three (or more) attributes get enhanced with each level increase. I only keep my guys fighters as such until hitpoints get high but esp. until they qualify for a more advanced role. I figure mage, priest, fighter, and thief are just beginner roles. When their attributes get high enough they move on to ranger, monk, wizard, etc. Of course mystics are very cool and SUPER to have if a guy/gal gets a chance. I never missed a chance to change one to mystic if I could. My advanced groups have none of the lessor classes. I'm drawing a blank on two remaining classes or is it three. Usually two guys have lockpicks. Assassins, that's right, they get lockpicks. They guys who take the place of priests, they case healing spells unless I have a mystic or two. I have what three advanced groups and maybe two intermediate groups. They have excellent equipment too. Bruce (BBAKER, Cat 14, Top 7, Msg 126) [EOA] [KFW] THE EMULATOR KEGS FOR WINDOWS """"""""""""""""""""""""""""" With there being various versions of KEGS for Windows. Is there one that stands out from the pack? I've tried a few versions a while back, but they all required that you hand edit a file to change disk images. This isn't something I like doing. Anything version with a UI that handles disk images? Thanks, Dain (A2.DAIN, Cat 29, Top 41, Msg 1) >>>>> """"" There are two versions of KEGS for Windows that has "KEGS" in its names. ActiveGS, the Windows ActiveX component IIgs emulator is based on KEGS--and for all practicality, can also be included in this topic. ActiveGS does not allow you to switch disk images at all--the disk image is pre-defined on the Web page as links. Essentially, you just click on a link and you boot up another disk. This operation is similar to a floppy-based system. KEGS32 is the only version of KEGS that is designed like a Windows application. It has a GUI interface to perform operations such as add/change/remove disk images and set emulator speed. KEGS32 is based on the 0.60 KEGS codebase. KEGS32's GUI allows up to 2 disk images for slots 5,6 and 7. 5.25" DOS-ordered disk images are used in slot 6. 800k ProDOS-ordered disk images are used in slot 5. Virtually any size ProDOS-ordered disk image (up to 4 gigs) can be used in slot 7. KEGS internally can handle up to 32 disk images for slot 7, but KEGS32 does not provide that functionality from the GUI. To use more than 2 disk images in slot 7, you have to edit the kegs_conf like any other version of KEGS. But using the KEGS32 GUI will remove any slot 7 disk images beyond the first two. If I use KEGS32, I always edit the kegs_conf file by hand since I have many hard disk images in use. KEGSwin is the most recent entry as a Windows port. This is the version that is maintained by Kent Dickey himself. It uses the newest KEGS codebase (0.71), but lacks some functionality found in the equivalent UNIX versions (and KEGS32). It has no GUI interface to speak of (just like the UNIX versions), but fortunately, it works like the UNIX version so if one has been using KEGS for years, there is no learning curve. One has to edit the kegs_conf file to change disk images. Geoff (GEOFF, Cat 29, Top 41, Msg 2) >>>>> """"" KEGS is the most sophisticated and most compatible IIgs emulator under the Windows environment, There are several different versions of KEGS--each with their own development paths and features. Links to each version follows: KEGSwin http://kegs.sourceforge.net/ This is arguably the official version of KEGS since it is maintained by Kent Dickey himself. As of April 4, 2003, the released version is 0.71. KEGS32 http://www.geocities.com/akilgard/kegs32/ This is the first port to Windows and the most user friendly. As of April 4, 2003. the released version is 0.60R3 and based on the KEGS 0.60 code. ActiveGS http://www.freetoolsassociation.com/ This is not advertised as a KEGS port, but is based on KEGS. As of April 4, 2003, the released version incorporates code from KEGS 0.64. Geoff (GEOFF, Cat 29, Top 41, Msg 3) >>>>> """"" >> KEGSwin is the most recent entry as a Windows port... lacks some functionality... One has to edit the kegs_conf file to change disk images.<< Or use my DiskChanger utility, which you can find in the emulation section of the A2Central site or on my page here at http://www.syndicomm.com/~tcompter :) _________ | homas (TCOMPTER, Cat 29, Top 41, Msg 5) >>>>> """"" The GUI interface for DiskChanger has the same limitation as Kegs32 where only the first two devices in slot 7 are accessible. But it is one step up since DiskChanger also has a text interface to access the rest of the devices for slot 7. Geoff (GEOFF, Cat 29, Top 41, Msg 6) [EOA] [ITL]------------------------ ILLUMINATING THE LAMP | ----------------------------- An overview of GEnieLamp A2 and The Lamp! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ By Steven Weyhrich ENDINGS AND BEGINNINGS Welcome back to this review of the greatest digital publication series of all time, GEnieLamp A2 and The Lamp! In the previous segment, you were introduced to the origins of the GEnieLamp concept and the early days of digital publishing, on through the first year of existence of the Apple II version. Apple IIGS users were reveling in the glow of the release of System 6, and the platform was doing its best to thrive; but Apple's involvement with its original platform continued to be minimal, and some worried about the suspicious absence of the long-promised Apple II Ethernet Card. In January 1993, Bill Clinton was soon to be inaugurated as president, having defeated George Bush in the 1992 election. Reggie Jackson was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. David Letterman announced his decision to move from NBC to CBS. In the computer industry, Intel was working feverishly on its successor to the 486, the first version of the Pentium. IBM was having its difficulties with the decade-long struggle against clones, demonstrated by their announcement of the largest year-end loss of any U.S. company in history, $4.6 billion. The latest and greatest of these clones was powered by an Intel 486, it ran at a blazing speed of 25 MHz, used 4 meg of RAM, and stored its data on a 200 meg hard drive. At Apple, their attention was focused on its impending announcement of no less than SIX models of the Macintosh, the Color Classic, LC III, Centris 610 and 650, Quadra 800, and the PowerBook 165c. And in December 1992, they had just dropped a not-unexpected bombshell on the Apple II community. For a review of a year full of endings and beginnings, let's move into 1993, as seen through the eyes of GEnieLamp A2. DO YOU BELIEVE IN MAGIC? As 1993 began, the GEnieLamp format remained much the same as before, with John Peters as Editor-in-Chief, and Darrel Raines as Editor for the Apple II edition. John's editorials continued to give people a taste of what was happening on GEnie in general. He encouraged people to upload GEnieLamp anywhere they wanted, discussed changes in staff at GEnieLamp IBM. In April, Peters started the DigiPub Roundtable for digital publishing topics, and left the GEnieLamp RT specifically for downloading of the various GEnieLamp publications, available at the lower "GEnie*Basic" rates. Peters publicized his concept of "Disktop Publishing", referring to non-printed, digital publications such as GEnieLamp. To further promote digital publishing, Peters announced in July that the Digital Publishing Association was holding the second annual Digital Quill Awards competition, specifically for publications that were created only in a machine-readable format. In the May issue Peters announced that GEnieLamp was changing to a twice-a-month publication schedule, and there were indeed two issues released that month (9305a and 9305b). However, he and his various editors found it to be simply too difficult to keep up with a biweekly schedule; so they returned to the previous monthly schedule, and the next issue of the GEnieLamp magazines did not appear until July 1993. Peters also announced that T/TalkNET, his company, had been commissioned to do final formatting for an online version of GEnie's LiveWire magazine (the print version was mailed out periodically to GEnie subscribers to promote its various services). One change that Peters brought about early in the year was the creation of GEnieLamp A2Pro. The A2Pro coverage had increased the size of GEnieLamp A2 to over 200K, and he felt splitting them apart would be helpful to keep it to a more manageable size, and still provide the content. This edition began in February. The GEnieLamp ASCII art section continued with the appointment of Mike White as the official CowTOONs artist. APPLE II CONTENT IN 1993 The credits on the masthead of the January 1993 issue of GEnieLamp A2 looked like this: ________________________________________________________________________ | | |\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\////////////////////////////////////| | GEnieLamp A2 ~ A T/TalkNET OnLine Publication ~ Vol.2, Issue 11 | | """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" | | Publisher.................................GEnie Information Services | | Editor-In-Chief........................................John Peters | | Editor.............................................Darrel Raines | | | | ~ GEnieLamp IBM ~ GEnieLamp [PR]/TX2 ~ GEnieLamp ST ~ GEnieLamp A2 ~ | | ~ GEnieLamp MacPRO ~ GEnieLamp A2Pro ~ GEnieLamp Macintosh ~ | | ~ Member Of The Disktop Publishing Association ~ | |////////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\| |________________________________________________________________________| There was little change until July 1993, when Darrel Raines completed his last issue as editor of the A2 edition. Consequently, John Peters and Dean Esmay, Chief Sysop of A2/A2Pro, began looking for a suitable person to take over as editor. Doug Cuff, who had been absent from GEnie for a time, had returned specifically because he had enjoyed reading the GEnieLamp A2 newsletter downloaded from a local BBS where it had been posted. He heard of the available position as editor, applied for it, and as Peters felt that he was the best-qualified applicant, he was given the position. Doug's first appearance was in August 1993, and he continued for forty-one issues before he finally retired from the position in December 1996. The GEnieLamp A2 masthead now changed to look like this: _________________________________________________________________________ | | |\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\////////////////////////////////////| | GEnieLamp Apple II ~ A T/TalkNET OnLine Publication ~ Vol.2, Issue 17 | | """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" | | Publisher...............................................John F. Peters | | Editor..................................................Douglas Cuff | | Copy-Editor...........................................Bruce Maples | |\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\//////////////////////////////////// | | ~ GEnieLamp IBM ~ GEnieLamp ST ~ GEnieLamp [PR] ~ GEnieLamp TX2 ~ | | ~ GEnieLamp A2Pro ~ GEnieLamp Macintosh ~ LiveWire Online ~ | | ~ Member Of The Digital Publishing Association ~ | | GE Mail: GENIELAMP Internet: GENIELAMP@GENIE.GEIS.COM | |////////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\| |_________________________________________________________________________| Differences from the previous issues included the name being displayed as "GEnieLamp Apple II", instead of "GEnieLamp A2", as it had since the A2Pro content had been spun off into its own newsletter. This name remained at the top of the masthead to the very end of the run of the newsletter on GEnie. Also remaining standardized to the very end was the title at the top of the first page. Where it had previously read "Your GEnieLamp Apple II RoundTable RESOURCE!" it was now a more generic "Your GEnieLamp Computing RoundTable RESOURCE!" This was also the first time that Bruce Maples' name appeared in the masthead, as Copy-Editor. He continued in this position from August 1993 until July 1994, and the next time his name appeared in any GEnieLamp publication, it was as editor of the GEnieLamp Windows edition, starting in April 1995. By the September issue, Doug Cuff had taken over the "From My Desktop" column that John Peters had previously used as his soapbox, and John's notes were much more brief (mentioning only that there was now a Macintosh edition of GEnieLamp that had graphics). John had a few short notes in the October issue, and from that point onward never had any further written input into GEnieLamp A2. Prior to this, Peters had put together each issue of GEnieLamp for each platform. With the October issue, Peters now put the full responsibility for creation of GEnieLamp into the hands of the respective editors. Consequently, Cuff had his work cut out for him. ROUNDTABLE NEWS The A2 Roundtable celebrated the new year and 20,000 uploads to the library by awarding the uploader of the first file of the new year with prizes from several major Apple II hardware and software companies. Other prizes were given to other participants of the A2 RT during January and February. A2Pro was run under the leadership of Matt Deatherage (who worked at Apple but spoke for himself when online). He reorganized the roundtable to better allow for support from companies (such as The Byte Works) that chose to host categories. Also involved in maintaining technical support categories were Procyon, Inc., Morgan Davis Group, JEM Software, and Lunar Productions. A2U (Apple II University) was hosting a class on "Ultra 4 To The Max", taught by Will Nelken, and "Hacking Data Compression" by Andy McFadden. Jim Murphy, another of the A2Pro Sysops, accepted a position at Apple in the Apple II Continuing Engineering Group, beginning in January 1993. GEnie itself was often the subject of discussion in the Roundtables. In the July issue, they debated the new rate plan that GEnie had just introduced, which included a reduced rate for access at 9600 baud (previously accessible only with a surcharge). Furthermore, Genie was now also available for a $2 per hour surcharge via SprintNet, a new name for the TeleNet network. GEIS, the network on which was run, began to make it possible to contact the outside world via the Internet. Information was posted on how to send e-mail so it could get to a different network outside of GEIS. In order for this to work, it was necessary to append some additional info to the end of an address: "a2history@syndicomm.com@INET#". This flagged GEnie's software to direct the message outside of the GEIS network, to the Internet. Receiving messages required use of the GEnie username, with GEnie's domain name: "a2history@genie.geis.com". To send and receive e-mail to/from the Internet at that time had a price also, costing $0.30 per 5000 bytes! Lost Classics Project coordinator Tim Tobin was given an additional task during 1993. He was asked to handle the Font Clearinghouse, with the purpose of helping organize the many TrueType fonts that had been uploaded to the GEnie A2 libraries. With the decreasing support given by Apple Computer for its Apple II line of computers, users groups were becoming more important. The GEnie A2 Roundtable became host of an official user group, with the creation of the Worldwide Apple II User Group (WWUG) by Lunatic E'Sex. Designed during a brainstorming session at KansasFest 1993, it functioned through online meetings in the A2 Real Time Conference (chat) area, doing much of what a traditional user group would do, with the exception of the attendees being widely scattered across the country (or the world!) HARDWARE NEWS The year started with postings from December regarding the removal of the Apple IIGS from Apple's price lists, effective 12/14/92. The January issue also included an interesting summary of a meeting between John Santaro of Apple and members of the Bay Area Apple User Group about the IIGS. Of particular interest was the comment that part of the reason for the development of IIGS System 6.0 and HyperCard GS was to give Apple II users a taste of the Macintosh, hopefully to encourage them to switch platforms. The posting also made mention of the never-released "ROM 04" IIGS and the features it was to have had. Having the official announcement from Apple didn't change things very much for many people, as Apple had done little active promotion of the IIGS for several years. However, it likely contributed to the decline of some companies that produced products for the platform. CV Technologies, creator of the RamFAST SCSI card, decided to get out of the hardware business, and sold all of the rights to that card as well as their memory cards to Sequential Systems. Their RAM card product for the IIGS was renamed from "CV-Ram" to "GS-RAM Plus". Soon afterwards, Sequential expanded the usefulness of the RamFAST card by their introduction of discQuest and discQuest GS, which allowed access to many informational and educational CD-ROMs that were becoming available for the MS-DOS and Mac platforms. ECON Technologies had its own problems. They had promised that the SoundMeister Pro sound card WOULD ship, and would be available by September, 1993. This card, a successor to their existing SoundMeister product, was to have advanced capabilities and was highly anticipated. However, news leaked out that the SoundMeister Pro was NOT going to be released, and by December ECON confirmed this. The reasoning was that the number of orders for the Pro card had not been sufficient to warrant putting it into production. (In reality, it was later learned that the prototype ECON had was never sufficiently finished to allow ANYONE to produce it.) New products introduced included the Parson's Engineering Focus Hard Card, which made its first appearance in the latter half of 1993. This IDE drive on a card originally was sold as the Focus 40 (meg) for $349, a Focus 80 for $599, and a bare card without a drive for $129. (And if you think THOSE prices are high, you should read ads that show the costs of a 5, 10 or 20 meg hard drive back in the early 1980's!) ///SSH Systeme in Germany released their Turbo IDE card, bringing to IDE/ATA drives some of the same speed of hard drive access that the RamFAST had achieved for SCSI drives. The product was also compatible with older Vulcan hard drives, improving their access speed as well. Various users posted their successes in getting their desktop publishing software to work with laser printers. In addition, a certain R.SUENAGA1 made his first appearance in GEnieLamp, with comments on how Postscript printers work. (He apparently didn't have much else to say that GEnieLamp deemed newsworthy for another eighteen months, until April 1995.) SOFTWARE NEWS The biggest news of the year was the release, finally, of Apple IIGS System Software 6.0.1, which included many bug fixes and a few new features. We now know that the release had been delayed by Apple management's decision to cancel the Apple II Ethernet card; this required removal from the 6.0.1 update the installation options for it, and any other mention of the card or of software that would have supported it. Many comments were published in GEnieLamp about how to make use of the new features of 6.0.1. Randy Brandt of JEM Software was shipping Ultra 4.1 (which included Ultra Extras, originally an add-on product), the next evolution of UltraMacros 3.x for AppleWorks 3.0. But more excitement was yet to come, as JEM Software and Quality Computers made an announcement in the middle of the year of a major project. Code-named "Quadriga", this product was originally going to be called The WORKS 4.0, and was to have been a major patch program to update AppleWorks 3.0. Since Claris had not seen fit to do any update on its own, Brandt had decided to do it himself. Having worked on AppleWorks 3.0 originally for Claris, he was uniquely qualified to make changes to improve the program. When Claris saw that Brandt and Quality were making a serious effort to enhance AppleWorks, with or without their permission, they decided to license AppleWorks to Quality. This allowed the update to be officially called AppleWorks 4.0, and instead of a patch, it would be a full application. The final product shipped on November 1, 1993, and was soon followed by an update (bug fix) to 4.01. John Link, who had written many versions of SuperPatch, a utility to alter AppleWorks 3.0 to add simple features, released "lastPatch" to do the same with AppleWorks 4.01. The name also showed that he had no plans to do any further patching programs for AppleWorks. Quality Computers also generated a lot of excitement with the news that they had also licensed AppleWorks GS from Claris. Their plans were to produce an update in this long ignored application; however, from the beginning they made announcements that it would not be a trivial undertaking. They also continued work on a fax program, Q-Fax GS (it never did get finished), and did release Bill Tudor's Six Pack, a set of Finder extras. Moreover, as if they didn't have enough projects, Quality mentioned that they were looking to see if it might be possible to emulate an Apple II or IIGS using a PowerPC Macintosh. Many of the software product announcements during the year were specifically for the Apple IIGS. Roger Wagner promoted the new HyperStudio for the Macintosh, as well as promising continued support and development for the IIGS version. Softdisk announced that it was looking for programmers to help produce products and articles for Softdisk G-S. Foundation 1.0.2, a IIGS resource editor, was available from Lunar Productions. County Line Technology released GSTape v2.0, a utility to back up a hard drive to a tape drive. Procyon introduced Switch-It (a program switcher). Soon after, Seven Hills Software and BrainStorm Software released The Manager, which was promoted as being more like the Macintosh MultiFinder (that had eventually become part of that computer's system software). Seven Hills also updated their print buffer utility Express to version 2.1. Other products that appeared during 1993 were ANSITerm 2.1 and PMPUnzip 2.0 (Parkhurst Micro Products), HyperLogos GS (The Byte Works), Pedigree 2.0 (Bright Software), Financial GeniuS 2.0 (Rick Adams), Symbolix 1.8 (Bright Software), Quickie 3.1 software (Vitesse),and Addressed For Success (ECON Technologies). Roger Wagner Publishing continued support and promotion of HyperStudio with their First Annual Hyperstudio Festival in July. IIGS games released included Ant Wars from Karl Bunker (however, soon afterwards, he decided that the Apple II shareware market just was not paying any bills for him, so he decided to release all of his programs as freeware and get out of Apple II programming). Bouncin'Ferno contest entries began to arrive in Joe Kohn's mailbox. Ken Franklin was working on a new game called "Monster Lab" (unfortunately he never had time to complete it). Lawrence Productions released the Lost Tribe, an educational program. The Apple IIe and IIc were not left out in the cold, however. DOS 3.3 Launcher made it possible to run DOS 3.3 programs from ProDOS 8 on a IIe or IIc (or from the Finder on the IIGS). Tom Hoover's GEM (GEnie Master), an offline message reader that used Talk Is Cheap and AppleWorks, was released to freeware status (actually, the A2 RT took over production and maintenance of the package). An update was done to handle changes in the GEnie software about mid-year; after this release, however, there was little else about GEM that was newsworthy enough to warrant further inclusion in GEnieLamp. CoPilot, another offline reader, was also updated to handle the new GEnie changes. AppleWorks and UltraMacros were in heavy use in other applications. Magical Software announced the Magic News Group Reader, a set of AppleWorks macros to facilitate reading and responding to messages from Internet newsgroups. ProTERM 3.0 publisher InSync Software, Inc. had to have its name changed to InTrec Software, Inc. They also released ProTERM 3.1 in May. Don Elton's terminal program Talk Is Cheap was updated to version 4.0. Kitchen Sink Software released II System, a double-hires GUI environment for ProDOS 8 on the 128K Apple IIe or IIc. And at least one 8-bit game was updated: Star Trek: First Contact v2.0. Beyond product announcements, other software news appeared in GEnieLamp during 1993. Publish-It 4.0, a desktop publishing program for any Apple II, was mentioned in regards to a desire to have it updated, but unfortunately that was not possible (according to comments from another software publisher) due to the small return they were likely to get on the investment. In these pre-PayPal days, some shareware authors overseas were having problems with shareware payments from U.S. customers. Peter Watson (author of MS-DOS Utilities for the IIGS) was having problems with this, and Joe Kohn was helping him by cashing U.S. checks for him, and they sending a compatible payment. PUBLICATIONS Bad news came also this year, as not only did inCider/A+ discontinue publication, but A2-Central, a newsletter with much more than just news, changed from a paper publication to a disk-only publication. MacComputing, the Macintosh-centered magazine that inCider/A+ was supposed to turn into, disappeared after only one issue was printed. Good news came in the form of Joe Kohn's announcement of his newsletter, Shareware Solutions II, the successor to the column he had written for inCider/A+. Phil Shapiro, who also contributed a monthly article to GEnieLamp, began publication of Helium Balloons, a disk-based publication for educators. Another newsletter that was announced was The Passport House Letter, but after a single mention, GEnieLamp never had any further news about it. GS+ Magazine stated its plans to continue in production. Quality Computers continued its expansion beyond simply being a catalog and distribution center, with the announcement of II Alive magazine, which began production in March 1993. After the demise of inCider/A+, it was the only remaining glossy publication dealing with both the 8-bit and 16-bit Apple II line. The release of AppleWorks 4.0 delayed the November/December issue, due to multiple responsibilities held by editor Jerry Kindall. Resource-Central's disk publication Studio City had a change in editor, from Dean Esmay (who was leaving to work with Softdisk Publishing) to Bill Lynn. Jay Jennings left Softdisk to work at Ariel Publishing. KANSASFEST Resource Central again held the A2-Central Summer Conference (KansasFest). This 5th annual event was also the "sweet sixteen" birthday of the Apple II. Mike Westerfield, Roger Wagner, Jay Jennings, Brian Pietzak, Guy Forsythe, Jim Maricondo, Andy McFadden, Joe Kohn, Jerry Kindall, Nate Trost, Steve Gunn, Bill Heineman, and Richard Bennett were among the featured speakers. Besides the scheduled speakers, the annual roast focused on Tom Weishaar. In 1992, Bill Heineman had introduced his Avatar project to build a IIGS-compatible computer out of available off-the-shelf PC components. He presented an update on the project, which was to use ROM code to emulate a IIGS, and therefore avoid legal complications from Apple. REVIEWS Hardware products reviewed included Tulin's Floptical disk drive for the IIGS, which sold for $489 (not including the SCSI card); the SyQuest 88 removable cartridge drive; and the inexpensive LineLink 14.4K modem. Several games were reviewed: Solarian GS (arcade game), Blackjack Tutor 3.0 (card game), Shove It GS (puzzle game), Bounce It GS, Ken Franklin's Reliefware games Plunder, One Arm Battle, and Milestones 2000; and Out Of This World (a graphic animated adventure). Other packages reviewed were Prime BBS software, UnZip IIe, ShadowWrite 1.3, GIF.3200, Computer Keyboarding 5.0, and Independence and Harmonie printer drivers. INTERVIEWS An ongoing popular feature of GEnieLamp A2 was the interview column. In 1993, these Apple II personalities were interviewed: o Ellen Rosenberg, editor-in-chief of A2-Central newsletter o Mike Westerfield, The Byte Works o Kendrick Mock, author of several word and letter games for the IIGS o GEnieLamp A2 staff, including Darrel Raines, Phil Shapiro, and Mel Fowler o Guy & Cindy Forsythe and Guy Bush of Kitchen Sink Software o John Peters, publisher of GEnieLamp o Joe Kohn o Roger Wagner o Jim Royal, author of Star Trek: First Contact WRITERS Darrel Raines continued to contribute articles during the time he edited GEnieLamp. Phil Shapiro continued his "Thinking On" series, as well as handling other writing tasks for the newsletter, including interviews. He also wrote some articles for a "Beginner's Corner" column. Gary Utter had many thoughtful messages reproduced from the bulletin board, including a description of shrinkwrap licenses. InSync (now InTrec) Software's Jerry Cline explained the mysteries of the MNP feature on modems. My own Apple II History series continued, running Parts 8 through 18. Since it had already been written, this was easy. However, in order to get some discount hours from GEnie as payment for submitting articles, Doug Cuff told me that I needed to submit TWO articles per month. Therefore, I started a monthly column that continued the Beginner's Corner theme that Phil Shapiro had started. My column was subtitled "Polishing Green Apples", and dealt primarily with getting started on the Apple IIGS, explaining the picky details of selecting a model, outfitting it with the right hardware and software, and explaining how some of it worked. Mel Fowler did software reviews. Udo Huth, a roundtable member from Germany, contributed an article discussing the difficulties in accessing GEnie from other countries. Al Fasoldt, a newspaper editor and programmer in Syracuse, NY, began a column. Among other topics, he discussed the limitations of spell checking software when it comes to homonyms ("four" vs "for"). Joe Kohn wrote many RT messages that appeared in GEnieLamp; in 1993 he was discovering the Internet and was beginning to learn how to use the tools (prior to the development of the World Wide Web). His article "Connections", was, for some reason, reprinted (it had appeared earlier in the September 1992 issue of GEnieLamp A2). Joe also announced his plans to publish his Shareware Solutions II newsletter, as inCider/A+ was discontinued in June 1993. Gina Saikin wrote her first article for GEnieLamp, discussing her experiences of starting with an Apple II computer, and followed up later with an article about Real Time Conferences (chat). Cynthia Field, a writer for inCider/A+, allowed reprinting of an article that she had written in 1991, a Consumer's Guide To the Apple II. At the end of the year, Jay Curtis began a series of articles about Apple II hybrids, add-on cards that allowed one computer to function as another one (such as the PC Transporter to use MS-DOS from an Apple II). MISCELLANEOUS FEATURES Mark Quinn discussed various general computer topics, usually in a humorous vein. Monthly Search-Me puzzles continued to appear, with topics focusing on various GEnie roundtables and services. GEnieLamp ELSEWHERE appeared once, discussing how to access the Computing and NewsCenter. In July, GEnieLamp reproduced the press release from Apple that announced John Sculley's resignation as CEO of the company, and the move of Michael Spindler into that position. By later in the year, other Apple board members were looking for work elsewhere. Several comments were made regarding Apple's new migration to the PowerPC processor for its Macintosh platform. There was at first a misunderstanding about what the PowerPC chip could do, and some believed it was going to EMULATE a 68000-series processor, much as the program SoftPC emulated an MS-DOS computer, which would adversely affect the performance of the computer. Concern was also raised about Apple's promise to continue supporting the 68000-series computers as the PowerPC computers became more plentiful. It was also pointed out that the transition between the Mac and PowerPC Macs would be more like that between the Apple IIe and IIGS, rather than the differences between the Apple II and Mac. HUMOR ONLINE We were informed of "safe fax". A problem-solving flow chart was presented in the second May issue. The CowTOONS series had a swimsuit issue in March. Giving a computer a personal name was discussed. Darrel Raines introduced the "Banana PC" in an April column. Tom O'Nan submitted his true story about accidentally shooting his Rana floppy disk drive. STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS I hope you've enjoyed this stroll through the world of one decade ago. Next time we will dive directly into 1994, as seen through the eyes of GEnieLamp. Steven Weyhrich a2history@syndicomm.com http://apple2history.org [EOA] [ANS]------------------------------- ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM SYNDICOMM | ------------------------------------ by Lyle Syverson [ASA] THE APRIL ISSUE OF Syndicommotion NOW AVAILABLE """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" The April issue of Syndicommotion is now available. It was emailed to subscribers last night, and is available on the web at http://www.syndicomm.com/syndicommotion as well. We've also gotten the last few back issues of Syndicommotion put on the web site finally. Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com Building communities, bit by bit. (SYNDICOMM, Cat 5, Top 4, Msg 9) [EOA] [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] [TTC]------------------------------- THE TINKERER'S CORNER | ------------------------------------ By Lyle Syverson Build Your Own Computer Cart ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The versatility of the Apple II computers invites one to add a number of external accessories ... floppy drives, super drives, hard drives, larger capacity removable media drives, CDROM drives, modems, home brew power supplies, printers, CPU coolers, etc. This often results in unwieldy stacks of equipment on desks or tables. Then consider the unpublished law of electrical cables... Lay two cables next to each other and they will tangle themselves into a mess. Connect six or eight external accessories to your Apple II and you have a pile of cables resembling a pile of cooked spaghetti. The plan below features a compartment with adjustable shelves that is open both front and back and has casters to allow moving the cart away from the wall. This provides accessibility for working with your equipment. Place your accessories only one layer deep. Tuck the extra length of cables on the shelf where the accessory is placed. You can adjust dimensions to provide for your needs as you prefer. THE PLAN """""""" /----------------------------------------------/ / (A) /| / / | / / | / / | /----------------------------------------------/ | | / (E) | | | | |/----------------------------/| | (open) | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |(B) | (C) |(B) | |(B) | | /-------------------------| /----------| / | / | / | / | / | / (D) | / | / | / | / |/ |/--------------|/ What You Will Need """""""""""""""""" 3/4 Inch Plywood Inches '''''''''''''''' '''''' (A) 1 Top 15 x 48 (B) 3 Uprights 15 x 24 (C) 1 Back Panel, Left Compartment 24 x 30 (D) 1 Bottom Panel, Right Compartment 15 x 15 (E) 1 Keyboard Shelf, Mounted on Drawer Slides 12 x 29.5 * (F) 6 Shelves 15 x 14.5 * * Adjust dimensions to provide for hardware. Hardware '''''''' (1) 4 Adjustable Shelf Support Strips (2) 24 Clips for Adjustable Shelf Support Strips (3) 1 Pair Drawer Slides (4) 6 Casters Where to Get What You Need """""""""""""""""""""""""" Your local building supply store Notes """"" (a) Right compartment open, front and back to allow access to equipment. (b) Adjustable shelf strips on right and left panels of right compartment. (c) Keyboard shelf mounted on drawer slide hardware. (d) Mount two casters at bottom of each upright. [EOA] YOU ARE INVITED """"""""""""""" You are invited to submit your favorite Tinkerer's Project for the Apple II computers. Send your write up or idea to Lyle Syverson, Editor 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] [LTE]------------------------------- LETTERS TO THE EDITOR | ------------------------------------ NO LETTERS TO THE EDITOR THIS MONTH """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" The mail box for Letters to the Editor remained empty this month. [EOA] AN INVITATION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Express your opinions about the comings and goings in the world of the Apple II computers. Send your comments to Lyle Syverson, Editor 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] [KFT]------------------------------ KFest 2003 | ----------------------------------- [PBT] KFest 2003 - PLAN TO BE THERE! """""""""""""""""""""""""""""" KansasFest 2003 is planned for July 22-27, 2003 at Avila University in Kansas City, Missouri. (Entrance banner, Cat 5, Top 5) [EOA] [KRF] KFest REGISTRATION FORM """"""""""""""""""""""" The KFest registration form with instructions in PDF format can be downloaded here: http://lamp.a2central.com/klo/registration_forms/KFestRegForm2003g.pdf If you can not access PDF documents with your computer contact Jerry Cline at Intrec Software and request a form by mail. Contact information can be found in the article below entitled "IT'S HERE! KansasFest 2003!" [EOA] [KFH] IT'S HERE! KansasFest 2003! """""""""""""""""""""""""""" ______ _____ ( ) ( ) ____________________________________________ | | / / ( ____________________________2003____) | | / / | | | |/ / | | II Infinitum!! | / | |______ | |\ \ | _______) __________ ________ ________ | | \ \ | | ( _____) ( ___) (__ __) | | \ \ | | | |__ \ \ | | | | \ \ | | | __) \ \ | | | | \ \ | | | |_____ ___\ \ | | (______) (________) (_______) (__________) (_________) |___| IT'S HERE! KansasFest 2003! When: July 22-27, 2003 Where: Avila University, Kansas City, Missouri Summer camp for Apple Geeks! The most important Apple II event of the year, KFest 2003, is on our calendar again, and it's never too early to make sure it has a place on your calendar, too. Join us as the tradition continues at KFest XV. All the fun, all the magic, all the wild nights, none of the sleep. Participate in the great after hours activities like Floppy Disk Ninja, Apple II Jeopardy, Bite the Bag, and HackFest. Host a session and learn what the Apple II can do in the 21st century. Hang out with Apple II and Macintosh Geeks from all over the world. We have some great activities lined up, so don't miss out. Rates from 2002 remain the same, including your room starting Tuesday, July 22, 2003, and meals starting Wednesday evening (dinner) on July 23, through Sunday morning (breakfast), July 27. (Saturday evening dinner is not included--That's KFesters' Night Out On The Town!) PLEASE NOTE: There is no plain ASCII text registration form this year. A PDF registration form can be downloaded from: http://www.kfest.org/KFest2003Reg.pdf If you are unable to download or otherwise use the PDF registration form, please contact Jerry Cline at Intrec Software (contact information below) and he will be happy to send you the form by fax or postal mail. Check-in will be from 1-4 pm on Tuesday. Check-out will be from 11 am-1 pm on Sunday. Current plans call for formal KFest 2003 sessions to begin with dinner in the Avila cafeteria on Wednesday evening (time to be announced), followed by the traditional opening event, the Keynote Address. We've got some great plans again for opening night. Stay tuned!! Computer sessions will be conducted on Thursday and Friday. Software and hardware demos are scheduled for Saturday morning, with a vendor fair slated for Saturday afternoon. Reminder: Meals included in the registration price are Wednesday dinner through Sunday breakfast, with the exception of Saturday dinner. On Saturday night, attendees can dine on their own at one of the many fine restaurants near the Avila campus, or join groups of KFesters at a local favorite selected by the Roastee. All children under 18 years must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. *** KFest 2003 is again being sponsored by InTrec Software, Inc., makers of ProTERM telecommunications software for the Apple II and Macintosh. If you have questions about KFest, or wish to make suggestions, you can find answers via the Internet. Just send an email message to: kfest-help@kfest.org ... or visit the KFest World Wide Web page: If you're thinking about attending KFest, you'll enjoy the KFest Internet e-mail list: To subscribe to the KFest Information Mailing List, send email to: majordomo@kfest.org Place the following text in the BODY of the message: subscribe kfest You will receive a confirmation e-mail. To be signed up for the list, you will have to respond to this confirmation as the instructions dictate, and then you will then be able send and read messages on the mailing list. Sponsored by: InTrec Software, Inc. 3035 E Topaz Circle Phoenix, AZ 85028-4423 Voc:602/992-1345 Fax:602/992-0232 kfest@intrec.com Press contact: Ryan Suenaga - editor@juiced.gs (A2.RYAN, Cat 5, Top 5, Msg 19) [EOA] [TBL] NO 2-BAG LIMIT THIS YEAR :) """"""""""""""""""""""""""" I'm really excited about KFest this year. It's always fun, but this year we'll be driving and bringing extra stuff along. No 2-bag limit this time, baby! :) Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com Building communities, bit by bit. (SYNDICOMM, Cat 5, Top 5. Msg 20) [EOA] [KRT] KFest ROAD TRIP """"""""""""""" ROAD TRIP!!!! Kfest has been fun every time I've been there. I highly encourage anyone who hasn't been there to make this "your" year. If you've been there before come and relive the fun. It's sure to be another fun filled year. Who knows...you may even learn something. Dain Neater (A2.DAIN, Cat 5, Top 5, Msg 21) [EOA] [KRA] KFEST ROASTEE ANNOUNCED """"""""""""""""""""""" Geoff Weiss, Apple IIgs programmer best known for Spectrum Internet Suite, the first Apple II Web browser, will be this year's guest of honor at KansasFest 2003. Ryan (RSUENAGA, Cat 5, Top 5, Msg 22) [EOA] [AKF] TRANSPORTATION, AIRPORT TO KFest """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" For those flying in on commercial airlines (or taking the train) we have been very successful in supplying ground transportation from your terminal to Avila in past years, and intend to continue the tradition this year. About the first day of Summer (or Winter depending on which hemisphere you live in) we will start putting together the taxi list. Carl Knoblock - Telephone Tech - Mon 24 Mar 03 5:38:20 pm cknoblo@applelinc.org - Via Spectrum v2.5.2 & SOAR v1.0b10 KFest 2003, July 22-27, 2003 - 120 days till KFest On cable via LANceGS & Marinetti 2.0.1 - Thank you, Richard. A2 RTC Staff - Sunday Night House Party - carlk@syndicomm.com (CARLK, Cat 5, Top 5, Msg 23) [EOA] [MSO] MONEY SAVING OFFER FOR KFEST ATTENDEES ANNOUNCED """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Rich Dreher, the creator of the CompactFlash for Apple II (CFFA) Interface, is offering KansasFest 2003 attendees a 10% discount off of his creation; that's right, get a CFFA for $94.50, $10.50 off of the list price. To get your discount, you must be in attendance at KansasFest 2003. For more information on KFest 2003, see our World Wide Web site at: http://www.kfest.org/ Sponsored by: InTrec Software, Inc. 3035 E Topaz Circle Phoenix, AZ 85028-4423 Voc:602/992-1345 Fax:602/992-0232 kfest@intrec.com Press contact: Ryan Suenaga - editor@juiced.gs (A2.RYAN, Cat 5, Top 5, Msg 26) [EOA] [ACA] NEW UNOFFICIAL 802.11B ANTENNA CONTEST ANNOUNCED """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Ryan Suenaga, Editor in Chief of Juiced.GS, the premier Apple II printed publication, announced today that an unofficial KansasFest contest nicknamed "CansasFest" would be held during the event. The contest is essentially a homemade 802.11b antenna contest based upon the many designs shown on the Internet, often-times based on empty food containers, the first of which was a can of Pringles, the potato chip. Rules and prizes to follow. For more information on KFest 2003, see our World Wide Web site at: http://www.kfest.org/ Sponsored by: InTrec Software, Inc. 3035 E Topaz Circle Phoenix, AZ 85028-4423 Voc:602/992-1345 Fax:602/992-0232 kfest@intrec.com Press contact: Ryan Suenaga - editor@juiced.gs (A2.RYAN, Cat 5, Top 5, Msg 27) [EOA] [ACR] NEW UNOFFICIAL 802.11B ANTENNA CONTEST RULES """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" ______ _____ ( ) ( ) ____________________________________________ | | / / ( ____________________________2003____) | | / / | | | |/ / | | II Infinitum!! | / | |______ | |\ \ | _______) __________ ________ ________ | | \ \ | | ( _____) ( ___) (__ __) | | \ \ | | | |__ \ \ | | | | \ \ | | | __) \ \ | | | | \ \ | | | |_____ ___\ \ | | (______) (________) (_______) (__________) (_________) |___| IT'S HERE! KansasFest 2003! When: July 22-27, 2003 Where: Avila University, Kansas City, Missouri Summer camp for Apple Geeks! NEW UNOFFICIAL 802.11B ANTENNA CONTEST RULES Antenna specifications 1. Antennas can be any shape or design. 2. Antennas cannot be powered by battery or power outlet. They must be passive. The only electrical or electronic connection they can have is to the router used for testing. 3. At the time of testing, the top of all antennas must be no more than six feet off of the ground. 4. All antennas must have a readily accessible female N connector for testing purposes. Materials 1. Non-exhaustive list of materials: Food containers (such as a Pringle's can) Wire Washers Bolts N connector Can lid Nuts Aluminum foil 2. The only material used in the construction of your antenna allowed to be brought to KansasFest at the time of your arrival is one female N connector. 3. All other materials used in the construction of your antennas must be obtained while the entrant is attending KansasFest through "legal" means. Theft is disallowed; "dumpster diving" is generally permitted, but trespassing to do so is not. 4. Purchased materials exceeding the N connector cannot exceed $20 total cost; all receipts must be kept and presented at the time of judging. 5. Any non-purchased material must include written documentation as to its origins, such as, "This length of wire given to me by Kirk Mitchell in exchange for a Budweiser on Tuesday, July 23, 2003 at 9 am." Tools and supplies 1. Non-exhaustive list of tools: Soldering iron Knife Awl Drill Hacksaw Tubing cutter Screwdriver Pliers 2. Tools may not be part of the actual antenna! 3. Tools may be brought with you to KansasFest. Tools may also be purchased during the event. 4. Non-exhaustive list of supplies: Solder Tape Epoxy 5. Supplies may be brought with you to KansasFest. Supplies may also be purchased during the event. 6. Plans may be brought with you to KansasFest or made during the event. Contest procedure 1. Entrants -must- be registered KansasFest 2003 attendees. 2. Contest begins at 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 23, and judging begins after lunch on Friday, July 25. Entries must be ready for judging immediately following lunch on Friday, July 25. Late entries will not be considered. 3. Individuals or teams can enter. 4. Two judges will be selected to judge the competition. 5. All entrants will have an opportunity to position their antenna. The antennas will be judged by attaching each antenna's N connector to a wireless router. The same wireless router will be used for all entrants. A Titanium PowerBook will be placed along a pre-set path some distance away from the antenna and will be moved away until connection is lost for five seconds. At the distance connection is lost, a marker will be placed on the ground to mark that entrant's results. Other issues Any questions should be brought to the attention of the judges during the event. Disclaimer CansasFest is not an official KansasFest event. Please refer to the appropriate FCC rules on use of antennas. You are responsible for your own equipment and any damages to your or anyone else's equipment. (Ryan M. Suenaga, KFest Mailing List) [EOA] [GEA] GETTING EXCITED ABOUT ANOTHER KFest """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" I am getting excited about yet another Kfest. It looks like we have a little over a month to register for the discounted fee. It looks like yet another great year. I hope to see everyone that I have met in the years past there. Dain Keeper of the Boards. (A2.DAIN, Cat 5, Top 5, Msg 28) [EOA] [TGP] TWO GREAT PRIZES ADDED TO KFest 2003's STASH """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" ______ _____ ( ) ( ) ____________________________________________ | | / / ( ____________________________2003____) | | / / | | | |/ / | | II Infinitum!! | / | |______ | |\ \ | _______) __________ ________ ________ | | \ \ | | ( _____) ( ___) (__ __) | | \ \ | | | |__ \ \ | | | | \ \ | | | __) \ \ | | | | \ \ | | | |_____ ___\ \ | | (______) (________) (_______) (__________) (_________) |___| IT'S HERE! KansasFest 2003! When: July 22-27, 2003 Where: Avila University, Kansas City, Missouri Summer camp for Apple Geeks! SPECIAL NEWS FLASH! Two great prizes added to KFest 2003's stash-- In addition to over 20 great other prizes for KansasFest 2003 attendees, Lyle Syverson (The Lamp!) and Tony Diaz (Computer Circulation Center) have graciously donated two fantastic prizes for KFest 2003 attendees. Lyle is putting up a ZipGSx accelerator card for the Apple IIgs--these rare cards have been out of production for several years and often fetch hundreds of dollars on eBay. The winner of the ZipGSx just needs to be a KFest 2003 attendee--register, show up, and if your name is drawn, you win! Tony is offering a FocusDrive hard drive on a card for the Apple IIe or IIgs to the winner of the 2003 edition of A2 Jeopardy. Thanks to Lyle and Tony for their incredible generosity. There's two more reasons to show up in Kansas City this summer! (A2.RYAN, Cat 5, Top 5, Msg 29) [EOA] [OCS] ONLINE CONFERENCE SCHEDULED TO DISCUSS KFest 2003 """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Join us at our latest _ __ ______ _ ___ ___ ___ ____ | |/ /| ____| | | |__ \ / _ \ / _ \|___ \ | ' / | |__ ___ ___ | |_ ) || | | || | | | __) | | < | __|/ _ \/ __|| __| / / | | | || | | ||__ < | . \ | | | __/\__ \| |_ / /_ | |_| || |_| |___) | |_|\_\|_| \___||___/ \__| |____| \___/ \___/|____/ _____ _ _ / ____|| | | | | | | |__ __ _ | |_ | | | '_ \ / _` || __| | |____ | | | || (_| || |_ \_____||_| |_| \__,_| \__| Set aside a Sunday evening to join us in a pre-KFest chat night at A2Central, April 27th, at 7:00 pm PDT at m645;2! If you show up early or late, you can be sure to meet interesting folks who can't wait for KFest! (A2.KIRK, Cat 5, Top 5, Msg 30) [EOA] [KFQ] THE KFest FAQ VERSION 4.0 """"""""""""""""""""""""" The KFest FAQ--Summer Camp for Apple II Geeks ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ by Ryan M. Suenaga, M.S.W., L.S.W. [editor@juiced.gs] The KFest FAQ Version 4.0 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The following article is set up in a form commonly seen on the Internet, called Frequently Asked Questions. It is designed to answer some of the most common questions people have about KansasFest, the Apple II event of the year. It is not designed to answer general questions about the Apple II, although there may be some overlap. Any questions about this article can be sent via email to editor@juiced.gs. Q: What's a FAQ, and how is it pronounced? A: The letters "FAQ" stand for _F_requently _A_sked _Q_uestions. When people first hear of or learn of a subject, such as KansasFest, they often have a number of questions which others before them had when they also first learned of the same subject. A FAQ is a document listing both the questions and answers most frequently associated with new users, to save themselves (and others trying to assist them) time and frustration. And by the way, it's pronounced "fack", nearly identical to "fact". Q: What is the purpose of this FAQ? A: This FAQ is set up to assist people interested in KansasFest, also known as KFest. Many Apple II enthusiasts are interested in attending or just want some information about this event, so the most common questions are answered here. Q: How can this FAQ be distributed? A: The content of this FAQ is copyright 1999-2003 by Ryan M. Suenaga. Distribute freely, provided the content is unchanged. Q: What is KFest? A: KansasFest, abbreviated "KFest", is a computing conference held every summer at Avila College (now Avila University) in Kansas City, Missouri. Its original formal name was "The Apple II Summer Conference" while its nickname was "KansasFest", which was abbreviated to "KFest". Today, the conference's official name is "KansasFest". Q: When was the first KFest held? A: The first KansasFest was held in 1989. It was originally sponsored by Resource-Central, the folks who brought you the wonderful _Open-Apple_ and _A2-Central_ (among several other Apple II) publications. After Resource-Central became ICON, The Apple II Summer Conference became ICONference. This lasted one summer until ICON shut down. Two different companies sponsored KFest before Intrec Software, publishers of _ProTERM_, took over a few years back. This July will welcome the 15th KFest. Q: When is KFest this year? A: KansasFest 2003 runs from Tuesday through Sunday, July 22-27, 2003. The very popular early arrival day is now officially rolled into KansasFest proper. Meals, however, will not be served at Avila until Wednesday dinner. Q: Where is KFest held? A: KFest is held at Avila University in Kansas City, Missouri. The address and phone number are: Avila University 11901 Wornall Road Kansas City, Missouri 64145 United States of America (816) 942-8400 Q: If it's held in Missouri, why is it called KansasFest? A: I dunno. It does take place in Kansas City, and if it makes you feel better, the Kansas border is very close to Avila University. Q: Who comes to KFest? A: While KFest was originally devoted to programmers, nowadays all kinds of folk from all over the world show up at Avila University. Programmers, users, newsletter publishers, and everyday folk show up from Europe, Canada, Australia, and all over the United States to celebrate the Apple II. Q: Who organizes KFest? A: Currently, KFest is organized by a committee headed by The Grand Gouda, Steve "Godzilla" Gozdziewski, who has taken over from The Big Cheese, Cindy Adams. Cindy remains on the committee. The scheduling is done by Tony Diaz, of Alltech Electronics fame. Tony also handles the maintenance of the World Wide Web site, Devin Reade maintains the email lists, and Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd provides World Wide Web hosting services and organizes HackFest, the programming contest. KFest is sponsored by Jerry Cline of Intrec Software. Q: How do I register for KFest? How much does it cost? A: Depending on when you register, registration prices vary. If you register early, you'll get a better deal. Please check the KFest Home Page at http://www.kfest.org/ for the most current information. You can download the registration form in PDF format from http://www.kfest.org/KFest2003Reg.pdf If you cannot download the form or print a PDF file, please contact Jerry Cline at Intrec Software (contact information is elsewhere in this file) and he will send you a form by fax or postal mail. Q: How do I reach Intrec/Jerry? Jerry Cline InTrec Software, Inc. 3035 E Topaz Circle Phoenix, AZ 85028-4423 Voc:602/992-1345 Fax:602/992-0232 kfest@intrec.com Q: Which airport do I fly into and how do I get from there to Avila? A: The major airport nearly everyone flies into is Kansas City International, which goes by the code letters MCI (not KCI, which will get you to Indonesia). There's a couple of small commuter airports which are closer, but unless you're Tony Diaz (who flies his own plane), you're not likely to use these. Even though MCI is the "closest" major airport, it's still most of an hour's drive from there to Avila, so walking is out of the question and cab fare would be substantial. Your best bet would be to try and catch a ride with another KFester who'll be flying in or passing by around the same time you'll be arriving. Carl Knoblock unofficially organizes rides to and from the airport. The best way to get in on the ride planning is to join the KFest email list (information on subscribing is elsewhere in this document). Q: What kind of official activities go on at KFest? A: Officially, there is a keynote speech, sessions on various computing topics, HackFest, a celebrity roast, product demonstrations, and a vendor fair. Q: Who is this year's roastee? A: Just announced by KFest Roast MC Ken Gagne: Geoff Weiss, author of Spectrum Internet Suite and many other Apple IIgs programs, will be the guest of honor at this year's roast. Q: What if I want to host a session? A: Email sessions@apple2.org with your ideas for a session. Sessions can include new ways to use programs, new programs, networking, or just about anything you can imagine. Everyone has something they can teach. Q: What kind of unofficial activities go on at KFest? A: Unofficially, there's been movie outings, pizza nights, Bite The Bag contests, late night eating at Denny's, runs out to Krispy Kreme, Floppy Disk Ninja, Apple II Jeopardy, and huge groups of folks going to eat huge pieces of beef at K.C. Masterpiece and Jess and Jim's restaurants. And there's a new contest this year called "CansasFest", a homemade 802.11b antenna contest. Q: Has anyone attended every KFest? A: One person: Tony Diaz of Computer Circulation Center (formerly known as Alltech Electronics). Q: I hear that the Avila University dorm is wired for Ethernet. Is there a way I can access that while I'm there? A: Yes. In each dorm room in the halls of Avila are two outlets that seem to be phone jacks. These _aren't_ phone jacks. They're Ethernet ports--to be exact, they're RJ-45 connectors that are compatible with 10 Base-T Ethernet. The entire Avila dorm is connected to the Internet this way, making for high speed World Wide Web browsing, electronic mail, and ftp connections for KansasFesters during their stay! The Avila Ethernet uses a protocol called Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, or DHCP, for short. Those of you who have set up TCP/IP connections with Windows or Macintosh computers (or, for that matter, the Apple IIgs) probably have some familiarity with inserting IP addresses, DNS addresses, and Gateway addresses. The beauty of DHCP is that it sets up nearly everything you need dynamically, meaning that the server assigns these addresses--all you need to do is set up TCP/IP on your computer and choose the DHCP protocol. Regardless of which platform you use, if you have software set up to share your hard drive with other computers, you probably ought to disable it--unless you like everyone in the Avila Ethernet having access to your files. At this point, you ought to be connected. If you previously had any proxy servers set up for use with your setup before Avila, disable them. You ought to have easy access for checking mail, browsing the Web, or using file transfer protocol--and very high speeds. One last caveat: As Spam on the Internet proliferates, it has become accepted practice to close off an Internet Service Provider's mail sending server--usually using Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, or smtp--to access from anyone who is not directly connected to the ISP. In other words, no one wants to be a relaying point for Spam. Because of this, it's likely you will not be able to use the same smtp server you use at home to send mail while at Avila. There is, however, a mail.avila.edu smtp server that can be used while at Avila. That ought to keep your email flowing freely. Q: I hear that there's wireless Internet access in the Avila dorm. How do I get hooked up? A: Ah, the infamous wireless. Several KFesters have set up Apple Airport Base Stations and other equivalents. Please see one of them (Sean Fahey, Dain Neater, Eric Shepherd, and Ryan Suenaga are likely candidates) if you'd like to get on the wireless 'Net. Q: How can I learn more about KFest? A: You can get more information on KansasFest by visiting the KansasFest World Wide Web site at http://www.kfest.org/ or sending email to kfest-help@kfest.org. You could also subscribe to the KFest mailing list by sending email to majordomo@kfest.org. In the body of the email include the text: subscribe kfest You will receive a confirmation email with instructions on finalizing your subscription. Q: Should I go to KFest? A: Need you ask? KFest is a must for the serious Apple II fanatic. Do yourself a favor--you're worth it. Show up at KFest 2003, the summer camp for Apple Geeks. [EOA] [VKF] FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT THE KFest HOME PAGE """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" KFest Home Page http://www.kfest.org/ [EOA] [INN]------------------------------ EXTRA INNINGS | ----------------------------------- About The Lamp! The Lamp! is published on the fifteenth of every month on """"""""""""""" the WEB at: http://lamp.a2central.com/ This publication produced entirely with real or emulated Apple II computers using Appleworks 5.1 and Hermes. Apple II Forever! * The Lamp! is (c) copyright 2003 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]