|||||| |||||| || || |||||| |||||| || || ||| || || || || ||| |||| |||||| || |||| Your || || || || ||| || || |||||| |||||| || || |||||| |||||| GEnie Lamp A2/A2Pro || |||||| || || |||||| RoundTable || || || ||| ||| || || || |||||| |||||||| |||||| RESOURCE! || || || || || || || ||||| || || || || || ~ A2 CLASSICS: FORGET ME NOT! ~ ~ FLOPTICAL DISK DRIVE FOR YOUR IIGS ~ ~ PROFILE: ELLEN ROSENBERG FROM A2-CENTRAL NEWSLETTER ~ ~ THE GURU OF MY DREAMS ~ ZEN & THE ART OF FLAMING ~ ~ COMPUTER NEWSCENTER: A WALK-THROUGH DEMONSTRATION ~ ~ HOT NEWS ~ HOT MESSAGES ~ HOT NEWS ~ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\//////////////////////////////////// GEnie Lamp A2/A2Pro ~ A T/TalkNET OnLine Publication ~ Vol.2, Issue 10 """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" 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 ~ ////////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ >>> WHAT'S HAPPENING IN THE APPLE II/A2Pro ROUNDTABLE? <<< """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" ~ January 1, 1993 ~ FROM MY DESKTOP ......... [FRM] APPLE_TALK .............. [TAL] Notes From The Editor. Changes, Changes, Changes. CPU STATUS REPORT ....... [CPU] HEY MISTER POSTMAN ...... [HEY] Late-Breaking News. Is That A Letter For Me? A2/A2PRO_ductivity ...... [A2P] CowTOONS! ............... [MOO] What's Up Doc? Moooo Fun! PROFILES ................ [PRO] THE MIGHTY QUINN ........ [QUI] Who's Who In Apple II. Technomare. HARDVIEW A2 ............. [HAR] ONLINE FUN .............. [FUN] Floptical Drive For Your IIGS. Search-ME! DIGITAL DIVERSIONS ...... [DIG] A2 CLASSICS ............. [CLA] Games People Play. Forget Me NOT! THE ONLINE LIBRARY ...... [LIB] APPLE II ................ [AII] Yours For The Downloading. Apple II History, Part 8. GEnie ELSEWHERE! ........ [ELS] LOG OFF ................. [LOG] Computer Newscenter On GEnie. GEnieLamp Information. [IDX]""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" READING GEnieLamp GEnieLamp has incorporated a unique indexing """"""""""""""""" system to help make reading the magazine easier. To utilize this system, load GEnieLamp into any ASCII word processor or text editor. In the index you will find the following example: HUMOR ONLINE ............ [HUM] [*]GEnie Fun & Games. To read this article, set your find or search command to [HUM]. If you want to scan all of the articles, search for [EOA]. [EOF] will take you to the last page, whereas [IDX] will bring you back to the index. MESSAGE INFO To make it easy for you to respond to messages re-printed """""""""""" here in GEnieLamp, you will find all the information you need immediately following the message. For example: (SMITH, CAT6, TOP1, MSG:58/M475) _____________| _____|__ _|___ |____ |_____________ |Name of sender CATegory TOPic Msg.# Page number| In this example, to respond to Smith's message, log on to page 475 enter the bulletin board and set CAT 6. Enter your REPly in TOPic 1. A message number that is surrounded by brackets indicates that this message is a "target" message and is referring to a "chain" of two or more messages that are following the same topic. For example: {58}. ABOUT GEnie GEnie costs only $4.95 a month for unlimited evening and """"""""""" weekend access to more than 100 services including electronic mail, online encyclopedia, shopping, news, entertainment, single-player games, multi-player chess and bulletin boards on leisure and professional subjects. With many other services, including the largest collection of files to download and the best online games, for only $6 per hour (non-prime-time/2400 baud). To sign up for GEnie service, call (with modem) 1-800-638-8369. Upon connection type HHH. Wait for the U#= prompt. Type: XTX99368,GENIE and hit RETURN. The system will then prompt you for your information. """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" /////////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "...Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house / / not a creature was stirring, not even a Replacement Mouse..." / //////////////////////////////////////////////// J.MEEHAN3 //// [EOA] [FRM]////////////////////////////// FROM MY DESKTOP / ///////////////////////////////// Notes From The Editor """"""""""""""""""""" By John Peters [GENIELAMP] TOP OF THE PAGE The GEnie RoundTables were a sure hummin' with activity """"""""""""""" during the month of December! Thousands of messages were posted throughout the system as well as many, many new files were uploaded to the libraries. How does one sift through them all? You're reading it! In this and every issue you will find the latest file highlights from the library and juicy messages from the hottest topics in the Computer bulletin boards. And as a bonus you get reviews, news and computer related information too, all in one easy to get download. Best of all, it's included in your GEnie*Basic package making GEnieLamp an inexpensive means of staying in touch with what's happening in the Computer RoundTables here on GEnie. Can I Upload GEnieLamp To... I'm still receiving GE Mail asking for """""""""""""""""""""""""""" permission to post GEnieLamp on other BBS's and information services. Folks, not only do we allow GEnieLamp to be uploaded elsewhere, we _encourage_ it! See LOG OFF elsewhere in this issue for more details. Changes Are Happening! The GEnieLamp staff is undergoing some changes. """""""""""""""""""""" As of the February 1st, Peter Bogert is resigning his position as editor of GEnieLamp IBM. Taking his place is Robert Connors, a.k.a. Bob, a.k.a. BobC, a.ka. Bobsie. Bobsie is a long time SysOp of the Wildcat! Orphanage and former co-editor of our original online magazine, TeleTalk Online. My thanks to Peter for sticking with it as long as he did. (Peter was more or less drafted into the position. :) I am happy to say that Peter will remain on the GEnieLamp IBM staff as a library program reviewer. Peter will also be doing the online interviews for GEnieLamp. In The Misc. Department Two other important changes have taken place in """"""""""""""""""""""" GEnieLamp during December. Mike White took us up on our CowTOONS offer so many times, I appointed Mike to be our official Cowlumnist. We're still accepting CowTOONS from "guest CowTOONists" so if you would like to try your hand at ASCII art, drop us a line at GENIELAMP. Scott Garrigus has been doing the Online Fun column for so long we decided to make it official and invite him on as a permanent staff writer. Welcome Mike and Scott! What? _Another_ GEnieLamp? That's correct! Last month we brought you """"""""""""""""""""""""""" GEnieLamp MacPRO, next month it will be GEnieLamp A2Pro. The last three issues of GEnieLamp A2/Pro have easily gone over the 200K mark so it was time to look at splitting the magazine up into a more manageable size. The staff is now being assembled for the Apple II Developers RT magazine so if you're interested in joining the GEnieLamp staff, now is the time to get your resume in. (GE Mail: GENIELAMP) Starting on February 1, 1993 GEnieLamp A2Pro will make it's first appearance in the main menu in the GEnieLamp (M515), the A2Pro (m530) and the A2 (m645) RoundTables. Watch for it! NEW GEnieLamp Macintosh MACROS The latest version of the GEnieLamp """""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Module is smaller with a new better interface, online help and options for multiple downloads. This newest incarnation has been incorporated into Erik Thauvin's "GEnie Navigator 1.1" for Microphone II. With GEnieLamp Module 3.0e, you can capture the new GEnieLamp MacPRO online or download its graphic version, as well as capture the online versions of any other Lamp, including the A2Pro issues starting in February. GEnie Navigator 1.1 will be uploaded to the GE-MUG library (m605;3) the first week of January. The GEnieLamp Module will also be uploaded as a "stand-alone" module for Microphone II folks not using Navigator to GE-MUG and to the GEnieLamp Library (m515;3.) We're still working on the White Knight version of the module and should release it before the end of January. If you like to see it sooner write me and let me know. :) Also if you're not reading the DocMaker versions of GEnieLamp Macintosh and GEnieLamp MacPRO, you're missing color graphics, an excellent index, and screen shots of the products reviewed. Plus beginning with the January issue, the "GE-MUG Gallery" returns with artwork from our members and perhaps we'll even start running brand-new cartoons. And it's all available only in the graphic versions of the Mac Lamps. -Jim Flanagan [*][*][*] Until next month... John Peters [GENIELAMP] [EOA] [TAL]////////////////////////////// APPLE_TALK / ///////////////////////////////// Changes, Changes, Changes! """""""""""""""""""""""""" By Darrel Raines [D.Raines] >>> MORE GEnieLamp CHANGES ARE ON THE WAY! <<< """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" GREETINGS EVERYONE! I hope that Christmas this year was a time of joy for """"""""""""""""""" you and yours. I always enjoy the holidays as a chance to spend more time with my family. More changes are in the works for the A2/A2Pro edition of GEnieLamp. You may have noticed that the size of the 'Lamp has grown over the past year to the point where it is a sizable download. With an electronic newsletter, we are not constricted on space. Our goal has always been to provide good information, interesting articles, and probing interviews in a timely manner. The recent expanded coverage of the A2Pro area has inflated our size to the point that we feel that some changes are in order. The A2Pro area has sufficient events, bulletin topics, and other happenings to warrant separate coverage in its own GEnieLamp newsletter. Therefore, starting in February, we will have not one, but two separate issues of GEnieLamp covering the Apple II! This newsletter will continue to cover all of the A2 news fit to print. Our sister magazine for the A2Pro area will cover a more focused subject matter: topics of interest to A2Pro Roundtable participants. Now you can have twice the fun on a monthly basis. GEnieLamp for the A2 and GEnieLamp for the A2Pro will be available separately starting in February. Shareware Idea Exchange For those of you who were interested in the """"""""""""""""""""""" Shareware Idea Exchange that I proposed in an earlier edition of GEnieLamp, read on. Four topics have been created in category 13 (Independent Developers Online) to start a dialogue on this subject. The topics are listed below. Please drop into these discussions if you are a programmer or a user with an interesting idea for a program. Category 13 - Independent Developers Online ------------------------------------------------------------------- No. Subject Msgs Status Author 18 Shareware Ideas - educational programs 1 Open P.SHAPIRO1 19 Shareware Ideas - games 7 Open P.SHAPIRO1 22 Shareware Ideas - utilities 23 Open P.SHAPIRO1 23 Shareware Ideas - miscellaneous 24 Open P.SHAPIRO1 Author and editor Darrel Raines (D.Raines) welcomes any feedback or """"""""""""""""" comments via electronic mail to the listed user name. /////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "Hahahaha ahah ahaha haha ah / / hahaha / / hahahahah / / ahahahaha / / hahah / / THUD! / / "That was me, laughing so hard I fell off my chair and / / hit the floor. :-) To all, welcome to the wonderful / / world of programming. / ///////////////////////////////////////////// POTECHIN //// [EOA] [CPU]////////////////////////////// CPU STATUS REPORT / ///////////////////////////////// Late-Breaking Industry-Wide News """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Compiled By Lloyd E. Pulley, Sr. [ST-REPORT] Ohio Researchers Develop New LCD Researchers at Ohio's Kent State """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" University have developed a new smaller, lighter, more energy-efficient liquid crystal display that they say could revolutionize portable computing. Researchers at the university's Glenn H. Brown Liquid Crystal Institute say it took two years to develop a different type of liquid crystal material -- namely, polymer-stabilized cholesteric liquid crystal -- that allows a display to operate without a backlight. J. William Doane, one of the display's inventors, said, "This is a breakthrough in reflective, front-lit displays. (It) is important because virtually all flat-panel liquid crystal displays manufactured today require backlights (and it) will allow the batteries of the terminal to last much longer. Backlights are bulky and power hungry, draining most of the power from batteries of laptop computers." The researchers as saying their invention also has full memory, meaning, says the wire service, "an image can remain displayed indefinitely without requiring an additional electronic charge and offering better contrasting images." In addition, the new material can be used in plastic displays; existing LCDs require a glass screen. Doane says patent applications have been filed and work is under way to develop color displays and to achieve display speeds fast enough for television. Japan Starts Project for Human-Like """""""""" Approaches to Computing Japan has launched a 10-year project """"""""""""""""""""""" to teach computers to mimic the human brain, an effort called Real-World Computing Partnership that backers say will benefit fields as diverse as agriculture, medicine and education. Reports from Tokyo say the project "aims to develop software that would enable computers to escape from their traditional number-crunching role and think in the kinds of ways humans do." Hajime Irisawa, executive director of the project, told a news conference, "Our computer will have quite excellent intuitive sensory power. The scientific impact, the industrial impact and the social impact will be quite significant." The Japanese government is putting up 90 percent of the project funds and that 14 private institutions are taking part, including Hitachi Ltd., NEC Corp. and Fujitsu Ltd. Microsoft Faces Injunction Action Attorneys investigating Microsoft for """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" the Federal Trade Commission have requested the agency's permission to seek a premliminary court injuc- tion to stop alleged monopolistic practices, a Washington, D.C. news- letter has reported. The action was the latest move in a lengthy inves- tigation into Microsoft's pricing practices and, if pursued by the FCC, could force the software manufacturer to change the way it deals with thousands of computer makers who buy its MS-DOS operating systems. Novell Denies Apple Merger Talks Novell Inc. is denying a report in the """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" San Jose Mercury News that said the networking giant was negotiating a merger with Apple Computer Inc. "There is no truth to that," said a Novell spokeswoman. "We're always in industry discussions with them, but we're not having discussions with them about merging." An Apple spokesman declined to comment on the report. The Mercury News said talks between Apple Chairman John Sculley and Novell Chairman Ray Noorda were a closely held secret and only known by an elite group of senior executives at the two firms. Chip Shipping Ratio Up In November The U.S. chip industry's book-to-bill """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" ratio rose to 1.13 in November, up from 1.11 in October, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association trade group. A 1.13 book-to-bill ratio means that for every $100 of products shipped, or billed, manufacturers received $113 in new orders, or bookings. Former Computer Whiz Kid Caught Kevin Poulsen, a former Silicon Valley """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""" computer whiz kid, has been charged with stealing Air Force secrets that allegedly included a list of planned targets in a hypothetical war. The 27-year-old Los Angeles resident was named in a 14-count indictment that includes a charge of gathering defense information. If convicted, he would face 7-1/2 to 10 years in prison. In the early 1980s, Poulsen was accused of breaking into UCLA's computer network, but he escaped prosecution because he was a juvenile. He later went to work for Sun Microsystems. It was while Poulsen was employed by Sun that he illegally obtained a computer tape containing an order concerning a military exercise code-named Caber Dragon 88, the government said in court papers. Poulsen was also charged in 1989 along with two other men with stealing telephone access codes from a Pacific Bell office, accessing Pacific Bell computers, obtaining unpublished phone numbers for the Soviet Consulate in San Francisco; dealing in stolen telephone access codes; and eavesdropping on two telephone company investigators. Sources say he remained at large until a television show elicited a tip that led to his capture in April 1991. He is scheduled to be tried in March on these charges. /////////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "...hot diggety, I can do what I want. This has got to be the / / best place in the world for help. :-) A very big thanks to / / everyone who helped." / ////////////////////////////////////////////// K.SPRINGER1 //// [EOA] [HEY]////////////////////////////// HEY MISTER POSTMAN / ///////////////////////////////// Is That A Letter For Me? """""""""""""""""""""""" By Darrel Raines [D.RAINES] o HOT TOPICS! o A2 ODDS & ENDS o F.Y.I. o WHAT'S NEW? >>> HOT TOPICS <<< """""""""""""""""" APPLE IIgs? Well friends & neighbors, I called the Apple Customer """"""""""" Assistance Center (1- 800-776-2333) twice today and around 4:50 p.m. I spoke to a guy named Shawn. Told me that Apple had gone and discontinued the IIgs, effective 12/14/92, apparently confirming our worse fears. I say apparently because when I called earlier today 10:00 p.m. EST, the guy I spoke to told me that he had heard that the IIgs was going to be discontinued but had no further info. On the skeptical side, Shawn told me that a new price list had NOT been released as of close of business today. The rumor I had heard involved the IIgs being dropped from the price list on 12/15. In the "what else is new dept.", he told me that there was no official confirmation from Apple (read "press release" or "bulletin"), as of yet. He could just offer the VERBAL confirmation. Real Apple Information or Real Apple Misinformation? You decide. TTFN, Larry ;-)) P.S.- I chose to post this here and NOT in "Confirmed News" for obvious reasons. (L.FAUST2, CAT2, TOP5, MSG:146/M645;1) [*][*][*] !!!!!!!!!!!!! Much shouting, name-calling and general anguish followed """"""""""""" the speculation and then confirmation (of a sort) that the IIgs was going to be discontinued. One of the most discussed events involved a report by some of the Bay Area Apple User Group (BAAUG) members concerning a meeting with Apple representatives. The following posts exemplify the information you can find in this topic. [*][*][*] REACTIONS TO THE NEWS Now that the cat's out of the bag, allow me to add """"""""""""""""""""" a bit more information that I gleaned from that meeting {BAAUG and Apple}, and from talking to John Santoro later that evening at a user group meeting. o Apple wanted to do a IIgs Card for the Mac LC, and looked into it, but found that they couldn't make one for less than the cost of the Mac itself. o Apple will not license the Apple II ROMs to a third party for three major reasons: I. It is proprietary technology. II. Apple is now has a competing product to the Apple II, the Mac LC. III. The Apple logo must be licensed with the ROMs. Any action that a third party takes while using the Apple logo reflects on Apple Computer, Inc., whether good or bad. This is unacceptable. o No new Apple II hardware is expected to be developed by Apple Computer, Inc. after the Apple II Ethernet card is released. o System software tweaks such as printer drivers for new Apple printers are expected to continue. One large thrust will be continued network and printer compatibility. o HyperCard GS and Apple IIgs System Software 6.0 were done partially to give Apple IIgs users "a taste of the Mac" in the hope that they would eventually migrate to that platform. o Apple is actively investigating a PowerBook-style mail-in service plan for all Apple II users. o The much-rumored "ROM 4" Apple IIgs was to have the following features: Built-in 40MB hard drive, built-in SuperDrive, 2 Meg RAM, System 6.0 tools in ROM, DMA SCSI port, HyperCard GS bundled with the machine. It would have retained the 2.8 Mhz processor speed of the previous versions of the IIgs. o Part of the delay in the development and release of System 6.0 was because of the cancellation of the "ROM 4." o A re-engineered Apple IIgs was investigated, solely to lower production costs (continued production could be justified for a longer time with lower costs) but it never even got past the idea stage. Finally, with all this darkness, I'd like to add a little light. Regardless of the actions of Apple Computer, Inc., A2 and A2Pro, the Apple II RoundTables on GEnie, have pledged to do everything we can to support you, the Apple II user, for as long as you continue to call this system. We will be here, as strong as ever, and in fact growing in size as we continue to add direct online support from more third party Apple II companies, for many, many years to come. As long as you, the users of A2 and A2Pro, continue to support us by your presence here, we will support you in any way we can. There is no question as to where OUR loyalties lie. We all love our Apple IIs, and we will not give them up! Apple II Forever! -= Lunatic E'Sex (A2.LUNATIC, CAT5, TOP4, MSG:18/M645;1) MORE REACTION TO THE NEWS... I'd like to add a few comments. """""""""""""""""""""""""""" First off, I attended the meeting at Apple as a representative and officer of two Apple II User Groups. I was not there to represent inCider/A+. (Of course, as soon as I left the meeting, I did call inCider/A+ and offered them "the scoop of the decade", and in a later phone conversation with an inCider staffer, John Santoro confirmed that the Apple IIGS would be "removed from the price list" before the end of 1992.) Second...I grappled with it, and I made the decision to not broadcast this information. With the holiday season just starting, I didn't want to be thought of as the guy who announced the death of the IIGS. As anyone who knows me knows, I aspire to be known as the world's biggest supporter of the Apple II; I've often been heard to say that I want to be remembered as the person who saved the Apple II. Third...To my great surprise, there was not a lot of anger at the meeting. In fact, everyone remained very civil. I personally want to say that I was not entirely surprised by Apple's decision to cancel the Apple IIGS. And, in an odd sort of way, I breathed a sigh of relief at the announcement. I feel as if all of us, myself included, have spent entirely too much time over the past several years wondering about Apple Computer Inc, and what they were going to do. In many ways, it's been wasted energy. As I left the meeting, I thought "now we know what Apple has planned, so to hell with them, and let's get on with, and back to, business". IMHO, the Apple IIGS will not die. Over the past several years, I've often thought of the Apple II "as the computer that refuses to die". The fact that Apple intends to stop producing the IIGS makes no difference to me. My computer is just as powerful and fun to work with today as it was one month ago. Apple's decision will never take anything away from how I feel about the IIGS. It has, however, changed the way I feel about Apple Computer Inc. As I have said often in the past year, it's very important for us as Apple II owners to support those who support us. That's even more important now. If we want Seven Hills and Quality and WestCode and Vitesse and Sequential Systems and TMS (and on and on...the battle lines are clear...you know who supports you) to remain with us over the years, we absolutely must support them now with our wallets!! Now, speaking as a guy who has made 100% of my living for the past 6 years working with and for the Apple II... I am personally obsessed with the Apple II. I do not have any intention of leaving the Apple II. I will continue to write for inCider/A+ and Softdisk G-S and anyone else that wants me. I will continue to make freeware and shareware disks available to my Shareware Solutions readers. I will continue to be involved with Apple II User Groups. I will continue to volunteer my time to assist non-profit organizations that use Apple II's. In short, I am in for the long haul. I love the Apple II, and nothing that Apple Computer Inc does will change that! Long live the IIGS! Long live the Apple II family of computers. And, long live those who will continue to produce hardware and software for the Apple II. -Joe Kohn (the above views are mine, and mine alone. I do not speak for any organization) (J.KOHN, CAT5, TOP4, MSG:23/M645; >>> A2 ODDS & ENDS <<< """""""""""""""""""""" GOOD TIP! Sometimes one will get 3.5" disks, where the write protect tab """"""""" has been permanently removed. Those disks can't be written to, because they are write protected permanently. No longer!! Just take a write protect strip from 5.25" disks, declare it to be a write enable strip and cover the hole on the 3.5" disk with it. You're now able to reformat the disk and store some information on it. If it's information that mustn't be changed in the future, just remove the strip covering the hole and the disk will be write protected again and you don't risk losing your data. BTW, it has to be an opaque strip, see-through material won't do. (U.HUTH, CAT2, TOP4, MSG:196/M645;1) >>>>> The trick with using 5.25" write protect strips to write enable a """"" 3.5" will also work when you have a Superdrive, and a High Density disk, but do not want it formatted High Density (HD). You just put the strip on the other side. (We've only tested this with the AE drives so far.) (A2.SUSAN, CAT2, TOP4, MSG:197/M645;1) PRINTING DHR GRAPHICS To print out DHR graphics, you need a program """"""""""""""""""""" called Photomatrix. It will work on IIe & IIc, but requires an ImageWriter printer. If you have something else, you could be out of luck for the printing part. To view DHR graphics (& other kinds, too), you need the program Sneeze. It will work with any II & does lots of other neat stuff. Both these files are in the library. 18768 SNEEZE.BXY V2.2 X K.BUNKER Desc: Popular file viewer/program launcher 14547 PHOTOMATRIX.BXY X T.KONCZAL Desc: Great double hires print utility -Pat Kern (as forwarded by Tim Tobin) (A2.TIM, CAT3, TOP8, MSG:27/M645;1) MORE DISK TIPS The SOS disk format is completely identical to the ProDOS """""""""""""" disk format, except for a small difference in the boot block which is, for the most part, totally irrelevant. You can stick any SOS format disk into an Apple II and it will work just like a ProDOS disk, and vice-versa. GS/OS uses the ProDOS FST, and this will read SOS disks no problem (because ANYTHING that reads ProDOS disks can read SOS disks). File types work exactly the same under SOS, too. Several file types are used by both machines, such as TXT and BIN. SOS has a few that are reserved for itself, but these are rare and basically not relevant. I imagine that Apple Writer II would read Apple Writer III files automatically - in fact it probably couldn't even tell the difference (i.e. the file formats are almost certainly COMPLETELY IDENTICAL and neither version of Apple Writer would know the difference). SOS was a really good operating system. Whole chunks of the ProDOS kernel are byte-for-byte identical with chunks of SOS in fact - since they're both 6502- based machines with a lot of shared architecture, that's not surprising. -Dean Esmay (A2.DEAN, CAT7, TOP6, MSG:95/M645;1) SOFTWARE LOST AND FOUND I always thought the same thing: that Police """"""""""""""""""""""" Quest II and Space Quest III were never even developed for the Apple IIgs, but a Sierra rep (who has a IIgs) at a Scorpia Roundtable Conference told me differently. According to him, those titles are not nonexistent, just very rare; I backordered them several years ago when they first appeared in advertisements (for the GS), but I got a letter saying they were discontinued. :-( (S.STUART2, CAT2, TOP22, MSG:84/M645;1) DOLLARS AND SENSE The marketing and development rights to Dollars and """"""""""""""""" Sense for all platforms (MS-DOS, MAC, DOS 3.3, and ProDOS) are now owned by: Business Sense, Inc. 6360 Moki Circle West Jordan, Utah 84084 Phone: 800-377-4954 FAX: 800-377-5453 They are currently offering all versions at special promotional prices. Might be of interest to the Dollars and Sense fans lurking here. -Hank (H.WESSEL3, CAT8, TOP5, MSG:102/M645;1) SPECIAL PRICE INFORMATION Purchase one (Mac, IBM, Apple II) for $39.95 """"""""""""""""""""""""" and you can purchase any number more at "two" for $39.95. It makes no difference if you mix Mac, IBM,or Apple II. I had two people in my church that wanted IBM versions so we split the total cost three ways. The more people you get involved the better the deal. They are backlogged on the Apple II orders. The person I talked with on the phone said they were swamped with orders from Apple II users. From what I understand they plan on continual upgrades and support for the Apple II version in the future. [*] Vic B.[*] (V.BENTLEY, CAT8, TOP5, MSG:119/M645;1) LESS SOFTWARE? NOT! Whoever above said he was sorry to see less and """""""""""""""""""" less new software needs to look again - I see more new IIgs software coming out today than a year ago, or two years ago, or three, for that matter. We're in good shape, with a good computer. Commodore hasn't {enhanced the} Commodore-64 in a good five years, yet THEY manage to maintain a thriving community and new software STILL comes out for that machine. And a C-64 isn't nearly as nice or as powerful as a IIgs. Think about it. :-) -Dean Esmay (A2.DEAN, CAT5, TOP4, MSG:34/M645;1) >>> F.Y.I. <<< """""""""""""" ALTERNATIVE NETWORKS FOR GEnie SprintNet is the new name for Telenet, """""""""""""""""""""""""""""" one of the major public data networks. It has many local nodes throughout the country. There's a $2 per hour surcharge to use SprintNet for GEnie access, though. You dial up a local node, tell SprintNet what system you want to connect to, and it connects you. You can reach systems like Dialog, Knowledge Index, and Dow Jones News/Retrieval through SprintNet. It's well worth knowing about, even if you don't want to use it for GEnie. You can get the details from GEnie for free under PHONES. -Bill Dooley (A2.BILL, CAT3, TOP13, MSG:6/M645;1) GEnie SLOWDOWN? HERE'S WHY Here's an explanation of the problems we've """"""""""""""""""""""""""" had with slow system response these last few days: > GEnie User's RT Category 1, Topic 10 > Message 12 Wed Dec 02, 1992 JOHN.J [GEnie SysDev] > at 10:20 EST > There is no question that system performance has been atrocious > the last two nights. We have been in the middle of a system > reconfiguration that (believe it or not) is intended to improve > GEnie performance. We were at least as surprised (and dismayed) > as you folks by the current results. There are a number of > things we can do to alter the new configuration to address the > current problems, and we will be making changes again today. I > wish I could say that all will be well tonight, but I can't. We > went with the intuitively correct configuration Monday and were > proven very wrong, so it may take us more than two tries (last > night's was clearly a bummer) to get it right. > GEnie is a distributed system, and all of the bulletin boards, > software libraries and real time conferences are on different > systems (which we're not messing with) so you should see good > performance once you get there even if it's painfully slow > getting there. I'm convinced the changes we're making will > ultimately make for a better, more responsive, GEnie, but I > admit I grossly underestimated the difficulty of the transition. > My apologies to all who have been inconvenienced. > John -Bill Dooley (A2.BILL, CAT3, TOP13, MSG:12/M645;1) {Sometimes the average GEnie user is not aware of happenings that affect them online. A2 strives to bring information of this sort the attention of all. Well informed users = Happy users. -Ed.} >>> WHAT'S NEW? <<< """"""""""""""""""" HYPER-PAST AND FUTURE For general information: Roger Wagner Publishing, """"""""""""""""""""" Inc. started under the name "Southwestern Data Systems" in August, 1978, and is, I believe, THE oldest operating company providing Apple II products other than Apple Computer, Inc. Our newly announced HyperStudio for the Mac has been described as "an addition, not a transition", and it's as good a description as any of our current position. We have a number of new Apple II-related products still under development, and only one Mac product: HyperStudio for the Mac. Our company mission at this point is to provide the best personal multimedia authoring tools available, particularly for K-12 education, but also suited for home and family users. In that direction, we also intend to continue our position as a valuable resource for anyone with questions about multimedia. Regardless of what Apple Computer does with the Apple IIGS on their price list, the Apple IIGS remains the best bargain for personal multimedia, and offers the most capability for the vast majority of users. Sales of new Apple IIGS computers have been diminishing for some time now, primarily due to the success of those who would like to sell other models in convincing the public at large that the Apple IIGS is a dated and insufficient machine. For myself, I will continue to use the Apple IIGS as my primary presentation tool, and show people what the machine offers. For those with eyes to see the value there, the machine remains an exceptional value. I deeply appreciate the support given to me and my company over the past many years by computer users the world over, and hope to continue to earn that support by our continued enthusiasm for personal creativity and expression via the personal computer. By the way, the summer of 1993 will offer the first "HyperStudio Festival", to be held in San Diego, California. I hope to see you there! -Roger Wagner (ROGER.WAGNER, CAT5, TOP2, MSG:24/M645;1) [*][*][*] In the following sections we present a variety of interesting posts that have appeared during the last month in the bulletin boards for A2. These messages can be identified by the footer attached to each item. (See the introductory notes on how to interpret the footer.) If you find the topic, excerpt, or just the interplay between various people to be stimulating, then please jump to that topic on a weekly basis and read about developments in the Apple II community. Our hope is that you will find something new and interesting each month in the A2 bulletin boards. If you are serious about your APPLE II, the GEnie Lamp staff strongly urge you to give the bulletin board area a try. There are literally thousands of messages posted from people like you from all over the world. /////////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "Well, I have time on my hands every evening 6 'til Midnight. / / GEnie is my girlfriend. :-( " / ///////////////////////////////////////////////////// MUSE //// [EOA] [HUM]////////////////////////////// HUMOR ONLINE / ///////////////////////////////// Quayle Season Is Almost Over! """"""""""""""""""""""""""""" By Charles Johnson [CODEHEAD] >>> POLITICAL PONDERINGS <<< """""""""""""""""""""""""""" WE'RE GONNA MISS YA! I always get a kick out of people who say, "The """""""""""""""""""" media picks on Dan Quayle" and "Quayle's not so bad!" Hey, just because everybody says he's a moron doesn't mean he isn't! The fact that Dan Quayle could reach the second-highest office in the land says something deeply terrifying about American politics. But in a way, his retirement from the vice presidency is also very sad. Poignant, even. We've gotten some of the biggest laughs of our lives from Mr. Potatoe Head, and I, for one, will always be thankful. How can we ever forget his chihuahua-like attack-dog strategy, in the debate with Al Gore? ("You know what you're doing? You're pulling a Clinton!!!") His wonderful way of paraphrasing fables and aphorisms? (Like the time he said, "Give a man a fish and he'll fish for a day; teach him to fish and he'll fish for life.") Or his monumental gaffs -- like when he posed for a picture in El Salvador with a grenade launcher aimed at his own elbow? How can we ever forget that picture in Time magazine of J. Danforth Quayle with a fly resting between his eyebrows? I had to stop typing for a while to laugh at that one again. He he he. Or the time he visited the cleanup workers at the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and told them to "have a great day!" Or the fact that he voted for a special tax break ... for golf pros??? One of my favorites, Quayle explaining why he favors sending humans to Mars (this is a direct quote): "Mars is essentially in the same orbit. Mars is somewhat the same distance from the sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe." This is funny, funny stuff, and it wasn't just every once in a while. Compilations of his hilarious misstatements and slapstick clowning fill books. Republican, Democrat, liberal, conservative, who cares? Danny boy, yer a certified stalk of broccoli, but arrr, we'll miss ye! - Charles (CODEHEAD, CAT18, TOP10, MSG:192/M475) //////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "Ooooohhh Nooooo! Not the handles debate again!!! :-)" / //////////////////////////////////////// R.WATSON15 //// [EOA] [A2P]////////////////////////////// A2/PRO_ductivity / ///////////////////////////////// What's Up Doc? """""""""""""" By Jim Couch [J.COUCH] >>> A2PRO REORGANIZES <<< """""""""""""""""""""""""" December was a busy month in A2 Pro. Probably the biggest news was the reorganization of the Roundtable. Most of the categories have remained essentially the same but some have changed a bit. Some topics have been moved to more appropriate categories. The biggest change is that Byte Works has formalized their support in A2 Pro and they have their own category. Here is a list of the current A2 Pro categories: CATEGORY 1 : A2Pro Roundtable Business CATEGORY 2 : Programming in 6502 Assembly CATEGORY 3 : Programming in 65816 Assembly CATEGORY 4 : Programming in C CATEGORY 5 : Debugging CATEGORY 6 : Programming in Pascal CATEGORY 7 : Programming with ProDOS 8 and other 8-bit Operating Systems CATEGORY 8 : Programming with GS/OS and ProDOS 16 CATEGORY 9 : Programming in BASIC CATEGORY 10 : Tools and Utilities for Programmers CATEGORY 11 : Algorithms, Design, Data Structures and File Formats CATEGORY 12 : Hardware and Peripherals CATEGORY 13 : Developer Information Center CATEGORY 14 : Other Programming Languages CATEGORY 15 : Using the Apple IIgs Tool Box CATEGORY 16 : Developer and User Lounge CATEGORY 17 : Communications and Networking CATEGORY 18 : HyperMedia Programming CATEGORY 19 : Development Environments and Shells CATEGORY 20 : DAs, Inits, Control Panels, Modules, Parts and Friends CATEGORY 21 : The Human Interface and You CATEGORY 22 : A2 University CATEGORY 30 : Procyon, Inc. Online CATEGORY 31 : Softdisk Publishing Online CATEGORY 32 : Morgan Davis Group (MDG) Programmers' Exchange CATEGORY 33 : GS+ Magazine Online CATEGORY 34 : JEM Software Online CATEGORY 35 : Lunar Productions Online CATEGORY 36 : The Byte Works Online Welcome to Byte Works Online For those of you who enjoy the fine support """""""""""""""""""""""""""" that Byte Works provides in A2Pro, but had trouble finding them things just got easier. All of the Byte Works topics can now be found in Category 36! Mike Westerfield has provided wonderful support to Byte Works customers via A2 Pro for ages. Byte Works has formalized that support with official participation in Category 36. the many Byte Works topics, which were formerly spread throughout A2 Pro are now gathered into one category. Byte Works also now has their own A2 Pro library, #36! As if all this weren't enough Mike Westerfield joined the A2 Pro folks in a Real-Time Conference December 13th to talk about the upcoming ORCA/C v2.0! A transcript of the RTC is available in the A2Pro library. Category 36, The Byte Works Online currently features 29 topics dealing with the numerous Byte Works products available to Apple II programmers: CATEGORY 36 : The Byte Works Online ==================================== 1 The Byte Works, Inc. 2 Catalog 3 Rumors, Wishes and Vaporware 6 ORCA/M 8-bit Assembler 7 ORCA/M 8-bit O/S Source 8 ORCA/M 8-bit Floating Point Libraries 9 ORCA/M 16-bit Macro Assembler 10 ORCA/Pascal 11 ORCA/C 12 ORCA/Integer BASIC 16 The ORCA Shell 17 Linker 18 Text-Based Editor 19 Prizm Desktop Development Environment 20 Utilities 21 Learn to Program Pascal 22 Toolbox Programming in Pascal 23 Learn to Program C 24 Toolbox Programming in C 25 Programmer's Reference for System 6.0 26 ORCA/Disassembler 27 Design Master 28 Talking Tools 29 ORCA/Debugger But Wait There's More! Byte Works is not the only company that offers """""""""""""""""""""" online support in A2Pro. Many other companies offer formal support via the roundtable and our listed in the Categories above. Here is what is happening with some of them: PROCYON, INC Procyon will be shipping 'Switch-It' very soon. Switch-It """""""""""" is a multiple application switcher for the GS. Also on the horizon from Procyon is an update to GNO/ME their UNIX like multi-tasking environment. Check out Category 30 for all the details. MORGAN DAVIS GROUP Morgan's 'History Buffer' is a regular on-line """""""""""""""""" newsletter you can find in Category 32. This newsletter contains information about goings-on at MDG, and other interesting tidbits. EVERYONE should check this out, even if you are not a programmer or MDG customer. Morgan's little on-line newsletter is well written and entertaining! JEM SOFTWARE Ultra 4.1 is now shipping and INCLUDES Ultra Extras! The """""""""""" improvements, added features, new utilities and capabilities over UltraMacros 3.X are nothing short of amazing! To get all the information on this new Appleworks programing language (macros long ago ceased to adequately describe this product) check out Category 34. LUNAR PRODUCTIONS If you are a registered owner of Foundation be sure to """"""""""""""""" check out Category 35. The latest version of Foundation (1.0.2) is a free upgrade to previous purchasers and is currently shipping. A2U News A2U continues to roll along. Will Nelken's fine Ultra 4.x class """""""" is finishing up with a contest for all participants. Check out Category 22, Topic 22 to see who will win the coveted Ultra 4 to the MAX T-shirt. If you wanted to get involved with Andy McFadden's 'Hacking Data Compression' course now may be your chance. Andy is busy working on his new file compression program for Westcode (HardPressed) and the class has slowed for a bit. Now might be a good time to jump in and get caught up. Once HardPressed is finished Andy's class will be back up and rolling. Check Category 22, Topic 23 to get involved. Ultra Extras Becomes Ultra 4.1 Roger, as I've been telling folks """""""""""""""""""""""""""""" whenever possible, Ultra 4.1 _is_ a updated Ultra 4.0 along with Ultra Extras. There is no separate UE disk, or separate U4.1 disk w/o UE. JEM Software now offers one product only, Ultra 4.1, which is priced at the combined Ultra 4.0 and Ultra Extras price of $60, apart from any special offers. In other words, you now have no choice- if you want Ultra 4, you will get Ultra Extras, like it or not. :-) Ultra Extras is dead, long live Ultra 4.1! (BRANDT [Randy], Category 34, Topic 8, Message 21, M530;1) Ultra 4.0 - 4.1 Changes > Can you list the bug fixes/new """"""""""""""""""""""" > features/changes for 4.0 to 4.1? Yes. Oh, you weren't just wondering if I could, you actually wanted me to do it? Here goes, off the top of my head: o updated clock init solves some early problems, displays according AW date/time settings o updated Debug 2.0 adds more power including breakpoint debugging o added oa-H init does screen shots to clipboard or printer o Macros2Menus lets you convert macro programs to TimeOut apps o macro titles allow you to pick a macro from a scrolling list without having to know the keystroke command; just press SA-Esc from the macro menu, paralleling OA-Esc for the TimeOut menu o 60 new dot commands add everything from handy menu stuff like boxes, scrolling lists, etc., to extended math for BIG numbers, new input commands such as .getvalue, .getstring, .getinput, commands to search and sort string vars, returns dates in various formats, draw thermometers to display macro progress, etc. You can even change the speed macros run at to create hands- off demos, and if you have a IIgs you can change screen colors, and get the time with seconds. (BRANDT [Randy], Category 34, Topic 2, Message 7, M530;1) Announcing GSTape version 2 County Line Technology announces a new """"""""""""""""""""""""""" release of its premium tape archival program. GSTape is a fully file oriented, backup and restore utility for the Apple IIGS, offering the convenience that GS owners have come to expect in a desktop program, and providing power that advanced productivity users appreciate. Among the current users of GSTape include companies, government agencies, schools, bulletin boards, and others who demand the convenience of tape backup. The new version continues to provide the original GSTape features such as: incremental backup, image backup, multiple backups per tape, point and click selection of files/directories/volumes, numerous restoration choices, backup logging, friendly prompts and warnings, etc. Version 2 adds RamFAST support, System 6 and HFS compatibility, backup scripting, timed backups, and a new fast backup mode for ProDOS partitions and streaming tapes (4-5 megs per minute using a Teac or Archive drive and a DMA card). System Requirements """"""""""""""""""" o Apple IIGS with 2 megs memory o GS/OS System 6 o Apple SCSI card (rev C or HSDMA) _OR_ o C.V. Technologies RamFAST SCSI card (Rom 3.0 required) Tape Drives """"""""""" o Apple (3M) 40 meg o Teac SCSI 60 or 150 meg o Teac SASI (CMS/Sider, RamFAST required) o Archive Viper 150/250 Availability GSTape can be purchased directly from County Line """""""""""" Technology for $35 US, check or money order, shipping included. Rev 1 owners may upgrade for $15 (include serial number). Demonstration disk available for $5. Add $5 for shipments outside of the USA. Tim Grams County Line Technology P.O. Box 462283 Garland, TX 75046 USA (214) 495-7675 (TGRAMS [Tim], Category 1, Topic 4, Message 49, M530;1) Jim Murphy to Intern at Apple I am pleased to do another "Local Boy """"""""""""""""""""""""""""" Makes Good" announcement with his permission, even though I had little to do with it: Our own Jim Murphy (A2PRO.JIM) has accepted an intern position with the Apple II Continuation Engineering group beginning in January. Jim is a junior at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA, studying computer science. Through the normal Apple intern program, he'll be helping our friends Dave Lyons and Tim Swihart and company produce things like 6.0.1 and beyond before returning to Drexel sometime in late 1993 to continue his studies. (At least in theory -- I started out on a five-month internship in March 1988 and I never went back. Go figure.) Jim's been responsible for the past six months (has it been that long already?) for helping answer questions here in the bulletin board, maintaining our product support and beta-test areas and generally being helpful. He's also the author of Big Edit Thing, Big Crunch Thing and is the chief designer and author of ScriptEdit and HexEdit, the generically- useful editing parts of Foundation, Lunar Productions' resource editor for the Apple IIgs. Jim will be continuing his work here in A2Pro before and after his move to California later this month, because he knows that since he'll be local, I'll pummel him about the upper torso if he tries to quit. Please join me in congratulating Jim on taking on a lot of thankless work for not nearly enough credit. :) --Matt (I speak for myself, not for Apple) (M.DEATHERAGE, Category 1, Topic 17, Message 44, M530;1) Softdisk Looking for Programmers Softdisk Publishing is now accepting """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" applications for in-house programmers. If you can program in 6502 or 65816 assembly, enjoy short-term projects and are willing to relocate to Shreveport, LA, send your resume to: Softdisk Publishing ATTN: Lee Golden 606 Common Street Shreveport, LA 71101 (btw: Just think you might be able to work alongside Jay and Bryan ;-) (SOFTDISK.INC [Zak], Category 13, Topic 8, Message 91, M530;1) Why You NEED those Tech Notes Believe it or not a common mistake a lot """"""""""""""""""""""""""""" programmers make is thinking that they Toolbox References are Correct. In fact, the technotes are just as, if not more important than having the references. There are _tons_ of corrections, examples, clarifications in the technotes that you really _need_ to know. If you have trouble downloading, you can purchase (and when you consider that you are paying $6 an hour to download, the price isn't that bad) the entire set of technotes (over 200 of them) from Resource Central. You can also just get specific groups: only GS/OS or only IIGS, but I recommend getting them all just to be safe. The price for all of them is about $60 and well worth it. (SOFTDISK.INC [Zak], Category 15, Topic 14, Message 40, M530;1) Jim Couch Tacoma, Washington /////////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "The last 10% always takes 90% of the time. I think it's some / / unwritten programmer's law. :-} " / //////////////////////////////////////////////////// DITEK //// [EOA] [MOO]////////////////////////////// CowTOONS! / ///////////////////////////////// Moooooo Fun! """""""""""" (_/^\_) By Mike White /~~~~~\ [M.WHITE25] / \ | )|( | \_ | _/ | * | || || ~~ ~~ " Last Bull Moon of 1992 " ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cowbell [======-o-======] _/|\_ /~~~ ~~~\ / \ / (__)) \ / (cc)) \ / /-------\// \ / / | || \ / * ||----|| \ / ~~ ~~ \ ( ) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\\~~~~~~~~~ ~O " Ringing in the Moo Year " ) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ( ) ( * * CowTOONist Mike White took us up on ) (,/^\,) . (,/^\,) our offer so often that we decided ( (o o) . (o o) to make him our CowTOON cowlumnist. ) /(.) \_/ /(.)\ Watch for a thunderin' herd of Moo Fun ( | ~_/~| / ~ \ coming to future issues of GEnieLamp. * |\ | ~ / \ / \ ( " | | ~ ~ | If you have an idea for a CowTOON, we \ \ \_ _/ would like to see it. And, if we pick || \\ //^|| your CowTOON for publishing in GEnieLamp || // \\ || we will credit your account with 2 hours ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ of GEnie non-prime time! " Barn Dance " ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ January 1, 1993 Happy Moo Year! ///////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "Luck? Oh. I was trying to play with skill. ;-) / /////////////////////////////////// POTECHIN //// [EOA] [PRO]////////////////////////////// PROFILES / ///////////////////////////////// Who's Who In Apple II """"""""""""""""""""" By Phil Shapiro [P.SHAPIRO1] >>> WHO'S WHO? <<< """""""""""""""""" ~ A GEnieLamp Profile of Ellen Rosenberg ~ Editor-In-Chief: A2-Central Newsletter GEnieLamp> Ellen, can you tell us a little about how you first became """"""""" involved with Apple II computers? Ellen> My life as a computer-obsessed person started only about four """"" years ago with a Laser 128 computer. My son started pestering his dad for a computer (I didn't need convincing) when he was about four and won the battle when he was ten. It took us that long to convince the major breadwinner that a computer was more than just another screen to sit in front of. Actually, I don't think that we ever did convince him but he got tired of fighting the war. We couldn't talk him into a genuine Apple and we didn't mind starting with a clone. I was hooked from day one, so much so that a few months later I asked for a printer for Mother's Day and a modem for our anniversary one month later. The modem opened up worlds unknown. I lost neighborhood friends but gained online ones. My phone was constantly busy, the common things that a stay-at-home mom normally did, suddenly didn't get done. I got active in my local user group and took on the editorship of the user group newsletter. I had taught school full time before I had children and very part time afterward but I must admit that doing the editing thing grabbed me in a way that I hadn't been grabbed before. I'd found myself. Well, I'd found myself but my husband felt like he was losing me. "If you're going to fool around on the computer all day long," he said, "why don't you find a way to be paid for it?" This was getting serious. He meant it. So my brain went into gear. GEnieLamp> When and how did you come to work for Resource Central? """"""""" Ellen> A fitting second question. """"" When we first got that Laser 128, I started reading inCider and A+ magazines. I believe that was the time that inCider (or was it A+?) cited A2-Central as the best Apple II publication around and noted that its publisher and founder Tom Weishaar, lived in Overland Park, Kansas. Incredible, I thought. I'm living in the same town as this famous newsletter publisher! I called and asked for the two issue free trial subscription, but decided after perusing the publication that it was "too technical" for me. I passed on paying for a yearly subscription. Well, I guess that A2-Central and I were meant to be, because a few months after my free trial ended, I won a year's subscription at our user group's summer picnic. The more I read, the more it all made sense. While I might not have understood everything in every issue, it was beginning to seem less daunting. This was all about the time that laundry was piling up at home, home-cooked meals were becoming scarce and my family was becoming more jealous of the time I spent with my computer. We traded in the Laser 128 for a used Apple IIgs that a neighbor was selling. Had it been left up to me, we would have kept the Laser 128. But selling it was conditional to buying the IIgs. My husband continued to complain about my hours on the computer and I knew that I'd have to find a way to make a living at this or else. It seemed more than ironic that A2-Central's office was a few miles from my house. At that time the KansasFest conference was a few months away. I was drooling to go but knew it wasn't in the budget. There had to be a way. I knew a couple of the guys from the user group who worked at A2-Central, but had never met Tom Weishaar. I decided to write a letter to him and for months composed clever letters in my head. Finally, one day I took a deep breath, sat down and wrote (actually typed) an unsolicited plea for employment. I didn't know the guy and if he read my letter and laughed cruelly as he threw it in the trash, I'd never know it and he'd never know me. To my surprise, a few days after I wrote that letter he called. We met for lunch and the rest is history. I started work at the end of April, 1991 as a "front end" type person doing, among other things, low-level customer support. After six or seven months Tom asked me to take over the editorship of A2-Central. Big city girl makes good in small town. I still say that the unedited version of this story would be a great article for one of those Good Housekeeping success stories. GEnieLamp> Many admirers of A2-Central would be keen on hearing how the """"""""" publication is put together each month. Can you tell us briefly about what goes into assembling the publication each month? What are the parts of the work you like best? Ellen> I get submissions from various people or former editor Dennis Doms """"" writes an article or two. After looking over the submissions, I decide what I'm going to use each month. Once that decision has been made, I usually edit the copy in Classic AppleWorks on my IIgs. I write the Miscellanea column and the Ask (or Tell) Uncle Dos section that way as well. When the text approaches printable form, I dump it all into QuarkExpress on the Mac and do the fine print stuff like bold-facing and other style details. I try to remember to change the page numbers and the issue dates on the templates and only have slipped twice in the year that I've been doing this. (That's a record, I think. Or I may be tied with Tom Weishaar, but he's been publishing newsletters for years and years.) Before the newsletter leaves our office, Tom always give it the final once over. Then it goes to a commercial art service to be readied for the printer. GEnieLamp> Any amusing anecdotes about office life at Resource Central? """"""""" Ellen> Lots of amusing anecdotes really, but I wouldn't want to spoil our """"" image! I have the pleasure of working with an exceptional bunch of people and most days don't seem like work at all. GEnieLamp> Most unusual phone call? Most extraordinary letter? Most """"""""" distant Apple II user? (i.e. Tibet? Nepal?) Ellen> We get a variety of unusual phone calls and letters. Mostly from """"" people who want technical help and want it now. One person who called recently was indignant because I couldn't tell her which version of the system software she was using without her reading the label on the disk which she didn't have with her. We have subscribers literally all over the world. Australia is probably the furthest away but we've got customers in lots of little countries in Europe, South America, Africa and Asia as well. GEnieLamp> Which person do you think has had the greatest influence on """"""""" your choosing to pursue a career in computers? Ellen> I can't really say that anyone really influenced me to pursue this """"" career, except for maybe my husband who threatened to divorce me if I didn't start getting paid for what was becoming an all-consuming hobby. Of course, if it hadn't have been for Tom Weishaar, I wouldn't be answering these questions, either. GEnieLamp> Your role as editor of A2-Central, the leading national """"""""" publication for Apple II programmers, places you with one foot in the "humanities" and one foot in the "hard sciences." Do you have any thoughts about whether these two intellectual "modes of thought" are reconcilable or not? Ellen> First of all, we don't consider A2-Central to be a publication for """"" programmers. We feel that it's a newsletter aimed at all Apple II users who want to get the most from their computer. This includes everyone from the novice to the power user. Our slogan, so to speak, is that we're a "journal and exchange of Apple II discoveries." An international clearinghouse of ideas and innovations. Humanities and hard sciences are indeed reconcilable. Technology has, and is, giving the arts new means of expression. It's hard to even envision how far and how wide computers can take us into seemingly unrelated fields. GEnieLamp> In the computer industry, both hardware and software companies """"""""" are overwhelmingly populated by men. Even Apple Computer itself has just a handful of women in the company's upper echelon. What are your ideas for helping bring greater gender equity in the profession? What can schools do to help? The role of women in the computing fields is probably changing for the better, as it is in all fields of business. I read recently that the majority of small businesses today are owned by women. We bought an expensive computer software program to run the business earlier in the year from a local company owned by a woman. Things are looking up. Schools should reinforce positive feelings about computers and the computer field in general as well as other non-traditional areas for women. Positive role models and mentorships are essential. GEnieLamp> Soon you'll be editing A2-Central from your new home in Texas. """"""""" Do you have any comments to share about how tele- communications has had a liberating effect on the workplace? What are the down sides to working from your home, do you think? Ellen> I feel incredibly lucky that I'll be able to take my job with me """"" when my family moves to Dallas sometime early in 1993. It's one of the things that will make the move more bearable. Naturally, without telecommunications, I probably wouldn't be afforded this luxury. This opportunity will probably have some good and some bad points. It will be great to work from home, to be there for the kids when they get home from school or when they're sick and have to stay home. It probably will require a good deal more discipline than comes naturally for me, though. I'll miss going into the office everyday and I'll definitely miss the interaction with my coworkers. I'll miss answering the phone and chatting with customers. I'll miss the office birthday parties too. I will have more time to explore my computer again, the way I did before I started working. This may end up being the best of both worlds. GEnieLamp> Favorite authors? (Any good books you've read recently?) """"""""" Ellen> Read? Read? Who has time to read anymore? I used to read """"" voraciously but now feel like I'm ahead of the game if I get to read the headlines. Maybe when I get to Dallas... I do listen to National Public Radio almost exclusively these days, though. Unless I'm in the car with my daughter who has to listen to the local rock stations. GEnieLamp> How about a few words on what GEnie has offered to A2-Central, """"""""" and vice-versa? Ellen> I think the A2 RoundTable on GEnie does an extraordinary job of """"" supporting Apple II computers and the people who use them. The technical level of expertise here is as good and solid as it can possibly be. As the support from developers and mail order houses diminish, the online services (and user groups) become all the more important. More and more, we're recommending that our customers get hold of a modem and telecommunications software in an effort to get quick answers to their questions. A2-Central will be around as long as we're supported by the users. We have to face the fact that many Apple II users are either moving on to, or adding another platform to their computer desks. Tom is starting a new publication, Fishhead's Children, to address the needs of our subscribers as they learn other systems. But we're not about to give up on the Apple II until our subscribers tell us that it is financially ridiculous to do so. //////////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "I've always known you to be the king of rhetoric, but I never / / knew you could do contortionist gymnastics in ASCII. ;^)" / /////////////////////////////////////////////////// WALLY.W //// [EOA] [QUI]////////////////////////////// THE MIGHTY QUINN / ///////////////////////////////// The Guru of My Dreams """"""""""""""""""""" By Mark Quinn [NEWSIE] "A Whole Buncha Milliseconds with Mark" by Mark Quinn, DOA GEnie address: NEWSIE "The Guru of My Dreams" """"""""""""""""""""""" The time comes for all good (or bad) computer users: that fateful middle-of-the-night-on-a-Sunday hardware/software problem that rears its head(s). Perhaps your problem is that you just want to install a program/device, and are biting your nails over whether it will mesh properly with the rest of your system. Staying productive means keeping your system happily crunching bytes into bits, and it also means keeping your hardware 'current'. Let's face it: a mere mortal such as I can't give you an answer as to how to proceed in such situations. You need a guru. No, let me amend that. You need a Guru, with a capital "G". What is the difference between a guru and a Guru? A guru will "seem to know everything"; a Guru will have some solutions. A guru will find excuses; a Guru will find solutions. A guru will always do the job "next week"; a Guru will do it ASAP. A guru will meditate and make things worse; a Guru will fix the problem. A guru gives out a lot of bad advice; a Guru checks other sources to make certain his advice is up to date. A guru finds working with hardware/software 'mysterious and challenging', but hates it with a passion -- yeah, and it's going to be a minor miracle if your system survives his/her tomfoolery; a Guru loves her job _most_ of the time, and will be aware of most of the problems which she will encounter. At the very least, she will return your system to you in the same condition she found it. A guru will plunge right ahead in tricky situations, sometimes with disastrous results; a Guru will admit that she needs help, and get on the phone/modem until she gets it. A guru will either trash or "half-repair" your system, get it "half- working", and let it sit there for a couple of months/indefinitely; a Guru will see your problem through to an end which satisfies both of you. A guru will sometimes tell you "There is no problem. Your system worked the last time I left it, and is working now. YOU'RE the problem"; a Guru will try to the best of his ability to explain things/get your system working to your satisfaction, and failing that, refer you to a person/source of information which can. A guru will make appointments that he doesn't have any intention of keeping, and generally avoid you like the plague when he's confronted with problems he can't handle -- he'll never admit defeat; a Guru will tell you flat out: "Look, this is out of my field. You need the advice of another Guru." (This may seem contradictory. After all, why should a true Guru refer you to another Guru? The first expert should know everything there is to know about hardware/software. Sorry, folks, but that's patently impossible, given the amount of information that your basic Guru has to weed through.) A guru can never be a Guru. The two are like oil and water. (I have yet to meet a Guru, at least, in the IBM realm. If you know of one of these gallant and magical beings who just happens to live in my neck of suburbia -- GET HIM THE HE** OVER HERE!) /////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "This looks like 'The People's Court', without da judge!" / /////////////////////////////////////////////// J.P.C. //// [EOA] [HAR]////////////////////////////// HARDVIEW A2 / ///////////////////////////////// Floptical Disk Drive For The IIGS """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" By John B. Wilson [JBWILSON] >>> TEST DRIVING TULIN'S NEW FLOPTICAL DISK DRIVE <<< """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" ~ On My IIGS ~ Last summer I started thinking that I was missing out on computing in the 90's by staying with my 1979 Apple ][+. So, when a member of the local Apple user group said that he was selling his Apple IIGS, I decided it was time to move. After all, his machine had all the trimmings - - a 20 megabyte Applied Engineering (AE) Vulcan hard drive, an AE 8 MHz Transwarp accelerator card, an AE 2400 Datalink internal modem, a 1.75 Meg AE GS-Ram card, and an AE PC Transporter card. What more could I possibly need? Well, I've had the new system for six months and I now know what I desperately need - - - MORE STORAGE. Twenty megs of storage seemed like a lot when compared with an Apple ][+ with a 20 Meg Sider that was only 60 percent full. I knew that GS/OS programs were big but I did not truly appreciate that big data files go with big programs. In the two operating system environment, MS-DOS and GS/OS-ProDOS, in which I operate I quickly filed up the Vulcan and faced the decision of how to add additional storage. My choices included a 105 Meg SCSI hard drive, an Apple 1.4 Meg Super Drive, or a 21 Meg floptical drive. All three options required another interface card and I was running out of slots - only 4 and 5 were still available. And, the winner was -- the 21 Meg floptical drive from Tulin connected to a RamFAST SCSI card. The Tulin won over the Applied Engineering floptical (which uses the same internal mechanism) because for about the same price, Tulin included two 21 Meg disks formatted with System 6.0, a $25 value. One of the factors that led me to chose the Tulin floptical was the drive's ability to read and write 1.4 Meg disks, giving me more disk storage options. Backing up my 20 Meg Vulcan could be done with 14 (1.4 Meg) disks rather than 25 (.8 Meg) disks. Of course, I could use just one 21 Meg floptical disk. The other factor was the forecast that Apple would be releasing in early 1993 a new version of GS/OS System 6 (V6.01) which would include a File Structure Translator (FST) that would enable ProDOS to read (and maybe write, but that's another rumor) MS-DOS disks. However, only the Apple SuperDrive would be able to use the new FST unless one considers the floptical. Since the floptical uses the same disk format as MS-DOS drives, all that was needed to read a MS-DOS disk was the new GS/OS FST. With the FST and the floptical, I could bring home a 1.4 Meg MS-DOS disk from work, insert it into the floptical, and using AE's PC Transfer program, I could move the data to the MS-DOS partition on my Vulcan. Actually, I can do that with my current 800k disk drive but I am restricted to the 720k MS-DOS disks. Being able to do all of this remains to be proved after the new MS-DOS FST is released. Maybe that will be material for another story. When my new drive arrived I immediately pulled out the manuals for the drive and the RamFAST SCSI card and read them cover-to-cover (that's what everyone does first, isn't it?) before installing the card. The installation was smooth and uneventful once I had decided to use slot 4. (As a side comment, setting slot 4 to "YOUR CARD" in the Control Panel meant that I would not be able to use the mouse in any ProDOS 8 programs or with the PC Transporter. GS/OS programs, however, can see the mouse regardless of the setting of the Control Panel.) The RamFAST card comes with its own installation program built into the card's firmware and will install the SCSI driver and RamFAST.System file on to the drive that you select. All went as advertised until I tried to startup the system. Then, everything came to a screeching halt. After a long-distance call to Tulin (they do not have an 800 number) and a long discussion with Francis, it was finally decided that I needed to turn DMA (direct memory access) off because my AE-GS Ram was not DMA compatible. Once the proper setup was established, I was off and running with another 21 Megs of storage. Now that I have broken the ice by getting a SCSI interface card, the possibilities for chaining a CD-ROM drive or replacing my Vulcan (freeing up slot 4) becomes an option. For the RamFAST and the floptical to work together properly requires ROM V3.00k on the card. If you have already upgraded your RamFAST to ROM V3.00 but do not have a "k" then I understand that CV Technology will provide the necessary upgrade without charge. Otherwise, a full upgrade from rev C boards to rev D V3.00k is available by returning your card to CV Tech along with a check for $79.00. Most of my experiences to date have been positive. I have divided one floptical disk into a 10 Meg volume for ProDOS and a 10 Meg volume for the PC Transporter. ProDOS recognizes the drive on the Finder as a removable hard drive allowing the disk to be ejected by dragging it to the Trash Can. Changing disk from within a program, however, requires a "straightened" paper clip inserted into the tiny hole below the disk window, like the original 128K Mac's because the Tulin drive does not have an eject button. From the pictures in the magazine ads, it appears that the AE floptical does have an eject button. The PC Transporter is not as flexible. It sees the drive as a fixed hard drive (/:D, in my case) and goes ballistic if the disk is removed. One of these days, I am going to format a 1.4 Meg disk as a small MS-DOS (/:D) drive with the same PCT volume name as the floptical and see if I can make the switch. I thought that two disks (42 Megs) would be plenty but disks make an easy way to sort programs and data. And, if one has a lot of data, like sound files for HyperStudio from Roger Wagner Publishing, the flopticals can put a large quantity of storage on line without committing large sections of your hard drive. In fact, depending on the level of sampling (5 to 10 K per second), one floptical disk could provide 25 to 35 minutes of digital sound. I had one problem with one of the floptical disks. It somehow lost its configuration block so the Finder would not recognize it asking if I wanted to initialize it. If, however, I ran RamFAST.SYSTEM and reset the partitions, it would work until I removed or rebooted the machine. To solve the problem, I backed up the two partitions (ProDOS and MS-DOS) using the Finder Archiver and repartitioned the disk using RamFAST.SYSTEM. After I restored the two volumes, everything was back to normal. As I mentioned, Tulin sells additional disks for $25 but I have been able to find the same brand, InSite Peripherals, locally at CompUSA, which sells a SCSI floptical for the MS-DOS world. Their price was $29.95. In closing, let me relate my experience at the new Computer City Super Store when I asked them about floptical disks. When I told the salesperson that I had put a floptical disk drive on my Apple IIGS, he asked, "Why would you want to put such new technology on such an old machine?" My answer was, "because I can!", which to me says it all. The Apple IIGS (properly equipped with a hard drive, System 6.0, and an accelerator) is a powerful machine. As long as I can do the things I want a computer to do, it will remain the computer of choice. /////////////////////////////////// / 21 Meg Floptical Drive / / Price: $489 / / SCSI Card extra / / / / Tulin Technology / / 2156H O'Toole Avenue / / San Jose, California 95131 / / 408-432-9057 / / / /////////////////////////////////// [Thanks are owed to Steve Weyhrich for suggesting the idea for this article, and to Tulin Technology for their steadfast support of the Apple II.] ////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "I have no comment on anything at this time. / / Well, maybe not anything." / //////////////////////////////// POTECHIN //// [EOA] [FUN]////////////////////////////// ONLINE FUN / ///////////////////////////////// Search-ME! """""""""" By Scott Garrigus [S.GARRIGUS] WELCOME BACK! Well, the holiday season has come and gone. Did everyone """"""""""""" get what they wanted from Santa? Oh, and I hope you all made some really good New Year's resolutions! I've decided to spend more time keeping in touch with my friends. :-) Now on to this month's puzzle. Just cause the holidays are over doesn't mean we can't have some fun, right? :-) This month I visited the GEnie Livewire Chat Lines. This is the place to be if you want to find some new friends this year! Here you'll find people who are interested in all the things you could possibly be interested in and more. There's even a Chat lines library with pictures from some of the Chat lines regulars. So check out the GEnie Chat lines and make a few new friends! To get there type M400 or use the keyword CHAT. But before you do, be sure and solve this months puzzle! It'll help you to remember those Chat Line commands! Happy New Year! :-) >>> LIVEWIRE CHAT LINES <<< """"""""""""""""""""""""""" R L L M W H K Z H H F C R W L C V M Q R E G N U Z L T O Q Y X U L D D T I N X K N A L B X S H E Y D K S S N J M R B E X I T U M V Q M C V Y A X P Q D R U V A D Y Y X A P M P W T R B X T J N H Z S E N O Z B E E N F D H O A A M O C D T H D B Y S N U Q A C V H J I H T M T R T Q J T L Y L W U X X I H L D L U S R B N G G Q K A I L R L E H V N O D I L N G R L X P V K V R S B Q O X T G F J B B E Q E B E H K X F P A D R D R L T X C O L V H G T V V N B L T F L B V G G Y M L H S A K J J A B G S F I I B Z E J X K S S G A P N J A L V E T L V U U L Q J H K H A Q Z N F K F R G I W C Q S H Q T Y E G A C R N G N T P J S L R L Y H S E N D Z A X N H V O N E K W B M A P N H I O I O Z K D P T D F X T L T P C S N C G L R D H E M O K T D J S Z N I B V T Z L L F F L L V Z Q W G N R G H D E H N V Y E H C O K D B U A H C L E U Q S R S A N O L Z F A B H S U K E G C Z F O I J Y Q N L Z M J V F G V W R P R G W G R Y F E M I T R R U M BLANK BYE CALL CHANNEL ECHO HANDLE HELP MONITOR PRIVATE SCRAMBLE SEND SHOW SQUELCH STATUS TIME USERS WHO XBLANK XECHO EXIT QUIT [*][*][*] GIVE UP? You will find the answers in the LOG OFF column at the end of """""""" the magazine. This column was created with a program called SEARCH ME, an Atari ST program by David Becker. /////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "It's teeth that dissolve in Coke, not bolts. / / Topic, people, topic..." / ///////////////////////////////// BAREFOOT //// [EOA] [DIG]////////////////////////////// DIGITAL DIVERSIONS / ///////////////////////////////// Games People Play """"""""""""""""" By Darrel Raines [D.RAINES] Program Name : Solarian GS Filename : SOLARIAN.GS.BXY V1.0.1 Library Area : 21 Program Number : 19761 File Size : 262528 Program Type : Arcade Game Version Reviewed: 1.0.1 File Type : Shareware [*][*][*] *** WARNING: Addictive material contained within! ** """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Solarian GS This is a very likely candidate for the best shareware arcade """"""""""" style game to ever be created for the Apple IIgs. This game claims to be patterned after a similar game on the Macintosh. I have never seen the Mac game, but this one is a real winner. Warning, Warning: Solarian is deceptively addictive. Great quantities of time may be wasted by the unwary player who thinks, "Just one more crack at it before I go to bed." Play at your own risk. The object of the game is to clear a level of attacking aliens. They come in different shapes, sizes and attack characteristics. Some of them will simply float around and do nothing. Some will shoot at you. Some will drop bombs at you. And some will even try to dive down and crash into your ship. What does our fearless player have to defend himself/herself with? Not much, actually. The initial craft that the player starts with moves and shoots very slowly. The ship will only fire one gun at a time and takes a while to reload. The shields to protect the ship are not fully charged. This doesn't sound like a picnic, for the good reason that it is not. All of these deficiencies can be cured during the course of a game by catching presents that fall from the sky. One present will fall (fully wrapped) during each level. The ship's defensive powers are improved by catching these presents. The presents sometimes give extra points, as well. The presents aren't all positive, though. Watch out for the dreaded "Nothing" present. You can build up your ship's powers until you have quite a powerful craft. However, if you manage to allow the aliens to destroy your ship, then you must start over with one of the dismally plain vanilla ships. Lose three ships and you are out - - - game over. On the other hand, if you manage to clear a level, then another level will provide you with more of the nasty aliens to wipe out. A top ten scores list is maintained to stroke your ego. Sound and visual effects are equal to the best game software that I have ever seen on the IIgs market (including commercial software). Online instructions and a worthy cause (elementary education) for the shareware payments round out a very nice offering for the IIgs gaming crowd. Every IIgs owner should download this file. Just be sure to remember the warning posted at the first and last of this section. *** WARNING: Addictive material contained within! ** """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" /////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "There seem to be more off topic than on topic messages. / / Therefore, don't sweat it; but don't do it again [grin]." / ////////////////////////////////////////////// BRIAN.H //// [EOA] [CLA]////////////////////////////// A2 CLASSICS / ///////////////////////////////// Forget Me NOT! """""""""""""" By Darrel Raines [D.RAINES] Blackjack Tutor V3.0 This is a somewhat older upload that needs to be """""""""""""""""""" mentioned from time to time so that it is not forgotten. Blackjack Tutor is much more than a Blackjack game for the Apple IIgs. It is a Blackjack training system that will teach you how to play, assess appropriate hit/stand decisions, and even count cards. Spending a few hours with this program will get you ready for the Vegas Blackjack tables. You may even be able to play for many hours without losing your shirt. One of the integral features of Blackjack Tutor is the ability to learn "proper" playing techniques by having the Tutor prompt the player during the game. The rules that this program uses for making its decisions are completely modifiable. Therefore, you can use a system described in a book, or even one that you create yourself. After entering all of the pertinent information in the preference lists, you can even test out your latest set of rules by turning on the automatic play option. During automatic play you can watch as the computer keeps track of your winnings (or lost money, as the case may be). A graph can be drawn if you wish to get a visual image of your status. You can also adjust the rules used by the computer for the amount of each bet. Virtually unlimited control is available to the user of this program. If you are planning a trip to the Blackjack tables anytime soon, then you need to download a copy of this program. If you like to play Blackjack and want to improve your play without going to Vegas, then this program is for you. If you just like to play card games, then how can you possibly go wrong by downloading this game. Be sure not to miss this all time favorite Tutor program. ///////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "Thanks.. I learn something new, here on GEnie everyday..." / ////////////////////////////////////////////// T.EVANS21 //// [EOA] [PDQ]////////////////////////////// THE ONLINE LIBRARY / ///////////////////////////////// Yours For The Downloading """"""""""""""""""""""""" By Phil Shapiro [P.SHAPIRO1] Program Name : Shove It GS Filename : SHOVEIT.BXY Library Area : 21 Program Number : 19544 File Size : 68096 Program Type : Addictive Puzzle Game Author : Peter Brinkley [P.Brinkley] Version Reviewed: 1.0 File Type : Freeware [*][*][*] If you like sliding piece logic puzzles and you own an Apple IIGS computer, you're bound to find the new Shove It GS freeware game absolutely captivating. In some ways Shove It is reminiscent of the popular Sokoban puzzles that are available on other computer platforms. But Shove It goes way beyond any other version of Sokoban you might have seen. Not only does Shove It give you fifty mind-teasing puzzles to solve. You can also download complete solutions to all of the puzzles and watch the puzzles solve themselves, in a "puzzle movie," right on your computer screen. Or you can watch an "instant replay" movie of your own attempts to solve any of the puzzles. The object of Shove It is simple: push the colorful rainbow colored apples one-by-one around the mazes to the storage areas. The difficulty is that you're only allowed to push one apple at a time. Moving all the apples over to the storage area therefore requires some circuitous pushing. Invariably you'll find yourself getting into one kind of jam or another, with the apples getting stuck in corners or against each other. But if you persevere you'll encounter great delight in discovering the solutions to some of these fiendishly fun puzzles. You say challenging puzzles are not your bag? No problem. You can easily design your own puzzles using Shove It's built-in puzzle editor. Designing puzzles itself can be an interesting exercise in creativity and reasoning. My own preference is to modify existing puzzles, simplifying the difficult puzzles by replacing some of the apples and storage areas with bare floor space. Editing existing puzzles saves yourself the chore of creating your own original maze walls. The other day I had a chance to play Shove It with an energetic third grader. We played the puzzles for almost forty-five minutes before I suggested that we try designing some of our own puzzles. The young fellow's eyes lit up on this suggestion. We proceeded to load puzzle number 49, one of the most difficult puzzles on the Shove It disk. It took us no more than three to four minutes to simplify the puzzle by removing apples and storage areas. (Please note: You need to always remove an equivalent number of apples and storage areas. Otherwise Shove It will not allow you to save and play your edited games.) We were somewhat disappointed to discover that the puzzle we designed did not have any possible solutions. But after loading the puzzle back up into the puzzle editor, we were able to easily modify the puzzle to make it solvable. Having tasted the fruit of puzzle design, my young friend insisted on trying his hand at designing a puzzle from scratch. Fifteen minutes later, to my amazement, this young fellow had designed his own puzzle from scratch. The entire puzzle was created with about seventy to eighty mouse-clicks - - - well within the capability of a third grade puzzle designer. I must admit that I was a little surprised to find that my young friend's puzzle was solvable without going back to make further modifications to his original design. It appears this young fellow has an equal talent at solving puzzles as he has at designing them. Speaking from a teacher's point of view, Shove It GS can be very beneficial in teaching younger and older students about the concept of forces in physics. One of the wonders of the microcomputer is that it can bring alive such vital scientific concepts in a game format. The analysis skills that Shove It develops would certainly be transferable to any type of higher level mathematics, as well. But you don't need to tell your third grader this game is preparing him or her for advanced algebra and calculus. Chances are the child is having too much fun to notice, anyway. A big thanks is owed to Peter Brinkley, the inspired programmer who created Shove It. While Peter does not explicitly request a shareware fee in his freeware notice, chances are he wouldn't refuse a monetary gift you sent his way. Programmers like Brinkley deserve both our gratitude and financial support. One final note: The gorgeous color graphics from Shove It GS do not show up well on a composite color monitor. So if your Apple IIGS has a composite color monitor, rather than an RGB color monitor, you may find it difficult to see the shapes in the game. -Phil Shapiro [*][*][*] [The author takes a strong interest in the social dimensions of communications technology. He can be reached on GEnie at: p.shapiro1; on America Online at: pshapiro; and on Internet at: pshapiro@pro-novapple.cts.com] ///////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "HELP! I just received my copy of Straight Fax! today and I / / can't even install it! I don't know if its 'Komputer Karma' / / or what, but if there is a problem when it comes to / / installing anything, I run into it! / ///////////////////////////////////////////////// J.NYMAN //// [EOA] [AII]////////////////////////////// APPLE II / ///////////////////////////////// Apple II History, Part 8 """""""""""""""""""""""" By Steven Weyhrich [S.WEYHRICH] >>> APPLE II HISTORY <<< """""""""""""""""""""""" Compiled and written by Steven Weyhrich (C) Copyright 1991, Zonker Software (PART 8 -- THE APPLE IIC) [v1.1 :: 12 Dec 91] INTRODUCTION Apple II historian Steven Weyhrich brings us yet another """""""""""" detailed and informative chapter in his 23 part series on the history of the Apple II. This month, the intriguing story of the Apple IIc. [*][*][*] PRELUDE: STEVE JOBS AND MACINTOSH Rewind back to 1982, before the Apple """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" IIe was introduced, and adjust the tuning on our Flux Capacitor-enhanced peripheral card. Before dealing specifically with the smallest Apple II, the IIc, it would help to take an aside and look at some other events happening at Apple Computers, Inc. at this time that affected its development. If you recall, the Lisa project was designated as the computer that was considered to be the future of Apple. From a series of parallel processors and a "bit slicing" architecture, to a focus on the Motorola 68000 microprocessor as the controller of this advanced computer, the project had been progressing very slowly. It was begun back in 1979 with the same focus as any other Apple product: "Both [Apple III and Lisa] had been conceived of as nifty pieces of hardware rather than as products to appeal to a specific market: At Apple you designed a box and people bought it because it was neat, not because any thought had been given to what it would do for them."<1> However, a significant change occurred in 1979 when Xerox bought a large chunk of Apple stock. In return for being allowed this stock purchase, Xerox allowed some of their research ideas to be used in designing an office computer. After Steve Jobs visited the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in 1979 and saw the user-interface on their Alto computer--icons, graphics-based text characters, overlapping windows, and a pointing device called a "mouse"--the Lisa took on a distinct personality that made it possible to become the ultra-computer Apple needed. This was important, since by 1981 Apple executives were getting sweaty palms worrying about the future. The Apple III was clearly NOT taking the business world by storm. Unfortunately for Jobs, who was excited about using the Xerox technology in designing a new computer, he was excluded from the Lisa project. After the problems associated with the introduction of the Apple III, a reorganization in 1980 moved the Apple II and III into one division, and the Lisa into another. Lisa was put under the control of John Couch, and Jobs was not allowed to participate. Since Lisa had been taken away, Jobs in 1981 began to assemble a team to "out-Lisa the Lisa" by creating a smaller, less expensive computer that would do the same thing. Jef Raskin, the engineer that helped design it, called it Macintosh. While the Macintosh developed as a pirate project with a smaller team and less money than Lisa, the concept of an "appliance" computer also emerged. Instead of those messy slots and a lid that popped off (which made the Apple II so popular with the hacker community), Jobs' team was sold on the idea that all necessary features should simply be built-in and the case sealed. It would be something that you just plugged in, turned on, and started using. With the Xerox Alto mouse/icon/window interface it would not only be easy to set up and turn on, but also easy to use. THE APPLE IIC: BEGINNINGS What was happening with the Apple II during """"""""""""""""""""""""" this time? The efforts to make it less expensive to build were progressing, and the Apple IIe was in the formative stages. In the summer of 1981 someone proposed a portable Apple II, a book-sized computer. It wasn't until Steve Jobs became interested in it as engineering challenge, well after Macintosh was under way, that anything came of the idea: "...one day late in '82, Paul Dali showed him [Jobs] a photograph of a Toshiba portable and they started fooling around with the idea of an Apple II that would look like the Toshiba but come with a built-in disk drive. They took out a IIe circuit board and a disk drive and a keyboard and played with them until they arrived at a promising configuration--keyboard in front, disk drive in back, circuit board in between. What got Jobs excited about this idea was the engineering difficulty of squeezing it all into a package not much bigger than a notebook. And a machine so small wouldn't have the expandability that characterized all the other II's. Like Macintosh, it could be taken out of the box, plugged in, and put to work--no extra parts to buy, no cables to figure out. It was the II reinvented as an appliance."<2> As with all Apple projects, the IIc went by various code names during its development, for the sake of internal communications and to keep outsiders from knowing what was going on. The various names used included VLC (Very Low Cost), Yoda, ET, IIb (for "Book"), and Teddy (which stood for "Testing Every Day"). Also, following a long standing tradition at Apple, some of the code names assigned to the project at various times were names of children of people at Apple: Chels, Jason, Lolly, Sherry, and Zelda. These names persist in the source code for the firmware for the IIc as later printed in the technical reference manual; the serial port driver is called a "Lolly" driver.<3> During the time the IIc was under development, Apple was working on a change in the look of their products. They planned a more European styling, and a color scheme called "Snow White". The IIc would be the first product with the new appearance and color. THE APPLE IIC: HARDWARE As mentioned earlier, the IIc had its origins """"""""""""""""""""""" while the IIe project was going on. When Steve Jobs became involved, he felt they should continue with the open IIe as they had planned, but do this other Apple II as a product "focused" to a specific group of customers, primarily new users. Originally he had planned a closed Apple II that had a built-in mouse port, one serial port, and some other features. What they ended up with at that point was just a computer and a keyboard. Walt Broedner, the engineer who pushed for the Apple IIe to be produced, used some of their previous work with custom IC's for the disk controller and combined both projects together to make the IIc.<4> Although he was told it was not be possible, Jobs strongly pushed for the mouse in this closed Apple II to be compatible with the Macintosh mouse--and they managed to make it work.<2> Regarding the plans for a single serial port, however, Apple's marketing people pointed out to Jobs that many people were going to want both a printer AND a modem, so they added a second port to the original design. They decided to use serial ports on the IIc instead of parallel ports for a couple of reasons. First, the socket for a serial port is smaller than a parallel port, and it would fit better onto a small box like the IIc. Also, Apple's general direction at the time was to get consistency in its hardware, and they had decided to make everything they made use a serial interface.<4> They began work on the Apple IIc in earnest right after the IIe was finished. Because they were trying to squeeze an Apple IIe with 128K, 80 column routines, two serial cards, disk controller, and a mouse card into an 11 by 12-inch case, the design challenges were greater than with the IIe (recall that this was what appealed to Steve Jobs). The size of the case was determined by the decision to make it able to fit into a standard-sized briefcase.<4> Apple also had the international market in mind when they designed the IIc. A special chip containing the keyboard map could easily be changed depending on the country where the computer would be sold, to make it consistent with regional keyboard differences. The external pushbutton would switch between the two different keyboards, between a UK and German layout, for example. In the U.S. version of the IIc it switched from a standard Sholes keyboard (also known as "QWERTY") to a Dvorak keyboard (which allows faster touch typing). The decision for the foreign keyboards came first; the added bonus for American versions of getting Dvorak came as an extra bonus, to save having two different cases (one for US and one for foreign versions).<4> One problem in creating such a compact computer was dealing with heat production. Apple engineers wanted it to be able to function in environmental temperatures up to 40 degrees Celsius (about 104 degrees Fahrenheit). One article published at the time of its introduction mentioned jokingly that the designers wanted to make the IIc capable of doing a long disk sort (sorting data in a disk file) while on the beach in Florida in the summer! Their major obstacle was the heat generated by the internal 5.25 disk drive. They tried some special low power drives (which would have been much more expensive), but they didn't overcome the heat problem even with them. Eventually they tried a complicated venting scheme that was designed by drilling holes into a case and putting it into an oven to let them measure internal temperatures. The engineers were surprised when they found that the normal power disk drive worked and generated less overall heat within the case than the special low power drive did. The only explanation they could come up with was that the normal power drive generated enough heat to cause it to rise, which pulled cool air in through the vents by convection.<4> THE APPLE IIC: FIRMWARE Since they used the newer 65c02 chip, which ran """"""""""""""""""""""" cooler and had 27 additional commands that could be used by assembly language programs, Apple's programmers had some new power to use in firmware design. Such power was needed to squeeze in all the firmware code for the IIe, plus code for the disk controller, serial cards, mouse card, and 80 column card into 16K of ROM space. The firmware for the IIc was written by Ernie Beernink, Rich Williams, and James Huston. They designed it to look (to a software application program) exactly like a IIe with an Apple Super Serial Card in slots 1 and 2, an 80-column card in slot 3, a mouse in slot 4, and a Disk II in slot 6 (though there were NO slots in hardware). Since these first IIc's had nothing emulated in slot 5, the firmware authors immortalized themselves by making a "ghost" peripheral appear to be present in that slot. Entering this Applesoft program: 100 IN#5 : INPUT A$ : PRINT A$ and running it would print the names of the authors. (They used a decoding scheme to extract the names, character by character, so a simple ASCII scan of the ROM would not show their little trick). This "feature" had to be removed in later revisions of the IIc ROM, because an actual disk device was added then to slot 5.<4>,<5> What about the unassigned slot 7? Here they put a small piece of code to allow booting from the external 5.25 drive by typing "PR#7" from Applesoft. The programmers fixed some known bugs in the IIe ROMs, and added 32 graphics characters they called MouseText. To make MouseText fit they removed the ability to use flashing characters (when in 80 column mode) and replaced those characters with MouseText. Apple veteran Bruce Tognazzini designed the MouseText characters, which included a picture of a running man (perhaps to suggest "running" a program). He later sent a letter to Call-A.P.P.L.E. magazine to warn programmers that the Running Man characters (assigned to "F" and "G") had been determined to be unnecessary and would probably be replaced eventually. (This did eventually happen, but not with the IIc). Beernick, Williams, and Huston also made some minor changes to the Applesoft part of the ROM. They fixed things so Applesoft commands could be entered in lowercase (and translated into uppercase). They removed the Applesoft commands that were specific to the obsolete cassette interface (which was absent in the IIc) and made Applesoft more compatible with 80 columns.<4>,<6> They did NOT go so far as to make any major changes in Applesoft to use the newer 65c02 commands and therefore fix known bugs or add features to this seven year old language. Their reluctance stemmed from the fact that historically many BASIC programs had made use of undocumented assembly language entry points in Applesoft, and any changes they would make here made it more likely that older programs would crash unexpectedly.<4> THE APPLE IIC: PRODUCT INTRODUCTION Apple's introduction of the new IIc """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" came at an "event" at the Moscone Center in downtown San Francisco on April 24th, 1984. It was entitled "Apple II Forever", and was described as "part revival meeting, part sermon, part roundtable discussion, part pagan rite, and part county fair". Apple's objectives here were to introduce the Apple IIc, describe how it fit into the company's marketing strategy, show off new software that was made to work with the new computer, and emphasize that Apple was still firmly behind the Apple II line of computers. (Steve Jobs also took some of the time to report on the sales of the Macintosh in its first 100 days).<7> One of the interesting things they did at the "Apple II Forever" event was the actual introduction of the IIc. Giant video screens were used to show previews of Apple's TV commercials for the IIc, as well as slides and images of the speakers, including Wozniak, Jobs, and Apple's new president, John Sculley. Sculley spoke of "sharing power", and then demonstrated that in a unique way: "After holding up the tiny IIc for everyone to see and eliciting a response that they'd like to see it better, Sculley ordered the house lights on. As the light burst forth, nearly every fifth person in the audience stood up, waving high a IIc. As startled dealers cheered uproariously, the Apple plants passed the IIcs to them. Within seconds of its introduction, more than a thousand Apple dealers had a production-line IIc in their hands."<7> When Jobs gave his report on the Mac, it revealed some interesting statistics. He told them that the first industry standard was the Apple II, which sold fifty thousand machines in two and a half years. The second standard was the IBM PC, which sold the same amount in eight months. Macintosh had done sold its fifty thousand machines only 74 days after its introduction. Although sales would not be nearly as good, Apple took orders that day for fifty thousand Apple IIc's in just over seven HOURS. At the "Apple II Forever" event, they also had a general software exhibition and a setup called the Apple II Museum. This contained Apple memorabilia, and included Woz's original Apple I, and a reproduction of Steve Jobs' garage where it was built. Although not on the schedule, "Apple II Forever" included an early-afternoon earthquake centered south of San Jose that measured 6.2 on the Richter scale. THE APPLE IIC: SUCCESS? Their original goal had been to sell the IIc for """"""""""""""""""""""" $995. As productions costs turned out, they found that they couldn't hit that price, so they came up with $1,295, balancing the decision with the number of people who were predicted to buy the optional Monitor IIc or an external Disk IIc drive. The only problem was that although the IIc was a technological breakthrough in miniaturization, customers at that time didn't value smallness. They viewed something that was too small as also being cheap and lacking power. Although the Apple IIc was equivalent to a IIe loaded with extra memory, a disk drive, two serial cards, and a mouse card, most customers seemed to want the more expandable IIe. Apple marketing went to much effort to make the IIc attractive, but it didn't sell as well as the IIe. Just as IBM overestimated the market when producing its PCjr (which eventually failed and was discontinued), so did Apple when producing the IIc (and the original Macintosh).<7> THE APPLE IIC: OVERCOMING LIMITATIONS Although the IIc did not have any """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" slots for plugging in peripheral cards that had traditionally been used in the Apple II, the ports that were built-in had the capability to do much of what the slots had often been used for. The serial ports were compatible with any serial device; this included common ones such as printers and modems, and uncommon ones like security controllers, clocks, and speech synthesizers. Some third party companies also supplied serial-to-parallel converters for IIc owners who wanted to use parallel printers made by Epson, Okidata, and C. Itoh that were popular elsewhere in the computer world. There was, of course, the AppleMouse IIc sold by Apple. It plugged into the game port on the IIc. Also available were two types of touch tablets: The Power Pad (Chalkboard) and Koala Pad (Koala Technologies), though the latter sold best. The Koala pad would appear to a program to be the same as a joystick, but could not emulate the mouse.<8> The disk port on the original IIc was only designed to control an external 5.25 disk drive. Apple sold the Disk IIc for $329, and other companies later sold similar drives for less. Despite this firmware limitation, Quark Engineering released a 10 MB Winchester hard drive called the QC10 that would work with this disk port, and was the first hard disk available for the IIc.<8> The video port worked with a standard monitor, but had access to all video signals. Included with the original IIc was an RF modulator that allowed it to be connected to a standard television (for color games). An RGB adapter box attached to the video port would allow a true RGB monitor to be attached, giving color and sharp, readable 80 column text on the same monitor. Apple also sold a flat-panel liquid crystal display for the IIc that attached to this video port. It was capable of 80 columns by 24 lines, as well as double hi-res graphics. Apple's price was about $600, but it looked somewhat "squashed" vertically, and did not sell well. Another company marketed a better flat panel liquid crystal display called the C-Vue. With a battery attached to the 12V input, and a liquid crystal display, the IIc could be made into a truly portable computer.<8> THE APPLE IIC: ENHANCEMENTS The earliest change made available for the """"""""""""""""""""""""""" IIc was a motherboard swap that fixed a hardware bug causing some non-Apple modems to fail if used at 1200 baud. This modification was made only if the owner could show they needed the change (that is, they owned a 1200 baud modem that wouldn't work). The first significant upgrade available for Apple IIc owners was also available as a free upgrade for previous owners. Changes were made to the disk port firmware to accommodate the new 800K UniDisk 3.5. Using Apple's Protocol Converter scheme (later called "Smartport"), this new IIc could handle four 3.5 disk drives, or three 3.5 disk drives and one 5.25 drive. With the UniDisk 3.5 upgrade, the internal 16K ROM was increased in size to a 32K ROM that was bank-switched to make space for the extra code necessary to implement the Smartport. Also added were additional serial port commands to improve compatibility with the older Super Serial Card. The Mini-Assembler, absent from the Apple II ROMs since the days of the original Integer BASIC Apple II, was added back in, with support for the extra commands provided by the newer 65c02 processor (the disassembler had always supported those new commands). The STEP and TRACE Monitor commands made a comeback, having also been a casualty of the 1979 Autostart ROM for the Apple II Plus. Lastly, the new IIc ROMs included a built-in diagnostic program to do limited testing of the computer for internal failures, and had improved handling of interrupts.<9> The next Apple IIc upgrade was known as the Memory Expansion Apple IIc. This came as a response to requests for the ability to add extra memory to the IIc. Applied Engineering had already produced a Z-80 coprocessor for the IIc (to allow access to CP/M software), and an expanded memory card, up to 1 MB, which would either act as a RAMdisk for ordinary ProDOS applications, or as extra memory for the AppleWorks desktop (through a special patching program). Seeing the popularity of this, Apple released this third version of the IIc ROMs and motherboard, this time with a RAM expansion slot included. The Apple IIc Memory Expansion Card could take up to 1 MB of RAM, in 256K increments. The firmware in the new ROMs made it work as a RAMdisk automatically recognized by ProDOS and following the Smartport protocol that had been designed for the UniDisk 3.5. Apple even included code in the new ROM to patch DOS 3.3 so it could be used as a RAMdisk with that system (400K maximum size), and did the same with Pascal v1.3. Also, because this firmware was in the motherboard ROM, ANY company could make memory cards to attach to this version of the IIc. Other changes made in this version of the IIc ROM included moving the mouse firmware from slot 4 to slot 7, and putting the RAMdisk firmware into slot 4. Also fixed was a bug that caused a write-protected 3.5 disk to be incorrectly identified with early versions of the UniDisk 3.5.<9>,<10> Since code as complex as ROM firmware rarely makes it out the door without at least one bug, Apple had to make one final improvement to the IIc ROM. The Revised Memory Expansion Apple IIc (ROM version 4) included changes which made it easier to identify if no RAM chips had been installed on the memory card. A problem with keyboard buffering was also fixed. Lastly, this version of the ROM resolved an obscure bug in the slot 2 firmware that was supposed to allow the IIc to function as a simple terminal (with a modem attached to that port). The previous version of the IIc ROM had been assembled with a couple of wrong addresses in the code, and the terminal mode produced garbage. Few people used this feature, so it was not noticeable to most users, and the corrected ROM chip was therefore not as quickly available as the original Memory Expansion upgrade. [*][*][*] NEXT INSTALLMENT: Disk Evolution / The Apple IIc Plus NOTES """"" <1> Rose, Frank. WEST OF EDEN: THE END OF INNOCENCE AT APPLE COMPUTER, 1989, p. 48. <2> Rose, Frank. WEST OF EDEN: THE END OF INNOCENCE AT APPLE COMPUTER, 1989, pp. 110-112. <3> Hogan, Thom. "Apple: The First Ten Years", A+ MAGAZINE, Jan 1987, p. 45. <4> Williams, Gregg. "'C' Is For Crunch", BYTE, Dec 1984, pp. A75-A78, A121. <5> Little, Gary. INSIDE THE APPLE //C, 1985, pp. 1-7. <6> Weishaar, Tom. "Miscellanea", OPEN-APPLE, Aug 1985, pp. 1.61. <7> Durkee, David. "Marketalk Reviews", SOFTALK, Jun 1984, p. 120. <8> Baum, Peter. "Expanding The Unexpandable IIc", SOFTALK, Jun 1984, pp. 95-97. <9> -----. "Preface: The Apple IIc Family", APPLE IIC TECHNICAL REFERENCE MANUAL, 1984, 1986, pp. xxiii-xxv. <10> -----. APPLE IIC MEMORY EXPANSION CARD OWNER'S GUIDE, 1986, pp. 2-4. ////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "I did discover that the game can be paused with the / / (ta-da) 'P' key." / /////////////////////////////////////// M.ALLEN14 //// [EOA] [ELS]////////////////////////////// GEnieLamp ELSEWHERE / ///////////////////////////////// Computer NewsCenter On GEnie """""""""""""""""""""""""""" By John Peters [GENIELAMP] ~ W E L C O M E T O ~ C O M P U T E R & E L E C T R O N I C S N E W S C E N T E R """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" COMPUTER NEWSCENTER NOW AVAILABLE So, what exactly is the Computer """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" & Electronic NewsCenter? The Computer & Electronic NewsCenter is a database where you can quickly find the latest product announcements, software and hardware reviews, editorials and industry trends from a wide variety of computer science journals and recently released government reports. All of this is available to you by simply entering a word or phrase, and then selecting the type of source you're most interested in. Some articles have informative abstracts while others contain the full text. Articles and abstracts you can download are from Byte Magazine Plus, Computer Database(TM), Computer ASAP, (more than 45 computer publications) Engineering/Technology Journals, Government-Sponsored Research from the NTIS database, newsletters come from the PTS Newsletters database, (contains more than 500 consumer, business and professionally-oriented newsletters,) physics journals from the INSPEC database and software reviews from Microcomputer Software Guide. That's the good news. The bad news is that having all this power at your fingertips isn't free. If you don't plan your searches carefully, you can easily run up a large bill in a matter of minutes. Clearly, this is not a place for browsing or window shopping! One of the disadvantages of owning an Atari ST (and I have heard the same said for other GUI systems as well) is that GUI users tend to develop the bad habit of jumping into the program head first and only resorting to the documentation when all else fails. Well, being the GUI lover that I am, I ignored the above warnings, threw caution to the wind and jumped into the Computer NewsCenter headfirst. In hindsight, I strongly recommend that you do not do the same! However, you can take advantage of my boldness, (and lack of common sense :) and learn from my mistakes. But before we do, let's jump to the bottom line. The Computer NewsCenter is a GEnie$Professional service which means that there are additional charges over and above your normal online charges. To search through the millions of records and to provide a list of those sources will cost you $2.50. It's another $4.50 to view up to the first 10 record titles per source on your topic. For each group of up to 10 titles, sources marked 'Summaries' cost $4.50 and sources marked 'Fulltext' cost $6.00. Full records that include a summary of the article cost $4.50, and those that contain the fulltext of the article cost $6.00 for each full record. If by some chance your search request comes up with no hits, you are charged $1.25. Fortunately, a practice area is available so that you can learn the basics of fulltext online searching at a greatly reduced cost. Note however that the Practice Area does *NOT* include all sources or all years. The charges which apply to practice searching, in addition to GEnie's hourly connect rates are Groupsearch - $1.00, Title Review - $1.00, Fulltext Review - $1.00 and a No-Hit Search - $1.00. Still with me? Let's get online! (I'll use a >>>> prompt to indicate my comments as we go.) [*][*][*] >>>>> First off, we pick option #14 from the GEnieLamp RoundTable menu """"" located on page 515. Here is the first menu: Computer & Electronics NewsCenter 1.[*]About the Computer & Electronics NewsCenter 2.[*]Computer & Electronics NewsCenter Rates 3.[*]Computer & Electronics NewsCenter Instructions 4.[*]Disclaimer & Warranty Limitations 5.[$]Search in the Computer & Electronics NewsCenter >>>>> Notice the 6.[*]Send Computer & Electronics NewsCenter FEEDBACK """"" [$] prompt! 7. GEnie Computing RTs and Services >>>>> Option #5 is the where the action is, so... """"" Computer & Electronics NewsCenter (Staff) Main Menu 1 Begin your search 2 See description of Computer NewsCenter (Staff) 3 See rates for Computer NewsCenter (Staff) 4 Return to GEnie 5 Practice in Computer NewsCenter (Staff) TRAINING AREA Your Computer NewsCenter (Staff) charges: $0.00 >>>>> Computer NewsCenter keeps track of your charges as you go along. """"" Nice touch. We forget the practice area, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead and we dive directly into the search area. Computer NewsCenter (Staff) 1 Search by Subject 2 Focus by Year Your Computer NewsCenter (Staff) charges: $0.00 >>>>> Here I need to set up the search pattern so I pick option #1. I """"" want to search for Atari articles (might as well make it difficult :) and I limit the years from 1989 to 1992. Computer NewsCenter (Staff) 1 Search by Subject ATARI 2 Focus by Year 1989:1992 B Begin your search Your Computer NewsCenter (Staff) charges: $0.00 >>>>> I enter B and hit the return key. Here we go! """"" IMPORTANT LEGAL INFORMATION: We have no reason to believe that errors exist in the data or services furnished. If there are any such errors the parties hereto have no liability for any consequential, incidental or punitive damages. No warranty, either expressed or implied, including but not limited to those of merchantability or fitness for a specific purpose is made. Any liability is limited to amount paid by you to GEnie. * * * * * * * * * * * * Hi, I am a Knowbot... your computerized online librarian. My job is to help you find information on your topic. While you're reading this, I'm already working -- checking all my sources to find the best places to start. I'm searching thousands of publications to find the articles and reports to find which ones are best for your question. In fact, I'm already working on your request. Next, I'll provide you with a menu which informs you which sources have information on your topic. Select one of these and I'll show you up to 10 titles. You can select from the list of titles and I'll get the full record for you. You can always come back to the list of titles and select other full records...or back up a menu and see titles from another source. I'm looking for the information... I'm still looking... I'm still looking... I'm still looking... I'm still looking... I'm still looking... >>>>> I envision Knowbot running around a I'm still looking... """"" bunch of file cabinets frantically I'm still looking... searching for the data. :) I'm still looking... After approx. 3 or 4 minutes, Knowbot I'm still looking... appears with the following report: Computer NewsCenter (Staff) Source Results 1 Computer Magazines (summaries).....213 2 Newsletters (fulltext)......181 3 Computer Magazines (fulltext)......175 4 Physics Journals (summaries).....113 5 Byte Magazine Plus (fulltext)........3 6 Engineering/Technology Journals (summaries).......3 P Modify this search >>>>> 688 hits! Not bad. Of course, it would cost a minor fortune to """"" download all of these hits and I really should back up a menu and enter in a couple of variables to narrow the search field. Naaaa... I go with number 3, Computer Magazines. Your Computer NewsCenter (Staff) charges: $2.50 I'm looking for the information... There are 175 records which match your search requirements. I will display the first 10 records now. Record 1 12834517 COMPUTER ASAP FILE 675 *Use Format 9 for FULL TEXT* Is the reverse true? (court case involving Nintendo of America Inc., Atari Games Corp. and Tengen Inc.; reverse engineering) (Law) (Column) AVAILABILITY: FULL TEXT ONLINE LINE COUNT: 00074 SOURCE FILE: CD File 275 Record 2 12659129 COMPUTER ASAP FILE 675 *Use Format 9 for FULL TEXT* Multiplayer VR-like games for Atari ST demonstrated. (virtual reality; Barefoot Software's Midi Maze computer game) AVAILABILITY: FULL TEXT ONLINE LINE COUNT: 00030 SOURCE FILE: NW File 649 Record 3 12653824 COMPUTER ASAP FILE 675 *Use Format 9 for FULL TEXT* Atari takes multimedia to extremes with Falcon30. (Atari Corp. introduces new multimedia microcomputer) (Product Announcement) AVAILABILITY: FULL TEXT ONLINE LINE COUNT: 00037 SOURCE FILE: CD File 275 >>>>> and so forth... Knowbot then sends out a Copyright notice and one """"" more menu to navigate. I choose #2, Get full record(s) Note that our current charges so far are $8.50. Trade Magazines OPTIONS 1 Get more record titles Titles not yet displayed: 165 of 175 2 Get full record(s) 3 Redisplay items already seen 5 Return to the Groupsearch menu Your Computer NewsCenter (Staff) charges: $8.50 Enter the record number(s) you would like to see, or type P for previous screen. (For example: 1,3,7,9-12): 3 I'm looking for the information... Record 3 12653824 COMPUTER ASAP FILE 675 *This is the FULL TEXT* Atari takes multimedia to extremes with Falcon30. (Atari Corp. introduces new multimedia microcomputer) (Product Announcement) Computergram International PAGINATION: CGI09250004 PUBLICATION DATE: Sept 25, 1992 ARTICLE TYPE: Product Announcement AVAILABILITY: FULL TEXT ONLINE LINE COUNT: 00037 SOURCE FILE: CD File 275 OPERATING PLATFORM(S): Motorola 68030 PRODUCT NAME(S): Atari Falcon030 (Microcomputer) - Product introduction COMPANY NAME(S): Atari Corp. - Product introduction DESCRIPTORS: Multimedia Technology; Microcomputers; Product Introduction SIC CODE: 3571; 3944 ISSN: 0268-716X ATARI TAKES MULTIMEDIA TO EXTREMES WITH FALCON030 Atari Corp's new Falcon030 multimedia computer sounds like the ultimate Christmas present for anyone that can afford $800. The Sunnyvale, Press or croll? S >>>>> Since we are dealing with copyrighted material, I'll stop here. """"" I can say that the information received is accurate and informative. Your Computer NewsCenter (Staff) charges: $14.50 [*][*][*] Is It For You? So, as you can see, the total cost of our Computer """""""""""""" NewsCenter adventure was $14.50. Too expensive? Well, that depends on how quickly you need the information the Computer Newscenter offers. In my opinion, that is the whole point of Computer NewsCenter. If I had an editor breathing down my neck looking for an article on the new Atari computer, then yes, having quick access to this data could mean the difference between making the deadline or not. However, there was nothing in this particular NewsCenter article that couldn't be found elsewhere, (like the ST RoundTable for example). But keep in mind that this was a fairly basic search. Where Computer NewsCenter would really shine is when you are looking for facts and/or information on a specific product or perhaps an obscure computer related topic. The Computer Newscenter is available from the GEnieLamp RoundTable menu (Page 515, option #14). /////////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "Super Thanks to all who've responded to my ???s about .INFs. / / I had no idea there was so much out there, or in here as the / / case may be. I am so new to all this power and to know that / / there is a host of knowledgable help here online is / / reassuring and gratifying." / ////////////////////////////////////////////// D.GILLOGLY1 //// [EOA] [LOG]////////////////////////////// LOG OFF / ///////////////////////////////// GEnieLamp Information """"""""""""""""""""" o COMMENTS: Contacting GEnieLamp o GEnieLamp STAFF: Who Are We? o GET_THE_LAMP Scripts & Macros o SEARCH-ME! Answers GEnieLamp GEnieLamp is monthly online magazine published in the """"""""" GEnieLamp RoundTable on page 515. You can also find GEnieLamp in the ST (475), the Macintosh (605), the IBM (615) Apple II (645), A2Pro (530), Unix (160), Mac Pro (480), A2 Pro (530) Geoworks (1050), BBS (610), CE Software (1005) and the Mini/Mainframe (1145) RoundTables. GEnieLamp can also be found on CrossNet, Internet, America Online and many public and commercial BBS systems worldwide. We welcome and respond to all GEmail.To leave messages, suggestions or just to say hi, you can contact us in the GEnieLamp RoundTable (515) or send GE Mail to John Peters at [GENIELAMP] on page 200. U.S. MAIL """"""""" GEnieLamp Online Magazine Atten: John Peters 5102 Galley Rd. Suite 115/B Colorado Springs, CO 80915 >>> GEnieLamp STAFF <<< """"""""""""""""""""""" GEnieLamp o John Peters [GENIELAMP] Editor-In-Chief """"""""" ATARI ST o John Gniewkowski [J.GNIEWKOWSK] Editor """""""" o Mel Motogawa [M.MOTOGAWA] ST Staff Writer o Terry Quinn [TQUINN] ST Staff Writer o Sheldon Winick [S.WINICK] ST Staff Writer o Richard Brown [R.BROWN30] ST Staff Writer o John Hoffman [JLHOFFMAN] ST Staff Writer ATARI TX2 o David Holmes [D.HOLMES14] TX2 Editor """"""""" ATARI [PR] o Fred Koch [F.KOCH] Editor """""""""" IBM o Peter Bogert [P.BOGERT1] Editor """ o Brad Biondo [B.BIONDO] IBM Staff Writer o Tippy Martinez [TIPPY.ONE] IBM Staff Writer MACINTOSH o James Flanagan [JFLANAGAN] Editor """"""""" o Richard Vega [R.VEGA] Mac Co-Editor o Tom Trinko [T.TRINKO] Mac Staff Writer o Bret Fledderjohn [FLEDDERJOHN] Mac Staff Writer o Bill Garrett [BILL.GARRETT] Mac Staff Writer MacPRO o James Flanagan [JFLANAGAN] Editor """""" o Erik C. Thauvin [MACSPECT] Supervising Editor o Chris Innanen [C.INNANEN] MacPRO Staff Writer o Paul Collins [P.COLLINS] MacPRO Staff Writer APPLE II o Darrel Raines [D.RAINES] Editor """""""" o Phil Shapiro [P.SHAPIRO1] A2/A2Pro Co-Editor o Mel Fowler [MELSOFT] A2/A2Pro Staff Writer o Jim B. Couch [J.COUCH2] A2/A2Pro Staff Writer A2Pro o COMING SOON! """"" INTERNET o Jim Lubin [JIM.LUBIN] GEnieLamp IBM """""""" ETC. o Jim Lubin [JIM.LUBIN] Add Aladdin """" o Scott Garrigus [S.GARRIGUS] Search-ME! o Bruce Faulkner [R.FAULKNER4] CrossNET Support o Mike White [M.WHITE25] Cowlumnist (CowTOONS!) o Lloyd E. Pulley Sr.[ST-REPORT] CPU Status Report (ctsey. STReport) GEnieLamp CONTRIBUTORS """""""""""""""""""""" o Keith Schafer [K.SCHAFER6] o Steven Weyhrich [S.WEYHRICH] o Robert M. Connors [R.CONNORS2] o John B. Wilson [JBWILSON] o David Hindman [D.HINDMAN2] >>> SEARCH-ME! ANSWERS <<< """""""""""""""""""""""""" + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + K N A L B X S H + + + + + S + + + + B E X I T + + + + + C + + A + + + + R + + + + Y + X + + + + W + R + + + + N + + + E + + + + E E + + + + O + A + + + + + + D + + S + + + + C + + + + H + M + + + + + + + + L + U + + + H + + + + S + B + + + + + + + + + + E + + + O + + + + + + L + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + B + + + E + E + + + + P + + + + + + + + C + L + + + T + + + + + T + L + + + + + + + H + A + + + A + + S + + I + + E + + + + + + A + N + + + V E + + + U U + + + H + + + + + N + K + + + I + C + + + Q T + + + + + R + + N + + + + + R + + H S E N D + A + + + + O + E + + + + + P + + + O + + + + + + T + + + T L + + + + + + + L + + + + + + + + + + S + + I + + + + + + + + + L + + + + + + + + + + + + N + + + + + O + + + + A H C L E U Q S + + + + O + + + + + H + + + + + C + + + + + + + + + + M + + + + + W + + + + + + + + + E M I T + + + + \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\//////////////////////////////////// Material published in this edition may be reprinted under the following terms only. All articles must remain unedited and include the issue number and author at the top of each article reprinted. Reprint permission granted, unless otherwise noted, to registered computer user groups and not for profit publications. Opinions present herein are those of the individual authors and does not necessarily reflect those of the publisher or staff of GEnieLamp. We reserve the right to edit all letters and copy. \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\//////////////////////////////////// (c) Copyright 1993 T/TalkNET Online Publishing and GEnie. To join GEnie, set your modem to 2400 baud (or less) and half duplex (local echo). Have the modem dial 1-800-638-8369. When you get a CONNECT message, type HHH. At the U#= prompt, type: XTX99368,GENIE and hit the return key. The system will then ask you for your information. Call (voice)1-800-638-9636 for more information about GEnie. \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\//////////////////////////////////// [EOF]***