[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. 12 :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 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 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ December 15, 2003 HIGH ABOVE THE ROCK RIVER---------------------------------------------[OPN] The Big One Fulfilling the Challenge A2 FORUM AT Syndicomm Online (A2Central.com) DISTILLATIONS------------[DAS] New Uploads to the A2 Library------------------------------------[NUL] A Better Apple IIgs Native Word Processor?-----------------------[BWP] Moving AppleWorks 5.1 Database to Mac OS X-----------------------[ADX] Deja ][ Will Print Fine to USB Printer---------------------------[DPU] New WebSite------------------------------------------------------[NWS] Check the Security of Your Online Computer-----------------------[SOC] SpamCop Changes Hands--------------------------------------------[SCH] SIS on Browser ID Page-------------------------------------------[SBI] Juiced.GS V8I4 in the Mail---------------------------------------[JIM] Juiced.GS Renewals-----------------------------------------------[JGR] Easter Egg Found on KansasFest 2003 Keynote DVD------------------[EEF] Up to 14 Megs of RAM for IIgs Under KEGS 0.84 Emulator-----------[FMR] What Does This Basic Program Do?---------------------------------[BPD] ILLUMINATING THE LAMP-------------------------------------------------[ITL] An overview of GEnieLamp A2 and The Lamp! ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM SYNDICOMM------------------------------------------[ANS] Syndicomm Online Price Slashed-----------------------------------[SPS] To Sign up for Syndicomm Online----------------------------------[TSU] Syndicomm Online Upgrades----------------------------------------[SOU] December 2003 issue of Syndicommotion Available------------------[DSA] LETTERS TO THE EDITOR-------------------------------------------------[LTE] No Letters to the Editor This Month An Invitation KFEST 2003------------------------------------------------------------[KFT] Enjoyed KFest 2003-----------------------------------------------[EKF] KFEST 2004------------------------------------------------------------[KFF] KansasFest 2004--------------------------------------------------[KF4] Watch for More Information at 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 The Big One ~~~~~~~~~~~ Looking down from High Above The Rock River, the sticky, freshly fallen snow brings back the memory of an engineering feat accomplished by some fifteen individuals ranging in age from six to fourteen. The students of that one room rural school were always watching for sticky snow. This snow, the construction material for snowmen and other structures, would remain sticky for only a short time. Recess and part of the dinner hour would provide blocks of time when this special snow could be used. (Yes, the noon meal was called dinner). The children had conspired for some time to come up with a plan to build a special snowman... " The Big One". Broom handles, sticks, and lumps of coal had been set aside for use in adding arms, eyes, nose, mouth, buttons, and other features to this special man. Then one morning the sky opened up and a thick blanket of sticky snow accumulated on the ground. Those dinners were almost swallowed whole as the students rushed to face the challenge. Teams went to work rolling balls of snow of various sizes. One team built a ramp of snow... to be used to roll the second ball of snow into place and to serve as a platform for lifting others into place. Everyone was so engrossed with the construction process that they didn't realize until they were called back to class that the play time had been extended by almost an hour... the teacher noticed that a special activity was in progress... and called them in when "The Big One" was complete! Fulfilling the Challenge ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The children had given themselves a challenge... and succeeded in fulfilling the challenge. Over the years many people challenged themselves to be creative in extending the usefulness of the Apple II computers by creating software and hardware... often for profit... often for the satisfaction of fulfilling a challenge. So use your imagination. Come up with a project to expand your experience with your Apple II's. Share with us what you have accomplished. [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 [NUL] NEW UPLOADS TO THE A2 LIBRARY """"""""""""""""""""""""""""" There is a new upload in the publications/genielamp_the.lamp directory: File: index031116.txt Size: 596726 Date: Dec 7 The LAMP INDEX file is a topical index of nearly every individual article that was posted in the digital magazines GEnieLamp A2 from April 1992 through October 1997, GEnieLamp A2Pro February 1993 through January 1996, and The Lamp! from January 1998 through the present. Uploaded by the author, Steven Weyhrich. Tony Ward, A2 Librarian (A2.TONY, Cat 2, Top 37, Msg 23) >>>>> """"" Here are some more new uploads. These are in the system_software/misc_16-bit/desk_accessories/nda directory: --- File: telnetnda.bxy Size: 21120 Date: Dec 8 This is version 1.10 of TelnetNDA. In addition to having my email address updated, it has a couple of bug fixes and a couple of new features, including the ability to select a port to connect to. --- File: yahtzeenda.bxy Size: 90880 Date: Dec 8 This is version 1.02 of YahtzeeNDA. It has a bug fix and my new email address details. --- Uploaded by the author, Kim Howe. Tony Ward, A2 Librarian (A2.TONY, Cat 2, Top 37, Msg 24) >>>>> """"" And a couple more uploads from Kim Howe. The first one is in the telecommunications/applications/16-bit directory: --- File: arachnidpr3.bxy Size: 96768 Date: Dec 8 This is the Arachnid browser with an updated read me file with my new email details. --- And this file is in the multimedia/hypercard_iigs/stacks/games directory: File: shipwrecked.bxy Size: 1404928 Date: Dec 8 Shipwrecked.SHK is a HypercardGS based graphics adventure game. It was formerly hosted on my own isp, but I think it would be better if it was here with the others. --- Tony Ward, A2 Librarian (A2.TONY, Cat 2, Top 37, Msg 25) [EOA] [BWP] A BETTER Apple IIgs NATIVE WORD PROCESSOR? """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Anyone know of an Apple II word processor that does footnotes, endnotes and table of contents? (Or any of the above.) I usually use Appleworks GS, and find it adequate for most purposes, but occasionally I like to write things that require these additional features. Does something exist, or should I add "New GS Word Processor" to my programming list? :) Kim Howe From my real IIGS via SOAR, Marinetti, LANceGS and ADSL (KIMHOWE, Cat 8, Top 22, Msg 9) >>>>> """"" Kim, For table of contents, Appleworks Classic has an inbuilt outliner mode (press OA-+). Here is a screen capture of its command list: OA-A Add son OA-T Collapse/expand topic OA-B Add brother OA-U New uncle OA-C Copy topics OA-V View expanded topic OA-D Delete topic OA-W Split window OA-F Find text OA-Z Zoom to desired level OA-G Go to previous topic OA-. Go to next topic OA-I Insert body text OA-[ Go to father OA-J Jump to full display OA-] Go to next brother OA-K Collapse outline OA-{ Shift topic left (to uncle) OA-L Label options OA-} Shift topic right (to son) OA-M Move topics OA-\ Options OA-N New line (Return) OA-` Collapse/expand body text OA-O Order (sort) topics ^-R Hide all body text OA-P Print outline ^-T Toggle MouseText OA-R Reveal all body text OA-+ Review/Add/Change mode That should work for a table of contents. I believe AW5 can also do headers and footers, but I'm unsure about footnotes and endnotes. -Ken (KGAGNE, Cat 8, Top 22, Msg 10) >>>>> """"" But feel free to add "new IIgs word processor" to the list though. :) Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com Building communities, bit by bit. (SYNDICOMM, Cat 8, Top 22, Msg 11) >>>>> """"" It has been added... :) Kim (KIMHOWE, Cat 8, Top 22, Msg 12) >>>>> """"" A better Apple IIgs native word processor would certainly be welcome, indeed. I tend to use AppleWorks 5.1 more than anything else, although the fast speed of ShadowWrite (as well as its nice search facilities) make it a very decent second choice. Ryan (A2.RYAN, Cat 8, Top 22, Msg 13) >>>>> """"" The main reason I don't do a word processor (even though it was on my list for years): I can't stand doing text processing code. :) Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com Building communities, bit by bit. (SYNDICOMM, Cat 8, Top 22, Msg 14) >>>>> """"" Probably what would be even more useful than one word processor would be an improved version of TextEdit that allowed things like multiple rulers. I don't anticipate that happening, but it would make every single TextEdit based program much more useful. Ryan (A2.RYAN, Cat 8, Top 22, Msg 15) >>>>> """"" Aside from the features I've already mentioned, what would you like to see in a new word processor for the GS? May as well start working up a spec (in the hope that my health hangs around for a while and I can get to it one day). :) Kim (KIMHOWE, Cat 8, Top 22, Msg 16) >>>>> """"" I agree that the best solution would be a rewrite of TextEdit to fully implement its features and eliminate the bugs. Things that I most would like to see in an actual word processor, beyond the obvious basics:: 1. Configurable styles. Like, style "Body" is 12-point Times plain, with 1-inch left and right margins and 0.25-inch indent, with 1.5 line spacing and 2.0 paragraph spacing. Including additive styles, like "Italicize", which adds italic to whatever the current style is. 2. Page breaks. 3. Table-of-contents and index generation. 4. Export to HTML. 5. Import of AppleWorks, AppleWorks GS, RTF, and ideally Microsoft Word. 6. Headers and footers, with page numbering. Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com Building communities, bit by bit. (SYNDICOMM, Cat 8, Top 22, Msg 17) [EOA] [ADX] MOVING AppleWorks 5.1 DATABASE TO Mac OS X """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Mac OS X's Address Book utility can import files in LDIF format. All my contact information is currently in Appleworks Classic Database format. Is there a way to move this data from my Apple II to OS X? -Ken (KGAGNE, Cat 9, Top 22, Msg 9) >>>>> """"" If your Mac has AppleWorks on it, it should be able to import an AppleWorks Classic database. Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com Building communities, bit by bit. (SYNDICOMM, Cat 9, Top 22, Msg 10) >>>>> """"" Reading up a little on the LDIF format. . . if Shep's suggestion doesn't do it, it wouldn't be all that tough to whip up an AppleWorks macro to get the data into LDIF format, probably by printing the info to a text file, then adding the appropriate headers. This would be an interesting little project, actually. Ryan (A2.RYAN, Cat 9, Top 22, Msg 11) >>>>> """"" Ryan, I agree - that would be a neat project. Where were you reading up on the LDIF project? That information would be necessary to write such a macro. -Ken (KGAGNE, Cat 9, Top 22, Msg 12) >>>>> """"" http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2849.html It looks worse than it is. It's actually relatively simple, at least for the kind of data in an address book. Ryan (A2.RYAN, Cat 9, Top 22, Msg 13) Message 13 Sat Dec 06, 2003 [Head Geek] at 21:34 PDT [EOA] [DPU] Deja ][ WILL PRINT FINE TO USB PRINTER """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" In regard to an earlier query, I can confirm that Deja ][ will print fine to a USB printer. I switched from a serial connection to my HP DeskJet 340 to a USB-enabled HP All-in-One 6110 (via PCI card on an older Mac), and the "Inkmeister" printer setup I configured Deja ][ to use with the DeskJet works. -Ken (KGAGNE, Cat 9, Top 40, Msg 4) [EOA] [NWS] NEW WEBSITE """"""""""" New as of Nov. 2003 http://iigs.dreamhost.com -Lucas (LSCHAREN, Cat 11, Top 12, Msg 27) >>>>> """"" Lucas, Nice update to your site. I think it's pretty cool that you can play Super Mario on the IIgs:) Nice work. I was thinking it would be pretty neat to have a turn based strategy game made using tiles:) The IIgs would be perfect for it. Dain (A2.DAIN, Cat 11, Top 12, Msg 28) [EOA] [SOC] CHECK THE SECURITY OF YOUR ONLINE COMPUTER """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" At the Gibson Research web site, you can run "ShieldsUP!", a free, web-based program that tests the security of your online computer. https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2 (KGAGNE, Cat 11, Top 24, Msg 1) [EOA] [SCH] SpamCop CHANGES HANDS """"""""""""""""""""" Next week, SpamCop will confirm or deny that it is being purchased by email security hardware maker IronPort Systems Inc.: http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/11/19/HNironport_1.html (KGAGNE, Cat 11, Top 26, Msg 88) >>>>> """"" One way or another, we at least currently need services like SpamCop. Ryan (A2.RYAN, Cat 11, Top 26, Msg 89) >>>>> """"" There is a press release on Ironport's web site announcing the acquisition: http://www.ironport.com/pdf/ironport_2003-11-24.pdf Geoff (GEOFF, Cat 11, Top 26, Msg 90) >>>>> """"" A message from the former owner (and still current manager) of SpamCop can also be found on the front page of http://www.spamcop.net . Seems the deal, announced Nov 21st, was actually signed in June. -Ken (KGAGNE, Cat 11, Top 26, Msg 91) [EOA] [SBI] SIS ON BROWSER ID PAGE """""""""""""""""""""" While searching for something completely unrelated, I happened to find zytrax.com's Browser ID page. To my great surprise, Spectrum Internet Suite has made the list: http://www.zytrax.com/tech/web/browser_ids.htm This is actually a pretty useful page to correlate the Browser's user agent string to the Browser that sent it. It is cool to see that SIS 1.2 gets used enough for its fingerprints to be picked up on that site and that it even got identified correctly. Geoff (GEOFF, Cat 11, Top 36, Msg 10) >>>>> """"" Cool! :) Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com Building communities, bit by bit. (SYNDICOMM, Cat 11, Top 36, Msg 11) >>>>> """"" Wow. And I haven't even started on that review for Juiced.GS yet ;-) Ryan (A2.RYAN, Cat 11, Top 36, Msg 12) [EOA] [JIM] Juiced.GS V8I4 IN THE MAIL """""""""""""""""""""""""" I've just moments ago ordered the print run of Juiced.GS V8I4. It should mail on Tuesday to US customers, and next week to international subscribers. Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com Building communities, bit by bit. (SYNDICOMM, Cat 23, Top 2, Msg 491) >>>>> """"" Juiced.GS arrived in Arizona today! Excellent issue, as always! Cindy (CINDYADAMS, Cat 23, Top 2, Msg 492) >>>>> """"" Thanks for your praise. I'm hoping that it shows up here soon. :) Ryan (A2.RYAN, Cat 23, Top 2, Msg 493) [EOA] [JGR] Juiced.GS RENEWALS """""""""""""""""" It's probably the proper time to remind everyone to get their Juiced.GS renewals in early for 2004. We're going to have a great year, and we already have a brand new writer with some great stuff for Vol 9, Issue 1. Ryan Editor-in-chief and head snowman (A2.RYAN, Cat 23, Top 2, Msg 501) [EOA] [EEF] EASTER EGG FOUND ON KansasFest 2003 Keynote DVD """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" So, am I the first person to find the Easter Egg on the DVD? Ryan (A2.RYAN, Cat 24, Top 36, Msg 1) >>>>> """"" Not unless there's a second Easter Egg. :) Of course, I did stumble on it quite by accident, and I'm not sure I could get back to it now :D _________ | homas (TCOMPTER, Cat 24, Top 36, Msg 2) >>>>> """"" Woohoo :) Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com Building communities, bit by bit. (SYNDICOMM, Cat 24, Topic 36, Msg 3) >>>>> """"" I found it by accident the second time I ran it. Didn't mention it as I figured it was common knowledge. Dave (DAVEJ, Cat 24, Top 36, Msg 4) [EOA] [FMR] UP TO 14 MEGS OF RAM FOR IIgs UNDER KEGS 0.84 EMULATOR """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" With the release of KEGS 0.84, up to 14 megs of RAM is available to use in the IIgs emulator environment. A usenet article written eleven years ago, http://groups.google.com/groups?q=iigs+mmbootinit&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF -8&selm=1992Nov3.142508.20195%40actrix.gen.nz&rnum=1 , provided the necessary information in how the IIgs determines how much RAM it has. Kudos to Dave Empson for doing the leg work which allowed the ROM patches to let KEGS provide up to 14 megs of IIgs memory. It should be noted that the 8-bit version of Appleworks was not designed to support more than 8 megs of RAM and will fail miserably if KEGS is configured with more than 8 megs of IIgs RAM. Geoff (GEOFF, Cat 29, Top 41, Msg 16) [EOA] [BPD] WHAT DOES THIS BASIC PROGRAM DO? """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Remember when trying to figure out what a program did use to be fun? The following is an old Integer Basic program. Can anybody tell me what it does? 40 REM WRITTEN BY ALOYSIS T. BURGERKING, C/O APPLE COMPUTER CONTRIBUTED SOFTWARE BANK 50 POKE PEEK (-7782),47: POKE PEEK (-4710),183:J=4312: GOSUB RND (521): PRINT : GOTO RND (1615) 60 DIM A$(126): IF J THEN DIM A$( RND (6449)) 70 A$="BHRIAAAIADBGRJWCCBADJFSFJAAAABBIUIAHAJRGAAAABARCUIAHADUJLDRCXQPZABB CBAAAJHEATKTHTOUEUHEBABAFCAAAIBAB": RETURN 80 FOR I= RND (11489) TO RND (97) STEP 2 ^ (4 ^ (Q)) 82 GOSUB RND (1891): GOSUB RND (28181): POKE PEEK (-5607),148: POKE PEEK (-7686),246: NEXT I: GOTO RND (3607): LIST 90 GOSUB RND (423): FOR I= RND (2167) TO RND (21227) STEP -12+(2 ^ 4-2): GOSUB RND (436): GOSUB RND (467) 95 POKE PEEK (-7776),64: POKE PEEK (-7101),215: NEXT I: GOSUB RND (2767): GOSUB RND (17417): END 100 RXQ=(( ASC( A$(I))-(10 ^ 2+3 ^ 4+(8-1) ^ 2-6 ^ 2-1))*100+( ASC( A$(I+7 ^ Q))-(19 ^ 2-168))*10)/(2*(5 ^ (3 ^ ((RXY243): POKE 81+RQX+QRX-256*(XRQ>127)+(XRQ-255*(XRQ>127))*256,RXQ: RETURN 1500 POKE 33,30: PRINT : LIST : RETURN Mark Percival - Apprentice Delivered by Spectrum v2.5.3 & SOAR v1.0b10 The Apple ][ Fanatic and Wednesday Night RTC Host "Midweek Madness!" from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM Pacific Time (MARK, Cat 51, Top 29, Msg 1) >>>>> """"" Here are the original docs that came with this program. Good luck! =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Even though it may seem improbable, every single line in this program is executed at least once during its RUNning, and every line is necessary to its proper operation. INSTRUCTIONS ============ Type the program into Integer Basic. Then, SAVE the program onto cassette (MP: What?!?) or Disk before RUNning, as the program will be changed substantially during RUN time. After SAVEing, type "RUN". There will be a pause for a few seconds, after which a single word will appear and the cursor will return. If this does not happen, type "NEW", reLOAD the program and check it for accuracy. A single digit off anywhere will bomb the program entirely. Once the program has properly executed, LIST it. Surprise! Now try to figure it out. A few hints: The first two statements in line 50 are the most critical to breaking the code. -7782 and -4710 are ROM addresses; they will always contain the same numbers. After you discover these numbers, PEEK the locations to which they refer more than once. Things are not always as they seem. Use of the TRACE mode during RUN time should bear out your suspicions. After RUNning the program and pondering the results, POKE 202,112 and POKE 203,18. This will restore what is left of the original program. The code for the changes in the program are stored in A$ and transferred to RXQ in line 100. Simplify the formulas will aid in understanding what is being accomplished. =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Mark (MARK, Cat 51, Top 29, Msg 3) >>>>> """"" Here is what the program does. ]CATALOG DISK VOLUME 254 A 002 HELLO T 006 MYSTERY PROGRAM TEXT I 005 MYSTERY PROGRAM ]RUN MYSTERY PROGRAM > HELLO > How does that code manage to give you this result? Mark (MARK, Cat 51, Top 29, Msg 4) >>>>> """"" Well, the program self-modifies; it basically peels data out of itself and blasts overtop of its own code to turn it into a program that does that. Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com Building communities, bit by bit. (SYNDICOMM, Cat 51, Top 29, Msg 5) [EOA] [ITL]------------------------ ILLUMINATING THE LAMP | ----------------------------- An overview of GEnieLamp A2 and The Lamp! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ By Steven Weyhrich RIGHT BACK WHERE WE STARTED FROM I have a habit of accumulating clutter. Life keeps me busy enough that a consistent picking-up and putting-away routine escapes me. But I have my limits; every so often, the clutter reaches a critical mass and I HAVE to do something about it. And even then, getting it ALL put in its own place may still be difficult. The one measure that I have found will most consistently result in a pristine clean room and living environment is to move the furniture into new locations, which FORCES me to get all the clutter put away. The result is a room that looks new, is neat, and again is comfortable. In the same vein, 1998 was a re-organization year for the Lamp publications. Yes, I KNOW that GenieLamp is DIFFERENT from The Lamp!, but in my mind the similarities outweigh the differences. And the first year of the new version for the new A2 home on Delphi reminds me of my room reorganization; it just cleaned up things that needed cleaning, rearranged the furniture a bit, and the end result was better than it had been before. In fact, if you'll look at the size statistics at the end of this article, the average size of each edition of The Lamp! during 1998 was a bit greater than the average for the final year of GenieLamp A2. Now, tune your Wayback Machines to 1998 and join me... (and if you know the source of that reference, I'll take the fifth caller and give you tickets to tonight's concert...) BABY COME BACK The year 1998 saw President Clinton finally admit to his affair with Monica Lewinsky, after nearly a year of denying that it happened. The United States House of Representatives impeached him because of perjury and obstruction of justice, but the effort did not get past the Senate. El Nino was felt to be responsible for hurricanes Mitch and Georges (which caused severe damage to the Florida coastline and to the Caribbean region), and also a severe heat wave and tornadoes. Two students, aged 13 and 14, shot and killed five people at an Arkansas school. Baseball players Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa both broke long-standing homerun records. And Viagra first appeared on the market as a treatment for male impotence. Byte Magazine ceased publication after 22 years, after having been purchased by CMP Media, which published a competing magazine. The auction web site "eBay" made its initial stock offering as a publicly traded company. The United States Justice Department began proceedings against Microsoft, alleging antitrust violations. Designed to make illegal the act of breaking copyright protection on any product, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act was signed into law. The web site "Google" started as a new search engine, using the theory that web pages with the most links from other sites were the most important and should appear first in a list of search results. Microsoft Windows 98 was finally released in June. At Apple Computer, Steve Jobs announced in January a profit of $47 million for the company, its first in several quarters. The following month, Jobs terminated technologies at Apple that were felt to be unprofitable, including the Newton and eMate line of PDAs. The CompUSA "store within a store" concept was inaugurated in March. In May the company made its first announcements of new designs for its consumer computers, and in August the first iMacs were ready for sale. These new Macs, based on the G3 PowerPC processor and designed to be Internet ready, became the second-best selling computer in the country by the end of the month. Its new translucent styling and shape was totally different from any other computer that had yet appeared, and ultimately destroyed the old "beige box" mentality of computers that had typically been sold before that time. In fact, many unrelated products rode the wave of Apple's design concept, and translucent colored plastics were popular during the next several years. The Claris Corporation was reabsorbed into Apple, leaving only the database FileMaker to fend for itself as a separate product in a separate company. To further the confusion Apple renamed ClarisWorks, the Macintosh multi-function program, as AppleWorks, completely unrelated to the Apple II version released fifteen years earlier. THE LAMP! INFO Editor Ryan Suenaga had promised a redesigned online newsletter to take the place of the late great GenieLamp A2. He had considered several possible names, including "Delphi Oracle" (which was already in use), but with the help of Tim Kellers (of the IIScribe Forum), Cindy Adams (KansasFest "Big Cheese") and Max Jones (of Juiced.GS), he finally settled on "The Lamp!" This maintained a connection to the older GenieLamp name, but had the added advantage of not linking itself specifically to Delphi. (This was ultimately a Good Thing, as events later turned out). The masthead on the new newsletter looked like this for its first issue: ________________________________________________________________________ | | | ____________________ ___ _ | | |___ ______________| | | | | | | | | _ | | | | | | | || | | | | | | | | || | | | | | | | | || | | | ____ _ _ _ _ ______ | | | | | || | | | / __ \ | | / \_/ \ | ___ \ | | | | | || |__ ____ | | / / \ | | /\ /\ \ | | \ \ | | | | | || _ \ | _ \ | | \ \__/ | | | |_|| | | |__/ / | | | | | || | | || |_|| | | \___/|_| |_| |_| | ____/ |_| | | | || | | || |__ | |____________________ | | _ | | |__||_| |_|\____/ |________________________| | | |_| | | | | | | Lighting Your Apple II Path On Delphi | | | | |_| | | | | >>> WELCOME TO THE LAMP! <<< | | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | | SIZZLING SHAREWARE: MUG! 1.01 | | WEB SLINGING 101: Delphi Forums and the Apple II | | AND THE BEST OF THE A2 AND A2PRO MESSAGE BOARDS | | | | ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: | | The Lamp! An Onipa'a Software Production Vol. 1, No. 1 | | ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: | | Publisher & Editor....................Ryan M. Suenaga, M.S.W., L.S.W. | | Internet Email.....................................thelamp@delphi.com | | ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: | | | | TABLE OF CONTENTS | | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | | January 1, 1998 | | | | | |OPENING PITCH | | Welcome Back My Friends ][ The Show That Never Ends --------- [OPN]| | | |A FUNNY THING HAPPENED [FOR]| | The Heat Is On ---------------------------------------------- [HET]| | Miscellanea [MSC]| | Rumor Mill -------------------------------------------------- [RMR]| | Public Postings [PUB]| | Best Of The Best -------------------------------------------- [BOB]| | | |SIZZLING SHAREWARE | | MSDOS Utilities Graphic Interface v1.01 by Peter Watson ----- [SIZ]| | | |WEB SLINGING 101 | | Delphi Forums and the Apple II ----------------------------- [WEB]| | | |EXTRA INNINGS | | About The Lamp! --------------------------------------------- [INN]| |________________________________________________________________________| With a musical reference to Emerson, Lake & Palmer, editor Suenaga began his first editorial for The Lamp! by giving a brief story of the path from Genie to Delphi, and ending with the statements, "Apple ][ Forever. And forever on Delphi." In creating the new newsletter, he did not take a radical departure from the format that had been established five years earlier by John Peters when he created the first series of GEnieLamp newsletters. He still had a place for information gleaned from online postings, a place for product reviews, an editorial, and extra articles as they became available. It was mostly a matter of finding new titles for the different parts. Using a baseball motif, the editorial "From My Desktop" became "Opening Pitch", the "Log Off" credits sections became "Extra Innings", and just to be different, "Hey Mister Postman" became "A Funny Thing Happened". He also made some small changes in the layout and appearance of the table of contents, but did retain the bracketed three-letter indexing system that Peters had originated (but which had not yet been put to use by anybody). The unauthorized reproduction of Lamp articles continued to be a problem. These articles still appeared in user group newsletters, sometimes being printed in such a way as to not even identify the author or source. This was as frustrating for Suenaga as it was for programmers whose works were being pirated. He made it clear in the inaugural issue of The Lamp! that all material that appeared within each issue was copyrighted, and was NOT to be reproduced elsewhere without written permission. He also stated that it was not to be distributed outside of Delphi for thirty days after its appearance in the IIScribe Forum. He made it clear that his goal was not to hoard the material to himself; it was not even to make a buck (The Lamp!, as GenieLamp before it did not cost anything to obtain and read). The issue was fairness to those doing the hard work of creating articles, and that they be properly cited as the source of an article when it DID appear elsewhere. February's editorial discussed Suenaga's visit to San Francisco, where he was able to participate in PizzaFest 1998, a gathering of current and former Apple II programmers, and also a chance to see the MacWorld Expo being held that year. Starting with the March issue, programming information was added to The Lamp! with the start of the A2_ProDUCTIVITY column. FORUM NEWS Although much Apple II online activity had transitioned from Genie to Delphi, Doug Cuff pointed out in the February issue that traffic on Delphi's A2 Forum and Genie's A2 Roundtable were actually quite similar during the first two weeks of January (23.5K per day on Delphi, and 20K per day on Genie). Web page access to Delphi content was available to those with web browsers, and the Delphi A2 page was updated regularly with features to attract potential participants. While easily viewable with graphic browsers, the page was also designed to have a Lynx-friendly appearance for those using text-only web surfers. Messages appeared early in the year expressing concern about whether or not Delphi would continue to be a text-friendly service, in the face of the massive onslaught of the graphical Internet via the World Wide Web. Although Delphi had upgraded itself to put its Forum postings on the Web, the standard text access via telnet continued to be available, and reassurances were given that those running the service appeared to be committed to maintain its legacy access. CompuServe Apple II users faced a crisis late in the year. America Online had purchased CompuServe in February of 1998, as it was steadily losing members either to America Online or to the Internet itself. AOL planned to update CompuServe, rather than simply absorbing it into itself. The Lamp! in its December issue saw the announcement that CompuServe was discontinuing its text-only access, and would soon require a computer running a special front-end program in order to get onto that service. Some discussion ensued as to how to encourage those Apple II users to make the transition over to Delphi, which would enable them to continue to use their Apple II computers for online activities. One solution that was discussed involved connecting to Delphi FROM CompuServe (using it simply as an Internet Service Provider); other solutions included identifying other ISPs that were accessible by an Apple II. A unique event began to be held during 1998. Shareware Solutions II sponsored a special online chat on Monday nights. What made this chat different from all other previous online chats was the fact that it connected users from Delphi AND Genie (and eventually CompuServe). It was designed to work in such a way that it seemed to be one single large system. Tony Diaz and Dave Miller put together the hardware and software that made it happen. Utilizing some special scripts for use with ProTERM Mac, a message center core directed traffic between various script modules, one for each online service to which it was connected. The message center kept track of the last fifty lines of text submitted to it, and each script would send out to its respective online service any messages that hadn't yet appeared on that service. With this managing everything, a message typed by someone on Genie appeared also on Delphi and CompuServe. This unique trick created a connection between these diverse online providers that had likely never been done before, and has never been done since. Tony Diaz also stayed busy working with Tony Ward, who managed the Delphi A2 file library. During this year they announced some naming standards for uploaded files, to keep compatibility with ProDOS file naming rules, and to simplify automation of file downloads for offline reader software such as OLRight! and Crock 'O Gold. One goal Syndicomm also had was to transfer the large collection of files from the Genie Apple II library archives over to the Delphi A2 Forum library. Although the process was begun during this year, it was slow. Two things contributed to this slowness; one was the TIME involved in uploading as many as twelve thousand files via modem, and another involved permissions in some cases as to whether or not a file COULD be uploaded to Delphi (due to copyright questions, requests by the file uploaders that they be ONLY placed on Genie, etc.) Furthermore, it was not simply a matter of just uploading the files, but also creating the file descriptions, keywords, and so on. A2 University began operations again, this time from its new home on Delphi, and kicked things off with a course about HyperCard IIGS, taught by Gareth Jones and HangTime. HARDWARE NEWS With the availability of larger and larger capacity hard drives, July's issue saw the appearance of yet another discussion on the A2 Forums regarding how large a drive the RamFAST card could handle (starting with the newly affordable 1 gigabyte drives). The RamFAST also generated some digital ink with questions about how to upgrade from a Revision B card to a C or D card, and how to make hardware changes on it to improve performance. For those who had lost the instructions for their Zip GS accelerator card, the meanings of the DIP switch settings were reproduced in the September issue. Also posted were suggestions on getting a Mockingboard sound card to work on a IIGS. The No Slot Clock again made some news during 1998. This clever device was first available in the late 1980's, and was designed to be installed beneath a compatible ROM or RAM chip on the motherboard of an Apple II, IIe, or IIc. With appropriate software, it was possible to have date and time stamping on files in ProDOS without the need to use up a valuable slot. Many people had never obtained this product when it was new, and some who DID own it had found that the non-replaceable battery within it had died. It was found that it could still be purchased from Dallas Semiconductor under the name "SmartWatch", and software suitable for the Apple was available to set and control the clock. (A PDF file displaying technical information about the NSC can currently be downloaded at: http://pdfserv.maxim-ic.com/en/ds/DS1216-DS1216D.pdf) FaceLift, a development kit to support the SecondSight VGA card, showed up in beta form (v0.6b1) this year. EMULATOR NEWS Clancy Paul Computers of Princeton, NJ announced its own Apple IIe emulator, "Et ][, PC?", to run on 386 and 486 based PC computers. This would allow school districts who were purchasing less expensive PC's to still make use of their library of Apple II software. Comments in the Delphi A2 Forum viewed this as yet another failure for Apple, who could have promoted an emulator of their own, Gus, to accomplish the same purpose on a Macintosh. Although not specifically an emulator issue, comments were posted on how to transfer files from an Apple II over to an IBM PC. Even for those who continued to use their Apple II computers, it was sometimes necessary to move something from one computer to the other. Bernie ][ The Rescue, though still not felt to be as fast as Gus, continued to make improvements, and had the advantage of active support and development (including changes to support Wolfenstein 3D). There were ongoing discussions regarding what minimum model of Macintosh (desktop and portable) was needed to run Bernie and get adequate performance. F.E. Systems started an e-mail list for news about Bernie. Discussion during the year included finding ways to get files from a IIGS over to a Mac for use with Bernie. Henrik Gudat, one of F.E. Systems' programmers, also added his thoughts about the usefulness of a well performing emulator, as opposed to spending money on creating a new Apple IIGS from hardware parts, or trying to upgrade the machine in other hardware hacking ways. He stated that emulation, whether with Bernie or with Gus, was the only cost-effective way to "push the Apple II platform ahead", with suggestions that adding features to the computer was much simpler with an emulator than with a physical computer. Although this was also a hotly debated topic (how do you make use of an enhanced IIGS when there is no software that knows such a computer exists?), one enhancement that did eventually appear in the product was the ability to address more memory than was ever possible in a real IIGS. In the December issue, the pending release of v2.0 of Bernie was announced. Also in that issue was an article by editor Suenaga promoting the use of Zip disk cartridges to transfer data from a IIGS to a Mac running Bernie. Suenaga also wrote an article (more of an FAQ) about how to make use of Bernie on a PowerBook, creating (in essence) the long-desired portable Apple IIGS. Adding to emulator choices, "Sweet 16" became available (in beta form) during 1998. This was an authorized port of Bernie ][ The Rescue designed to run under BeOS, on either Intel or PowerPC hardware. Although started by F.E. Systems, Eric Shepherd took the project forward and brought it to completion. SOFTWARE NEWS :: PRODUCTIVITY SOFTWARE :: The Byte Works was finishing up work on GSoft BASIC, the GS/OS BASIC interpreter that had been announced the prior year, and in July put out a call for beta testers for the product. At KansasFest 1998 its final release was announced. Juiced.GS had plans for a series of columns to be written by Eric Shepherd dealing with GSoft BASIC and its use. Some Delphi A2 Forum messages dealing with this BASIC appeared in the October issue. Shareware Solutions II released Nifty Spell, a spell checker in an NDA for the IIGS. The original product announcement was made at KansasFest (see below). :: TELECOMMUNICATIONS SOFTWARE :: Spectrum Internet Suite (SIS) and Spectrum continued to brave the new frontiers of the Internet for Apple IIGS users, and Sevens Hills Software continued to produce updates to the product as author Ewen Wannop made them available. Discussions in January included offering help in identifying SIS-friendly ISPs. It was still necessary to have an ISP that provided "shell" access, as this was a requirement of the original version of Marinetti. Richard Bennett continued to work on improvements to Marinetti. In March he posted that he had successfully connected to the Internet using PPP, rather than requiring a SLIP connection as was previously necessary. By KansasFest, he was ready to announce version 2.0 of this product. It.was TCP/IP capable, and it was available for download by late September. Because of the improvements in Marinetti, Spectrum and SIS were also updated. Automated access to Delphi's Forums was still encouraged with offline readers. Ewen Wannop's Crock O' Gold 2.0 improved the function over COG 1.x. By April, this had been updated to v2.3, and to v2.6 by November. OLRight! 3.0 was released as a major revision, with many speed improvements, and by mid-year was again updated to v3.1. Jeff Blakeney began work on a POP3/SMTP e-mail client for the IIGS, which he planned to call "The Mailbox". :: UTILITY SOFTWARE :: SheppyWare continued production of Apple IIGS utilities, with the release of KeyNotifier 1.4. Sheppy also announced in September that all of his old Softdisk G-S software had been updated and released as freeware or shareware. WebWorks GS, an HTML editor, was announced at KansasFest and later updated to version 1.1, and to v1.2 by the end of the year. ShiftyList 2.0.1 fixed some bugs in the original 2.0 release. ProBOOT was updated to v5.3, LotsaTools to v1.1.1, and Cleaner Clean Up to v1.0.6. Twilight II, released back in 1993 by Jim Maricondo of Digisoft Innovations, was in the process of an update written by Nathan Mates. He began to make mention of it in messages reproduced in the April issue of The Lamp!, and by May it was reported to be quite close to release. Furthermore, it had been decided to make the update available as copyrighted freeware. All who commented on it were pleased with its stability and features. HardPressed, a disk compression utility written by Andy McFadden, was released to freeware status in mid 1998. (Note: McFadden has a current web site, http://www.fadden.com, with this and other software he has written. It also includes many interesting features, including an elaborate practical joke played on an co-worker). Babelfish, newly released by Seven Hills Software, allowed an application to export or import data to and from other programs, using Babelfish as an intermediary (with the installation of appropriate translators). The September issue reprinted messages about difficulties in getting it to work with older software. :: GAMES :: Some programmers made comments about designing an 8-bit Apple II version of Snood (a Mac game) to run on the Apple II. However, nothing further developed on this, much to Big Cheese Cindy Adams' disappointment. Wolfenstein 3D was finally released for the Apple IIGS on Valentine's Day 1998, after (literally) years of development. Programmer Eric Shepherd registered over two thousand downloads of the game during the first two weeks that it was available, indicating the great anticipation for the game that Apple IIGS users had -- especially interesting when it is taken into account that it required a IIGS with an accelerator in order for the game to be even playable. It also required at least 4 MB of RAM and a hard disk. With the popularity of Wolfenstein 3D, much discussion ensued on how best to run the game, A hint was included in the April issue by Don Zahniser describing how to start the game from the UtilityLaunch program selector. Also, a bug that would cause problems with memory and cause random crashes or glitches in the display of graphics was corrected, and version 1.1 of the game was released. Even the emulator Bernie ][ The Rescue was updated to be able to run Wolfenstein 3D. Sheppy also wrote Wolfenstein 3D Scenario Converter, to allow custom-made maps made for the game on the Macintosh to be useable on the IIGS. A later update fixed a bug that caused crashing on quit. Another popular PC and Mac game, the original Sim City, was potentially a candidate for porting to the IIGS. However, Maxis (who owned the rights to the game) wanted a very large sum of money for the rights to release the game, so the conversion (which Bill Heineman had started) was canceled immediately. Shisen-sho is the name for a variation of the game MahJongg. Kelvin Sherlock released his version of this game for the Apple IIGS in September 1998, and named it GShisen. It was immediately hailed as an addictive, well-done game, and has since been featured prominently at KansasFest. HACKING In the July issue, A2 Forum denizens were trying to create the penultimate list of System 6.0.1 patches, including those published by Softdisk G-S and GS+ Magazine. There was some discussion (and disagreement) as to what constituted a patch (to correct a bug), and what was an enhancement (to add a feature that was never in the software). INTERNET NEWS David Kerwood (who had started the "A2-Web!" web site) also created "The Apple II Web Ring", a list for Apple II-related web sites to use in linking to each other. Suenaga started a web page that was included in the web ring list (sub-hosted on the SheppyWare web site) on which he had started putting back issues of The Lamp! By mid year, the A2 Web Ring had grown to twenty-six members. In August, the Trenco FTP site came online as a file repository on the Internet for Apple II files. (Note that this is still available today, and can be accessed via a web browser at http://www.gno.org/pub/apple2). Tony Diaz expanded his Apple II Information Resource web site, with images of many peripheral cards (both common and obscure) for the Apple II and IIGS. PUBLICATIONS Hyper Quarterly appeared again early in the year, shipping its November 1997 issue. No further issues appeared during this year, as Apple Blossom Publishing had chose to discontinue The Apple Blossom newsletter due to financial constraints. The AppleWorks Gazette did not publish any new issues or get mentioned in The Lamp! this year. Juiced.GS continued to be published regularly, and Shareware Solutions II released Vol 3 Issue 6 and Vol 4 Issue 1 during 1998. With the help of Alltech Electronics, Shareware Solutions II also awarded a randomly drawn subscriber an 8 meg Sirius II RAM card. COMPANIES Eric Shepherd's SheppyWare also began to make use of available online technology, and started an e-mail announcement list ("SheppyWare-Talk") to keep interested customers notified of news and new releases. Sheppy had also created his own web site, providing Internet access and news about his software creations. Originally "www.sheppyware.ml.org", he later got his own domain name and re-launched the site this year as "www.sheppyware.net" (which is still active). During the year he reclassified some of his products as freeware, due to decreased demand (and decreased willingness of users to pay shareware fees). To simplify shareware payments on products that still required them, he arranged for payment via Kagi (a service started back in 1994 to make it easier for small software houses to receive credit-card payments and online transactions). Because of the decline in Apple II sales via shareware, Sheppy announced that he would be reducing the number of Apple II titles that he would produce, due to the time he would need to spend producing a livable income on Macintosh and BeOS development. Shareware Solutions II continued to make shareware and older commercial Apple II products available for sale, as well as some production of newsletters. Kohn arranged with Eric Shepherd to distribute his SheppyWare programs and utilities through the SSII distribution network. Scantron Quality Computers had not made any news in 1997 that appeared in GenieLamp, and their only appearance in 1998 in The Lamp! was for Gina Saikin (former GEnie RTC host and then an employee of Scantron) to produce a list of Apple II software that they were selling out (not necessarily at bargain prices). Seven Hills Software had a summer sale, as well as announcing upgrades to several of their products, including GraphicWriter III v2.1, SIS 1.1, Spectrum 2.2, Disk Access II v2.0, and Babelfish (see more discussion on these below). KANSASFEST KFest was planned again this year for the last week of July. By the release of the April issue of The Lamp!, there were enough participants to be able to hold the event for this year. InTrec Software sponsored the event. Several months prior to KFest 1998, Pat Kern released a product that was not a software package or a hardware add-on for the Apple II, but a picture album covering KansasFest 1995, 1996, and 1997, and was offering this for sale to previous conference-goers. In anticipation of the event, Ryan Suenaga began a series called "Thinking KFest", and wrote on various topics pertinent to the event. One such topic was how to put a IIGS motherboard, connectors and power supply within a space small enough to make it easier to travel to Kansas City from his home in Hawaii. Another had to do with handling the coordination of the event with Internet e-mail, since it was not primarily a Genie-related event any longer. He also discussed the efforts made to put information about KFest on the Internet, including a list of various web sites where pictures and information about KFests in the past had been posted. Doug Cuff's "Accidental Tourist At KansasFest" article was again updated for this year's event. One of the modifications to the article was to add information on how to access Delphi from Avila College (prior versions of this had only mentioned Genie). One of the first announcements at the conference was the new KFest web page, http://www.kfest.org. Mike Westerfield gave the keynote address, and the annual roast, hosted by Joe Kohn, featured hardware expert Tony Diaz. Richard Bennett announced Marinetti 2.0 (mentioned previously). Concurrent with this was Spectrum 2.2, which Ewen Wannop had updated to be make use of the new features offered by Marinetti. Additionally, Spectrum could also now open connections to several sites simultaneously. And, to make the trio complete, Geoff Weiss announced an update to Spectrum Internet Suite (SIS) to take advantage of the other two product's enhancements. SIS was expected to be ready to release by late September. Weiss also demonstrated an FTP client that he was working on. Product announcements also included: * Shareware Solutions II: Nifty Spell by Chris Vavruska, a universal spell checker for the IIGS (this was available by October); and the TABBS CD-ROM collection of the software libraries of three Apple II groups in Great Britain. * Seven Hills Software: Babelfish, Spectrum 2.2 (released in October), SIS 1.1, and Disk Access II v2.0 * SheppyWare: WebWorks GS, an HTML creation tool (also mentioned above) Hackfest was held for the first year, a competition between programmers trying to create something useful within the short space of time afforded by KFest. The winning entry was Michael Hackett's patch to WordWorks Pro, which eliminated the advertising window that came up each time the program was quit. After the event, Suenaga wrote an article that detailed his experiences on the trip to, from, and during KanasFest. REVIEWS The reviews that appeared in The Lamp! during its first year of publication were all written by the editor. Of these reviews, all but two dealt with software, and only two software products were new (MUG! and Disk Access II). The older products that were reviewed were, however, classics that every Apple II (especially IIGS) user should be aware of: o Apple II 3.5 SuperDrive controller card o Focus Drive 520, from Alltech Electronics o File-A-Trix, by Karl Bunker o Disk Access II, by Steven Stephenson & Ewen Wannop o Hermes, by Andre Horstmann o Hierarchic 1.6.3, by Etienne Petitjean & Richard Bennett o Init Restarter 2.0.2, by Matt Deatherage o MUG! NDA v1.01, by Peter Watson o Quit-To, by Karl Bunker o Unzip IIe, by Russ Woodroofe WRITERS Although he did not write this specifically for The Lamp!, Ken Gagne posted on Delphi an article he had written for his local newspaper, "KansasFest '98 and the Apple II", and this posting appeared in the September issue of The Lamp! INTERVIEWS No interviews appeared in The Lamp! during 1998. MISCELLANEOUS FEATURES Suenaga wrote several columns entitled "Web Slinging 101" about use of the Internet from a text-based computer user's point of view. Topics included the use of Lynx to access Delphi A2 and A2Pro, telnet to access Delphi through a shell account, Apple II websites and also how to use the web space made available with a Delphi account, and use of FTP to upload files to Delphi. Although this had once been managed by Apple Computer, the responsibility for registration of Apple II ProDOS filetypes had for several years been handled by Resource Central, and then by Syndicomm. In 1998 it was still possible to do this, now through the programmers running Delphi A2Pro. STATS Here are statistics for the first seven 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 TOO LATE TO TURN BACK NOW Since we've gone this far, it would be unfair to leave the rest of the story untold. So, join me here again next month as The Lamp! sails into its second year of publication, and the spector of global disaster from the dreaded Y2K bug rears its head. Are our heroes headed for that great Batcave in the sky? In scant weeks, the answer will be yours! Steven Weyhrich a2history@syndicomm.com http://apple2history.org References: Apple History Timeline http://applemuseum.bott.org/sections/history.html The Apple Museum http://applemuseum.bott.org/ Computer History For 1990-2000 http://www.computerhope.com/history/19902000.htm History of Computing Industrial Era 1994-2000 http://www.thocp.net Information Please: 1998 http://infoplease.lycos.com/year/1998.html Prima Games Interview with John Romero http://www.primagames.com/news/interview/921/ Timeline of the 90s, 1998 http://www.inthe90s.com/generated/time1998.shtml Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Id_Software [EOA] [ANS]------------------------------- ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM SYNDICOMM | ------------------------------------ by Lyle Syverson [SPS] Syndicomm Online PRICE SLASHED """""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Effective January 1, we're making some changes to our pricing model. We're slashing the annual rate from $75/year to $35/year, and we're eliminating the monthly and quarterly plans. You will receive your next bill at the appropriate time, and will automatically be migrated to the new $35/year plan. We hope that the less-frequent billing will be more convenient, and we're sure you'll appreciate the reduced price! Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com Building communities, bit by bit. (SYNDICOMM, HelpDesk, Cat 5, Top 5, Msg 18) [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] [SOU] Syndicomm Online UPGRADES """"""""""""""""""""""""" We're going to be working the next few weeks on some server upgrades that should provide some new features, but in the interim may result in occasional outages. We'll do our best to keep them to a minimum, but I apologize in advance for any inconvenience. Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd sheppy@syndicomm.com Owner, Syndicomm http://www.syndicomm.com Building communities, bit by bit. (SYNDICOMM, HelpDesk, Cat 5, Top 5, Msg 17) [EOA] [DSA] December 2003 issue of Syndicommotion Available """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" The December 2003 (Volume 2, Number 12) issue of Syndicommotion has been emailed to subscribers. The HTML edition can be found online at the following URL: http://www.syndicomm.com/syndicommotion/v2n12.html (KGAGNE, HelpDesk, Cat 5, Top 4, Msg 16) [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 | ----------------------------------- [EKF] ENJOYED KFest 2003 """""""""""""""""" This is a much later post than I had intended to make, but... I want to comment on how enjoyable it was to be able to come to KFest 2003, and to get to meet everyone (some for the first time, some I had only met once before) and be part of it all. Even if this had not been the "Woz" Kfest, it would have been worth it to attend. I still think Tony's A2 Jeopardy questions were too hard, but that is only because I didn't know them (and I _should_ know it all, right??? :-) I thought _I_ knew trivia, but Tony Diaz has got me beat sevens ways to Sunday (whatever that means). But it was enjoyable nonetheless. The Roast was quite well done, and learning new things in the sessions I attended was great. I think I tried to squeeze too many personalities in my "Old Timer's" session, but perhaps that can be done better in the future. The only sad thing was the large group of us sitting in the lounge in the dorm, all in the same room but most of us on our laptops. Now THAT is a geeky thing to do! :-) And someday I just may get the rest of my pictures put up somewhere... Steven Weyhrich --< Apple II History http://apple2history.org (A2HISTORY, Cat 5, Top 5, Msg 107) [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] [VKF] WATCH FOR MORE INFORMATION AT 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. 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