|||||| |||||| || || |||||| |||||| || || ||| || || || || ||| |||| |||||| || |||| Your || || || || ||| || || |||||| |||||| || || |||||| |||||| GEnieLamp Apple II || |||||| || || |||||| RoundTable || || || ||| ||| || || || |||||| |||||||| |||||| RESOURCE! || || || || || || || ||||| || || || || || ~ Wow! 1ST ANNUAL GEnieLamp SWIMSUIT ISSUE! ~ ~ I BECAME A REAL GEnie JUNKIE ~ ~ WHO'S WHO IN APPLE II ~ ~ ASK DOCTOR BOB ~ ~ HOT FILES, HOT MESSAGES, HOT REVIEWS ~ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\//////////////////////////////////// GEnieLamp A2 ~ A T/TalkNET OnLine Publication ~ Vol.2, Issue 12 """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Press or croll?S 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 Digital Publishing Association ~ ////////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ >>> WHAT'S HAPPENING IN THE APPLE II ROUNDTABLE? <<< """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" ~ March 1, 1993 ~ FROM MY DESKTOP ......... [FRM] APPLE_TALK .............. [TAL] Notes From The Editor. Apple II Corner. HEY MISTER POSTMAN ...... [HEY] HUMOR ONLINE ............ [HUM] Is That A Letter For Me? By Any Other Name... ASK DOCTOR BOB .......... [ASK] LAMP_WIRE ............... [LAM] Gotta Problem? Gotta Answer! Late Breaking A2 News. CowTOONS! ............... [COW] REFLECTIONS ............. [REF] GEnieLamp Swimsuit Issue. Thinking Online Communications. LIFESTYLES .............. [LIF] TELETALK ONLINE ......... [TEL] I Became A Real GEnie Junkie! Online Communications. THE MIGHT QUINN ......... [QUI] PROFILES ................ [PRO] Random Access. Who's Who In Apple II. THE ONLINE LIBRARY ...... [LIB] ONLINE FUN .............. [FUN] Yours For The Downloading. Search-ME! APPLE II ................ [AII] LOG OFF ................. [LOG] Apple II History, Part 10. 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 //// / "I do want to thank each and everyone of you, for all your / / input & help.. This is what GEnie'ing is all about!!" / ///////////////////////////////////////////// T.EVANS21 //// [EOA] [FRM]////////////////////////////// FROM MY DESKTOP / ///////////////////////////////// Notes From The Editor """"""""""""""""""""" By John Peters [GENIELAMP] FROM MY DESKTOP A GEnieLamp Swimsuit issue? Yup! Hey, if SI can do it, """"""""""""""" why not GEnieLamp? Our resident CowToonist says, "These bovine barnyard bathing beauties are truly livestock lovelies, heavenly heifers, stockyard stunners, and Cowtoon Cuties. They should be udderly amoosing to anyone who never thought they'd see cows in 2-piece swimsuits." I agree! Definitely something you don't want to miss! AMAZING! Ten years ago I thought a 30 to 50K magazine was large. Now """""""" it's unusual for T/TalkNET Online Publications to publish a magazine less then 150K. Of course, there are reasons for this situation. For one, 300 baud modems were the norm back then; 1200 baud was the top end and 2400 baud was reserved for the elite few who could afford them. Secondly, those who could afford it, had 64K of RAM. Third, floppy drives were $800.00+, and hard drives were just a fantasy to most of me. Thankfully, all of that has changed. Today 2400 baud is the low end of modems, 1, 2, 4 megs (or more) of RAM is not unusual and hard drives are as common as floppies. Still, in spite of the speed-demon modems, the mega-memory systems and the monster hard drives, I must admit that 200K text files are probably pushing the limits of online publishing, considering the hardware and software we are dealing with today. So.... I have come up with an alternative plan. As you may or may not know within 48 hours of publishing GEnieLamp on the menus we also offer all the Lamps in compressed format (Pk-Zip for the IBM, Mac and ST, BXY for the A2) for downloading in the GEnieLamp Library. Starting with this issue you will now also find an abbreviated issue available for downloading as well. These special issues will contain only the main courses from each of the Lamps. That is, no GEnie_Qwik_Quotes, no games or puzzles, or CowTOONS (sorry, Mike :). So, if you prefer your meat without the potatoes, we have what you're looking for! NEW CONTRIBUTOR I am pleased to announce that Al Fasoldt has agreed to """"""""""""""" submit a monthly column for GEnieLamp. Al writes about computers and consumer electronics from Syracuse, N.Y., where he is a newspaper editor and programmer. I've always enjoyed Al's columns that he occasionally posts here on GEnie, and I think you will too. PACIFIC EDGE ON GEnie! The Pacific Edge Magazine has joined the GEnieLamp """""""""""""""""""""" RoundTable. Watch for new issues in the library and reader support in the bulletin board. PERSONAL INVITATION The RealTime Conference room is available...so let's """"""""""""""""""" give it a go! I know this is short notice, but everyone interested in visiting with the Digital Publishing Association and its members is welcome to join in some RTC chat every Wednesday night. Drop by... 6:30pm Pacific 8:30pm Central 7:30pm Mountain 9:30pm Eastern ...to talk about these exciting times for electronic publishing. Make a new friend, meet an old one, or just hang out. It's all informal so don't be shy -- give it a try -- and visit the inner sanctum of DPA's enlightened pioneers of electronic publishing. Hope we see you there! Digital Publishing News "Disktop Publishing"...Yes, that was the headline """"""""""""""""""""""" in the "Trends" section of PC Magazine's March 16 issue. The two column story by Robert Kendall begins by saying Random House is putting selected titles from its Modern Library series on floppy disks in collaboration with Apple and Voyager Company. But the rest of his story focuses on the "new breed" of on-disk publishers targeting the PC-compatible market. First mention goes to Floppyback Publishing International, Bruce Gilkin's "Angel of Death", and even a color screen shot of chapter one as it looks using Dart (a Hyper-text reader for IBM). Floppyback's association with Rutgers University Press is also cited along with "Discovering the Mid-Atlantic: Historical Tours" by Patrick Louis Cooney. Next, Mr. Kendall goes on to say Connected Editions "epitomizes the effect of information technology on higher education" through Connected Education's electronic graduate courses by modem. Faculty member David Hays' annually updated book on disk "Evolution of Technology" is mentioned as an example of an inexpensive way to revise without the prohibitive expense of bound paper reprints. The story quickly summarizes most of the advantages DPA members already know and use, so it seems the author has been reading News from the Disktop and the other gems of information that Ron Albright has diligently distributed for two years. Kendall offers his own opinion that "Disktop publishing is especially appealing for universities" for monographs and text- books using hypertext as a research tool, and for students on a low budget who want to get into 'print' quickly. Regarding distribution, Kendall unfortunately failed to mention the DPA's home on GEnie, (in the GEnieLamp RoundTable) but he did call the DPA's free bulletin board system an "especially rich source of material." Since the PC Mag story appeared, the DPA BBS is averaging about 40 calls per day. That's 1200 calls per month, and proof positive that the public wants more of what the DPA has to offer. I once said something to the effect that this thing was going to take off suddenly, catching us all with our mouths hanging open. Brace yourselves! The tide is turning and is sure to flood the DPA beachfront as this kind of attention roils into an electronic storm charged with new writers, publishers, and adventurers. -Mike White [*][*][*] Until next month... John Peters [GENIELAMP] ////////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "I just purchased a cordless electric screwdriver. There / / are two pages (31 items!) of "Important Safety Rules" for / / using the screwdriver -- including such things as "wear / / hearing protection during extended periods of operation", / / "stay alert", and "do not operate while under the / / influence of drugs, alcohol, or any medication". Sheesh. / / It's just a simple electric screwdriver. Heaven forbid you / / can't figure out how to use it. They forgot a warning about / / being severely irritated by all of the warnings." / ///////////////////////////////////////////// J.EIDSVOOG1 //// [EOA] [TAL]////////////////////////////// APPLE_TALK / ///////////////////////////////// Apple II Corner """"""""""""""" By Darrel Raines [D.RAINES] I want to thank everyone who took the time to send me GE Mail feedback after reading last month's edition of GEnieLamp. The responses were all positive. It is nice to know that we are doing some things right. On the other hand, I did not get very many replies compared to the number of times that the A2 GEnieLamp is downloaded. I will continue to solicit your opinions and ideas. We are always open to suggestion or constructive criticism. These will help make our product offering stronger as we continue to improve. Now that there are separate issues of GEnieLamp for the A2 and A2Pro areas, we can focus on different subject matter for each of the two newsletters. I envision the A2 version having an eye toward the new user. I think that the game and entertainment fields fall into our domain. And finally, I see the education market as one of our prime areas. These are not the boundaries of our focus, but they represent some of the major areas that we intend to cover. With this somewhat narrowed focus in mind, we have begun to put together articles that meet the needs of these groups. This issue has an article by Gina Saikin chronicling the trails and tribulations of a new Apple II user. Any of you who have "met" Gina on GEnie know that she has quickly become adept at using her computer. Next month, we will continue this trend by reviewing the most recent computer game for the Apple IIgs: Out of This World. And believe me, it is most certainly not of this world. Our monthly content will vary, but we hope that you can see the results of our new alignment. Programming and highly technical articles will appear in A2Pro newsletters. The areas that I have outlined above will appear in A2 newsletters. Both versions of GEnieLamp will strive for well-written and informative articles. As always, let us know how we are doing. [*][*][*] As was noted in the last issue of A2 GEnieLamp, the latest version of GEnie Master (GEM) has been released as freeware to the Apple II community. This software package will allow you to use your terminal software and Appleworks 3.0 to automate your GEnie sessions. If you have never tried this nifty package, then there has never been a better time than the present. You can significantly reduce you online time on GEnie. At the same time, you can get more information and software than was ever possible while using GEnie "manually". Download the GEM software and check out what you have been missing. Do it today and start saving dollars tomorrow. Author and editor Darrel Raines [D.Raines] welcomes any feedback or """"""""""""""""" comments via electronic mail to the listed user name. [*][*][*] CORRECTION Last month's interview with Mike Westerfield was conducted by """""""""" GEnieLamp editor Darrel Raines. Phil Shapiro usually conducts the monthly interviews. However, because of the nature of The ByteWorks products (programming tools) and his interest in software development, Darrel was the GEnieLamp spokesman for that interview. //////////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "Wow Ringo, was that you? I didn't get a chance to say hello. / / I was too busy jammin' with Jeff. (I can't believe I played / / the drums... I don't _play_ the drums.) It's a good thing / / the management made me quit, eh?" / ////////////////////////////////////////////////////// MUSE //// [EOA] [HEY]////////////////////////////// HEY MISTER POSTMAN / ///////////////////////////////// Is That A Letter For Me? """""""""""""""""""""""" By Darrel Raines [D.RAINES] o APPLE II ODDS & ENDS o WHAT'S NEW? o THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE... o MESSAGE SPOTLIGHT >>> A2 ODDS & ENDS <<< """""""""""""""""""""" GNO CONFUSION GNO is one of those bizarre things that constantly """"""""""""" confuses everyone, including myself. :-) Things GNO does do: o Turns the IIGS into a low (low) cost UNIX machine. o Lets you run UNIX software (as long as someone has taken the time to port it to the IIgs). o Makes serial port programming almost trivial, and very powerful. Things GNO does not do: o Run multiple desktop applications Okay, there are a few other things GNO doesn't do but those relate to the UNIX compatibility stuff. You can have any number of UNIX style (text, shell- based) applications running, _with_ a desktop program of your choice if you like. The multitasking is actual preemptive multitasking, which means that programs waiting for I/O do not eat processor time (unlike MultiFinder, although System 7 took a few steps to alleviate that), and the system can automatically schedule how much CPU time a program gets based on its behavior. With GNO, you can be in a telecom program, download a .SHK file, then open a window and use the shell-based unshrinkit program to uncompress it in the background while reading messages, or whatever. GNO also works with Switch-It!, so you can have your multiple desktop applications and eat them too. GNO is fully compatible with the ORCA programming environment. GNO can do things that would be difficult in MultiFinder. Much of our current work is moving towards complete integration of the shell and GUI environments, much like expensive UNIX systems have been. I guess the best thing about GNO is that new programs don't have to be written specifically for GNO in order to multitask. The system handles it cleanly and inconspicuously (again, this does not yet count desktop programs). Well, this message is quite long enough, I think. :-) I'll be more than happy to answer any questions or listen to suggestions. (PROCYON.INC, CAT8, TOP3, MSG:12/M645;1) ___ SYSTEM 6.0 |he Finder in System 6.0 completely ignores any icon files it """""""""" finds called Finder.Icons or Finder.Icons.X. It does this because these icons are now incorporated into the Finder program itself (in the resource fork). If you wish to use any custom icons you may have put in Finder.Icons or Finder.Icons.X, do the following: Go into your favorite icon editor and open those two files. Now, create a brand NEW file. Copy the icons that you want to keep from the two old files into the one new file. Save the new file in the Icons folder of your _boot_ disk, with a unique name (something like System.Icons or OldFinder.Icons, etc.). Completely remove those old files from any Icons folders. ___ |he FType.Apple file in System 6.0 is not an icon file. It replaces the files Ftype.Main and FType.Aux from System 5.0.x. You need the FType.Apple file for Finder in System 6.0 to function properly. You do not need the other two older files. Everything from them is now contained in FType.Apple. What's in these files are lists of names for file types, such as "Binary file" and "Folder" and "Super Hi-Res Screen Image" etc. These are the names that show up when you do an "Icon Info..." on a file, or are viewing a window in a list view ("By Name," etc.). A few other programs, such as GSHK, use these files, as well. (A2.LUNATIC, CAT9, TOP2, MSG:151/M645;1) LOOKING FOR A DRIVE? A larger drive will normally come out with a lower """""""""""""""""""" cost per meg. Economies of scale come into play. Ask yourself the following questions.... 1. How much storage capacity do you NEED? 2. How much can you comfortably spend? 3. How much need do you have to be able to interchange files with someone else in large quantity? The best overall bargain for increased storage is a medium capacity fixed drive, something like a Quantum in the 200 meg range. The cost per meg is somewhat higher than a gigabyte drive, but your overall cost is a lot lower. :) (If you don't NEED a gig, why pay for it?) (GARY.UTTER, CAT11, TOP16, MSG:114/M645;1) GEM 4.20 HELP """"""""""""" > When loading GEM 4.20, I sometimes get the "Msg" file loaded in > automatically into the "msg.in.process" file and sometimes not. What > command can I use to get this done in some sort of consistent fashion? 1) Captured bulletin board messages are saved as an ASCII text file called msg, appending (usually -- this is a telecomm program setting) new ones, if a msg file is already on the disk. 2) GEM then converts a msg file into an AWP msg.in.process file for your use, deletes the msg file and saves the msg.in.process file temporarily to your disk. However, if the msg file is too large for comfortable use in AppleWorks, GEM Chopper will be called into action to divide the msg file into bite-size chunks (I think the default is 25K), renaming them as msg.a, msg.b, msg.c, and so on. 3) When you boot GEM, it first scans your disk for a remaining msg.in.process file, which would be saved if you chose to "mark it for later" (Quit Menu, #3). If it finds one, it loads it first, leaving the msg file unchanged. 4) When you quit the msg.in.process file, GEM scans the disk for any remaining msg files. If it finds one, it converts and loads it before quitting. If your msg file has been chopped up(see paragraph #2, above), GEM will keep loading the smaller msg files in order, until all have been used. 5) If there is neither a msg nor a msg.in.process file on your disk, GEM creates an empty msg.in.process file for your use. 6) If you hold down the spacebar at bootup, you will go directly to the Library subsystem, and no msg.in.process file will be used or created. 7) When you quit GEM, items #1, #2 and #4 in the Quit Menu will delete the msg.in.process file; items #3 and #5 will set a marker in the msg.in.process file and resave it to your disk for later use (see paragraph #3, above). GEM is consistent (after all, it's a computer program :), if only you know how it works. Does that help? (W.NELKEN1, CAT29, TOP9, MSG:106/M645;1) SCREEN SAVER KICKS IN TOO SOON """""""""""""""""""""""""""""" >I set the screen blanker in ProSel to one minute. Why does it kick in >sometimes at once or after 5 to 10 seconds? The blanker "kicks in" when the clock starts a new minute. That is, when the seconds rolls from :59 to :00. So if your last keypress was at :50, your screen will blank in 10 seconds. If it was at :10, then the blank occurs 50 seconds later. Watch the Prosel clock in the lower right corner. The blanking happens on the minute. (R.REEDY, CAT30, TOP2, MSG:41/M645;1) RECOVERY FROM I/O ERRORS Error $27 is an I/O error, and that means """""""""""""""""""""""" there's a problem on the diskette itself, not with something you're doing. There IS a trick that I've used to recover stacks from disks with I/O errors: Use a copy program that will let you go past a block read error (the only one I know of is Copy II+), and copy the entire disk. Then, load the stack from the copied disk. If the I/O error occurs in data that is just a background, you'll get a messed up screen somewhere in the stack that can be re-painted, or whatever. If it's in the middle of a sound segment, you can edit the button, and re-record or load the sound. If it's in the middle of a card-to-card link field, you're pretty much out of luck, but at least you tried! Because card backgrounds and sounds are so much larger than link fields, you've got a xx out of xxxx chance that this will all work. (I don't know the "real" odds, but I've been lucky on the disks I've had problems with!). P.S. If the I/O error is on one of the original HS disks, you can always send it back to RWP with a note, and we'll replace the disk for you. (If your dog or kid was at the root of the problem, it would be nice to include the $10 we usually charge for a disk re-copy, but you'll get a replacement disk no matter what you send). (ROGER.WAGNER, CAT32, TOP2, MSG:149/M645;1) PRINTER PROBLEMS """""""""""""""" >When I print through TEACH or Universe Master, and use INTERNAL in my >print setup, the first page prints beautifully but the second page >reverts to a very large size font (the same font I was using). I haven't >let it go any further than the second page, but I expect that these would >also be in the large font size. I have 4-1/4 meg of memory and the latest >versions of HARMONY and POINTLESS. My printer is a DJ 500C. I have to >print one page at a time for documents over a page long (page 1 to page >1, page 2 to page 2, etc.). Any suggestions? I have seen this problem as well. As best as I can figure, the printer is _NOT_ receiving the command to "shrink" the received page image for any but the initial page. I see this same thing using EGOEd NDA. AWGS does _not_ have this problem because it treats each page as the "first page", sending a full page set-up description to the printer driver with each page. TEACH, EGOEd, etc. do _not_. They simply send the page set-up info prior to the first page and then assume that the printer (and driver) will remember it. They dont. I have been awaiting a fix on this problem for more than a year. I'm glad you brought it back up. Maybe we will see some action on this. Lowell, you may remember me. I sent you a full package of printouts illustrating this problem some time ago. As I recall, you forwarded this to Bill H., but I have not heard back from you for some tine. I lost your last message when I changed offices last semester. Judging by how AWGS operates, the solution to this (and to printing multipage, high resolution picture vis SuperConvert or What.A.Poster) is to have the driver send the page set-up info after every form feed/ But, then again, I am not a programmer. :) (EBR2, CAT40, TOP14, MSG:219/M645;1) WORDPERFECT AND A2 Just to add to the others, and give a little """""""""""""""""" additional information, I'll add the following about WordPerfect for the Apple II: I'm still using v2.1e for the GS, and my son is using the ][e/c version on a Laser 128. Neither has found another word processor for our respective machines that we prefer to use. I bought both shortly after WP was introduced for the Apple ][. I have upgraded the gs version four times, and considered it well worth the cost. WPGS has, IMHO, the best and most extensive spell checker, I know of on a GS. It's Macro feature is excellent, though I've never used AW 3.0 with enhancements for comparison. I do have AWGS, and except for the ability to select fonts, WPGS is way superior in ease of operation, and not subject to the occasional crashes that seem common in AWGS. Far more functions can be handled by the keyboard with WPGS, increasing speed of operation. A friend, who owned a GS and used 5.0 at work asked to see my version. She refused to go beyond the initial screen, because "It doesn't look anything like the REAL program," and "it's still got the WRONG keyboard." The manual gives no mention of support for the extended keyboard, so you will not be able to get away from the different fingering for the same features. WPGS is a byproduct of an earlier, much less sophisticated version than 5.1 for the IBM. The original release ran under p16, before the release of GS/OS in any version. Notably, the extensive font changes available in 5.1 are not available, and graphics cannot be imported into the document and runarounds, etc, created. I do not have experience with the IBM version, but understand both of these are available. About 1 year or 18 months ago I received an upgrade offer that would allow me to move "up" to WP for the IBM or Mac at a very reasonable fee. If memory serves me accurately, in that mailing it was stated that they would no longer support the ][gs or ][e/c versions of the program. Specifically, no further upgrades would be produced, and no telephone support would be available after a given date. I would be very surprised if you could find a copy new, unless it's been sitting on someone's shelf for quite a while. Since then, GS/OS 6.0 has come along. I've found NO problems running it under that system -- but the handwriting is on the wall. WPGS is not of the future! (I.KNIGGE, CAT2, TOP4, MSG:45/M645;1) >>> WHAT'S NEW? <<< """"""""""""""""""" PLATINUM PAINT UPGRADES If you bought it from Quality Computers, you can """"""""""""""""""""""" upgrade your Platinum Paint by calling 1-800-777-3642. The upgrade costs $30 plus shipping and handling. If you bought it from someone else (even directly from Beagle before last summer) you will need to send in your original program disk, manual cover, or some other proof of ownership. Beagle didn't keep very good records of that stuff. (QC, CAT42, TOP25, MSG:10/M645;1) >Noticed an interesting offer in the February issue of A+/Incider. The >Apple Clinic column says that Publish It! owners can buy Graphicwriter >III for $60 plus an original program disk or manual cover. Is this >accurate? Does the offer apply to the updated version of Graphicwriter >III mentioned in the same article? To trade up it's actually $60 plus $3.50 shipping and handling (just send payment along with an original program disk or manual cover from any DTP program! You will receive the latest version of GWIII, which is version 1.1. The v1.2 update was mentioned prematurely...v1.2 is in development, but will not be out for several months (at which time all registered owners will be able to update for a reasonable fee). (SEVENHILLS, CAT43, TOP6, MSG:71/M645;1) ANNOUNCING THE MANAGER! IIGS users can now benefit from the same """"""""""""""""""""""" technology that Macintosh users enjoy--The Manager(tm) is the first and only TRUE MultiFinder(tm) for your Apple IIGS! Multiple applications can be open simultaneously and moving among them is as simple as clicking in a different window. This is a tremendous time saver because you don't have to quit one application to start using another, which is especially convenient when copying and pasting between applications. Use The Manager to create your own integrated environment...just open your favorite IIGS-specific word processing, painting, DTP, telecom and other programs, then instantly move among them! It is fully compatible with AppleWorks GS, GraphicWriter III, Platinum Paint, Teach, and more. It even works with system extensions such as Express, Kangaroo, TransProg III, and others. DON'T SETTLE FOR A LIMITED "SWITCHER"--the Macintosh started with this type of program but MultiFinder made it obsolete. Macintosh users know from experience that a MultiFinder program gives you greater control, makes you more productive, and is more enjoyable because it's easier to use. The only true MultiFinder for the IIGS is The Manager...it even supports multi-tasking for some applications without requiring additional software. The Manager is the result of a two year collaboration between Seven Hills Software (Express, GraphicWriter III, SuperConvert, others) and BrainStorm Software (Kangaroo, TransProg III, others). It requires System 6 and as little as 2MB memory (4MB recommended for greatest efficiency; required for some program combinations). A hard drive is not required but is strongly recommended. The Manager is the perfect way to increase your productivity! The Manager's retail price is $69.95, and it will be shipping to our resellers on 2/15/93. Quality Computers and other leading mail order companies will be carrying The Manager. Quality Computers is ready to take advance orders for only $49.95 so The Manager can be delivered to you as quickly as possible. (SEVENHILLS, CAT43, TOP13, MSG:1/M645;1) >>> THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE... <<< """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" A FRIEND OF MINE """""""""""""""" My friend, he bought a new Mac It came completely loaded It's warranty was 360 days But in 30 was outmoded... (S.WEYHRICH, CAT2, TOP8, MSG:15/M645;1) MONSTER LAB NEWS I am alive and well, and check in here every week or """""""""""""""" two. I have been stalled on my fourth ReliefWare game, "Monster Lab", for about 6 months now. For some reason, being a military doc in the 101st Airborne Division and the father of two seems to take a big chunk of my time... Version 1.5 of all three games are still current. We are close to the $10,000 mark in payments received (and distributed). With the Lord's help, Monster Lab should be released in 1993. I won't make a promise when... ---Ken (because I hate broken release date promises) Franklin (KEN.FRANKLIN, CAT6, TOP3, MSG:31/M645;1) inCider/A+ NEWS inCider/A+ magazine announced that Dr. Cynthia Field will """"""""""""""" serve as Consulting Editor and will coordinate the magazine's coverage of new Apple II products, Apple II news, and Apple II product reviews. Dr. Field, who maintains a long-time commitment to the Apple II community, asks developers to keep her informed about new products and news of interest to Apple II users. [Dr. Cynthia Field, 60 Border Drive, Wakefield, RI 02879; Voice and fax: (401) 782-0380.] (NAUG, CAT17, TOP37, MSG:60/M645;1) GUIDE TO INTERNET I have to second Dan Brown's recommendation of Ed """"""""""""""""" Krol's "The Whole Internet User's Guide". It's an excellent resource for anyone 'on the net'. Surprisingly, most of the information in that book is also available online, but it sure is nice to have it all in one spot. I've been spending a lot of time on the Internet recently, and it amazes me that even people who have been 'on the net' for years have no concept of just how huge it is, how much information is available on it, or how to use some of the incredible tools that are available, such as Gopher. I'm so enamored of the Internet that I'm writing a feature length article about it for the May issue of inCider. It's an ambitious project, but I'm hoping to cover such topics as: what is the Internet, how to access it, and what to do once you've gained access. I wouldn't be exaggerating to say that I am stunned at just how much information is available online through the Internet. I thoroughly believe that the entire accumulated knowledge of all mankind is currently stored on the Internet. (J.KOHN, CAT27, TOP3, MSG:117/M645;1) WHO'S WHO IN A2 Here's an up-to-date listing of your Apple II sysops on """"""""""""""" GEnie: Dean Esmay Apple II Chief Sysop A2.DEAN Bill Dooley A2 Bulletin Board Manager A2.BILL Susan MacGregor A2 Real Time Conference Manager A2.SUSAN Tim Tobin A2 Library Manager A2.TIM Lunatic E'Sex Apple II Promotions Manager A2.LUNATIC Matt Deatherage A2Pro RT Leader M.DEATHERAGE And our able A2 library assistants: Tyler Weisman A2 Library Assistant A2.TYLER Tom Zuchowski 8-bit games & utilities T.ZUCHOWSKI Pat Kern Clip Art & graphics C.KERN1 Bill Goosey Telecommunications & Misc. W.GOOSEY And our A2 Real-Time Conference (RTC) assistants: Tara Dillinger New Users - Monday T.DILLINGER Susan MacGregor Formal Guest - Tuesday A2.SUSAN HangTime Hypermedia - Wednesday A2.HANGTIME Mike Garvey TBC Forum - Thursday TBC Jim Zajkowski Telecommunications - Friday JIMZ Dave Ciotti Saturday Night Live - Saturday A2.BEAR Gina Saikin Sunday Morning Kids' RTC G.SAIKIN Don Arrowsmith II Speak - Sunday D.ARROWSMIT1 And those crazy guys that help Matt run A2Pro (page 530): Steve Gunn A2Pro Assistant A2PRO.STEVE Jim Murphy A2Pro Assistant A2PRO.JIM Greg Da Costa A2Pro Assistant A2PRO.GREG Todd P. Whitsel A2Pro Assistant A2PRO.TODDPW Keeping an eye out on all of us is Tom Weishaar, the Manager of the Apple II RoundTables here on GEnie! (A2.DEAN, CAT1, TOP24, MSG:1/M645;1) >>> MESSAGE SPOTLIGHT <<< """"""""""""""""""""""""" Category 7 Topic 2 Message 29 Sat Jan 30, 1993 A2.DEAN [A2 Leader] at 20:14 EST A program cannot be both public domain and freeware. That's not possible, and if a program claims to be both I guess it's anybody's guess which it is - but I'd say probably public domain. Once something is public domain anybody can use it for any purpose, period. You cannot place any restrictions on the distribution of public domain stuff. If I want to charge $5,000 for a copy of a public domain program I'm perfectly free to do so. Of course anyone who paid me that would be making a big mistake because he could probably get a free copy by just looking around for someone who isn't trying to gouge him. ;-) Public domain means _PUBLIC_, as in all members of the public, _DOMAIN_, meaning property of, as in, property of the public at large. Anybody can do anything they want with something that's public domain, including modify it, spin it, fold it, and mutilate it, give it away or charge for it, or anything else, and nothing anybody says, including the author, can stop it. "Freeware" is just a catch-all for a copyrighted program on which the author has declared that people may copy it for free. If it's freeware, then the author still has rights and may place restrictions on its distribution or use. They are VERY different concepts. That difference is very important. [*][*][*] While on GEnie, do you spend most of your time downloading files? If so, you may be missing out some excellent information in the Bulletin Board area. The messages listed above only scratch the surface of what's available and waiting for you in the bulletin board area. If you are serious about your AII, the GEnieLamp staff strongly urge you to give the bulletin board area a try. There are literally thousands of messages posted from people like you from all over the world. ////////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "Are you stuck using a female character to get around in the / / temple of the snakes? I would rather bring my white wizard / / than the grey wizard chick." / /////////////////////////////////////////////////// AEO.2 //// [EOA] [HUM]////////////////////////////// HUMOR ONLINE / ///////////////////////////////// By Any Other Name... """""""""""""""""""" By John Jainschigg [JCOMMS] WHAT'S IN A NAME? As I've been suggesting patiently for years, the real """"""""""""""""" reason Jerry Pournelle no longer pays much attention to Atari hardware (besides the fact that the last call Mr. Pournelle got from Atari was probably from Neil Harris, back in 1985 (grin)) is because nobody has suggested piquant NAMES for his Atari machines. As any real Pournelle fan will tell you, naming computers is absolutely fundamental to the Pournelle ethos of hardware evaluation. Early Chaos Manor scholarship ascribed Pournelle's naming habit to projective futuristic anthropomorphism: By naming his computers, he was merely anticipating such time as literally intelligent, fully-individuated computing machinery would become available. Subsequent scholarship has pointed out, however, that instead of coming up with "computery" names for his systems (C3P0, R2D2, 21MM392, HAL, etc.), Pournelle continues to prefer organic-sounding names such as Ezekial, Lucy Van Pelt, Big Cheetah, and the like. One school of thought now suggests that Pournelle performs the act of naming as a divinatory gesture based in animism or pantheism. Before one can propitiate the capricious _anima_ or spirit of the machine (deus ex machina), one must determine its name -- the first step in determining where a particular anima stands in the greater heirarchy of spirits, which will in turn determine its area of specific influence, threat- value, and to some extent, elucidate the protocols and ceremonies required in its worship. Extending the above thesis, a few Manorologists have suggested that the ultimate goal of naming is not worship and propitiation, but indeed _control_ of the hardware anima. In this formulation, if Pournelle knows the name of a computer's demiurge or loa, he can summon it and to some extent, control its behavior. Even if this so-called "Voodoo" hypothesis is correct, however, it should not be carelessly assumed to presuppose that Pournelle views computers as inherently dangerous or maleficent entities -- i.e., as demons. While this characterization may indeed inform Pournelle's view, it should be noted that the demonic picture of the anima is largely restricted to medieval and post- medieval Judeo/Christian traditions of sympathetic magic, whereas Pournelle's thinking may derive from older African, Mediterranean, and/or Asian traditions, that view the generic anima as being fundamentally unconcerned with human affairs. Even in the somewhat ill-reputed Voodoo tradition, per se, most loas are perceived as neutral -- the practice of Voodoo "demonology," or "dealing with the left hand" is associated only with a few specific spirits, most notably Le Baron Samedi (Baron Saturday), the loa of Death. While many of us, indeed, experience the use of IBM-compatible hardware as being somehow akin to death, this is doubtless related to the fact that IBM computers are, according to a Mambo of my acquaintance, under the especial protection of Lemonmedselma, the loa of segmented-addressing and 640K limitations, who is cousin to Samedi in the traditional Voodoo familial pantheon. On the other hand, some have argued that Pournelle's having chosen the name Ezekial for his CP/M system -- that name figuring significantly in Revelations -- is evidence of precisely this type of demonologic turn in the author's metaphysics. We feel this argument is without merit. Instead, we suggest that while the name Ezekial certainly derives from mystic New Testament sources, Pournelle chose it because Ezekial's peculiar vision was especially meaningful to him, as a science-fiction writer. As the spiritual recounts: "Ezekial saw the wheel, way up in the middle of the air ..." This vision of a fiery flying wheel, along with subsequent descriptions of multi-headed, winged figures, have, of course, been popularly put forward as scriptural evidence of extraterrestrial visitation. In the final analysis, we feel that Pournelle's naming of his computers is essentially Adamic. It derives in kind from the story of Genesis, wherein Adam's first task, as prototypic human, was to name the animals, asserting Man's natural dominion and expressing his essential relationship with God the Creator. The creating God, of course, has established the identification of naming with dominion "... and he called the light Day, and the darkness Night, etc.," and is identified in apostolic scripture with the primal word, or Logos. Having reviewed this analysis, it should be obvious that if Mr. Pournelle is ever to take Atari systems seriously, appropriately evocative and meaningful names for them must be provided. Ideally, of course, we might hope that Mr. Pournelle would invent his _own_ names -- but he may still be awaiting delivery of evaluation systems. In the interim, I suggest that it would do no harm, and may do some good, to suggest a few tony monickers: Binky, Doogie, Semiramis, Carpaccio, Lucrezia Borgia, Lizzy Borden, Murphy Brown, Elizabeth Regina, Rosenkrantz, Despina, Count Ugolino, Blackadder, Lt. Commander Data, Spock (sigh), NOMAD, Tinkerbell, Bazooka Joe ... Please feel free to add your own. -John Jainschigg (EXPLORER, CAT15, TOP7, MSG:88.M475) /////////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "I have a theory on that. Nathan keeps asking Klaus & Kompany / / about Leader Tabs and they think he means Lederhosen...oh, / / all right it's not as funny as it seemed in the shower...." / //////////////////////////////////////////////// D.GORDON2 //// [EOA] [ASK]////////////////////////////// ASK DOCTOR BOB / ///////////////////////////////// Gotta Problem? Gotta Answer! """"""""""""""""""""""""""""" By Bob Connors [R.CONNORS2] o WHAT IS THE AVERAGE LIFE OF A HARD DRIVE? o WHERE CAN I GET HELP FOR MY LASER PRINTER? Doctor Bob, What is the average life of a hard drive? How about floppies? Is it known how long the data will stay on them without some type of refresh, or what not? Thanks! -Bruce Bruce, Gee Bruce, you sure come up with interesting questions. The answers, are subjective to say the least. Let's take the average life of a hard drive first. I assume you are talking about the life of the physical drive as opposed to the life of the data contained on the drive but I will attempt to respond to each. Almost all electronic components in computers have what is called an MTBF rating. MTBF stands for Mean Time Before/Between Failure. The value assigned to this is usually some amount of hours and is usually the manufacturer's best guess based on all testing done and possibly reports from end users of the equipment and repair facilities. In the case of a hard drive, I do not personally think that many manufacturers actually wait until drives fail before coming up with that value because, if they did so, they would never get the equipment out the door for sale. The actual life of a hard drive may have no relationship at all to the rated life as it depends on so many factors. Things like whether or not the drive is used on a BBS system (where the computer is seldom shut off) or type of applications and whether or not those applications cause a lot of head thrashing (like a database program may do) play a role in the life span of a hard drive. Even whether or not children use the computer can be a determining factor. I have seen drives last a long time. I am still using drives in my computer that I used when I started up my BBS in 1987. However, I also have a dead one from the same system. Data stored on the hard drive, on the other hand, can go bad. Data is stored magnetically on the drive and the magnetism holding that data in its 'fixed' position can weaken due to lack of use. On hard drives, this is usually not the problem though, although it can be. Normally, DOS just reports a read or write error for the data, a sector not found error, or something similar. In other words, data that was good the last time you accessed it suddenly is no longer accessible. The data can be a file of information used by a program or the program itself. There is no set time when you can expect such errors. According to Murphy, though, they will happen when you least expect them, when your backup has not been done recently enough, and when they will do the most damage! It is my experience that such problems are usually caused by drifting head alignment. That is, the hard disk read/write head no longer aligns correctly with the track that contains the information. Often, a retry or a number of retries will succeed in reading or writing the information, sometimes not. When it happens, though, it usually results in an increase in your heart rate and a quickening of your pulse, especially when the retries fail. There are quite a few utilities available that help in such situations. Norton's Disk Doctor and SpinRite are a few of them that immediately come to mind. SpinRite is my favorite because of the way it 'realigns' the head by actually repositioning the hard disk tracks where the head actually is, not where the head is supposed to be. The life span of data on floppy diskettes is another matter and again, depends on many factors. Among these are the age of the diskettes, how they are stored, how they are handled, the environmental conditions, whether or not they are generic, bulk, low cost diskettes or brand name, the type of oxides or other materials used in their manufacturer, the manufacturer itself, and on and on. I have diskettes that I used on my old TRS-80 back in 1979 that I can still use with a fair amount of reliability on my XT clone system and, there are others I cannot. This is despite the fact that the diskettes were certified to be one-sided and my XT uses both sides. Based on the above, I would say the bottom line answer to your question is, no, it is not known with any certainty how long data will stay on a diskette without need of refreshing. There are just too many variables to consider. That is why the DOS God created the DISKCOPY command and even that is not perfect. I hope I have cleared this matter up for you. -Doctor Bob [*][*][*] Doctor Bob, Would appreciate your help, if possible, in buying a Service Manual for my Panasonic KX-P4420 laser printer. Printer makes nice pages but the reliability has been so-so. I'd like to learn more about the printer but Panasonic has not been helpful. Their 800 number says to call a pay number - and the pay number, a couple times, just put me on hold - which I abandoned after several long distance minutes. They have not responded to a 5 Jan 93 snailmail letter. I haven't found a "Panasonic printer help" category or topic on GEnie. Thanks - from another Bob. Another Bob, You are experiencing something that a lot of people seem to be also experiencing with many firm's customer support. I am always amazed that companies always answer their 'sales' phone on the first ring and it always seems to be a 1-800 number. They are willing to spend the money and make the effort to get you as a customer. After sales support really does not live up to the same standard though. The customer service or technical support number is invariably not toll free and, from what I have been reading in the IBM PC RoundTable, people get put on hold for what I consider unreasonable amounts of time. To make matters worse, the call backs that get promised are not always made, even after repeated calls to the company. But, I editorialize and am not solving your problem. The only advice I can give you is to try Category 15, Topic 71 in the IBMPC RoundTable. The label for that topic is Panasonic Printers. I don't remember seeing any recent messages there but I do know that the topic is still open. Good luck, Bob. I wish I could be more help to you. -Doctor Bob [*][*][*] ASK DOCTOR BOB Do you have a question about operating systems, GEnie or """""""""""""" anything concerning computers? If so, you can get your questions answered here in GEnieLamp by Doctor Bob. Any question is fair game...and if the good Doctor Bob doesn't know the answer, he'll find someone who does. Stop wandering around in the dark, send your question to Doctor Bob in the GEnieLamp RoundTable bulletin board, CATegory 3, TOPic 2. ///////////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "It happens that the Clinton account is numerically very close / / to my account...I get very tired of replying to these messages, / / giving them the correct address. But, it's kind of interesting / / to be able to read the president's mail. Heh heh." / ///////////////////////////////////////////////////// J.NESS //// [EOA] [LAM]////////////////////////////// LAMPWIRE / ///////////////////////////////// Late Breaking Apple II News """"""""""""""""""""""""""" >>> APPLE II SOFTWARE OPPORTUNITIES NEWSLETTER <<< """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" ~ Free for the Asking ~ Cynthia Field, the newly-appointed chief Apple II editor for A+/inCider, has produced another in her series of "Apple II Software Opportunities" newsletters. Along with a handful of instructive articles, the newsletter includes a comprehensive listing of 500 Apple II software titles released between 1990 and 1992. Rounding out the newsletter is a lengthy of Apple II software publishers, giving addresses and phone numbers of companies both large and small. This newsletter is free for the asking from Apple's toll-free customer assistance phone number: 1-800-776-2333. It's helpful to know that this phone number gets quite busy, so you may have to stay on hold for five to ten minutes before reaching an operator. User groups who are interested in receiving bulk shipments of these newsletters are advised to contact Jill Avery, at Apple's User Group Connection office. To avoid duplicate requests from the same user group, Jill asks that just the president of each group be in contact with her. She can be reached by e-mail via Internet at: "avery@applelink.apple.com". Thanks are owed to John Santoro, at Apple Computer, who coordinated the production of this publication. New Letter Campaign A Canadian Apple User's group is asking your help in """"""""""""""""""" a letter writing campaign to garner continued Apple II support from developers. They want you to write short, signed, POLITE and original letters stating clearly your objective. A signed, polite letter is worth a petition of a thousand names, in their opinion. The first target is Claris. The attempt will be to get Claris to continue Apple II support or release their products to a company that will support the Apple II. The suggested letter format is printed below this text. They urge you and your user group (if you have one) to write these letters as soon as possible. Claris Corporation Customer Support 5201 Patrick Henry Drive, Box 58168 Santa Clara, CA 95052-8168 United States of America New AppleWorks Classic and GS Versions """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Dear Madam or Sir: I would like attract your attention to the fact that Claris has not provided any updates to AppleWorks Classic v3.0 and AppleWorks GS v1.1 since 1991. I am a registered user of the very first version of AppleWorks GS and have purchased all the updates that were made available. I use the program almost every day. I am disappointed to see that even though Apple Computer has taken the care to provide Apple IIgs users with a new and more powerful version of the IIgs System Software (v6.0) and HyperCard GS v1.1, Claris has not provided loyal AppleWorks GS users with an improved version of this very good program. If Claris is unwilling to provide an updated version of both AppleWorks programs, I kindly ask that the source code be sold to a company or individual willing to do the necessary work to or entered into the public domain. I am looking forward to receiving an answer in this matter and hope that it will not be swept under the rug. Sincerely, Ronald A. Leroux Resource Director Le Groupe Apple St-Hyacinthe Tulin Technology Pricing Update In response to John B. Wilson's review """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""" of their Apple IIGS floptical disk drive, Tulin has sent GEnieLamp updated information on pricing. The current product price is $399, instead of the $489 listed in the article. This price is the price for direct purchases from Tulin Technology. Also, additional floptical disks can be purchased for $20 each, rather than the $25 listed in the article. Please note that Tulin Technology does have a $50 minimum purchase price. Additionally, Tulin commented that they also offer the floptical drive with the driver for the Apple Hi Speed SCSI card. And it is possible to request Apple IIGS floptical drives with eject buttons. For further information, contact Tulin Technology at the following address: Tulin Technology 2156H O'Toole Ave. San Jose, CA 95131 (408) 432-9057 (voice) (408) 943-0782 (Fax) The above information was supplied by Chua Lin at Tulin Technology. Tulin accepts VISA and MasterCard payment. 20,000 Reasons GEnie supports the Apple II A2, the Apple II RoundTable """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" on GEnie kicked off the new year with a celebration of it's 20,000th upload, awarding thousands of dollars worth of hardware and software to the first person to upload a file to A2 in 1993. In association and cooperation with sixteen prominent Apple II supporting companies -- C.V. Technologies, Charlie's AppleSeeds, Digital Data Express, DreamWorld Software, Econ Technologies, GEnie, GS+ Magazine, inCider/A+ Magazine, InSync Software, Kitchen Sink Software, Quality Computers, Resource Central, Roger Wagner Publishing, Seven Hills Software, Softdisk Publishing, and Vitesse, Inc. -- GEnie client Tom Smith of Willowdale, Ontario won a package of prizes including some of the latest and greatest products for the Apple II. The prizes Mr. Smith chose are: a RamFAST Rev. D caching DMA SCSI card, a DreamGrafix 3200-color paint program, Universe Master hard drive management utility software, one free weekend on GEnie online in A2 and A2Pro, the Apple II Programmers and Developers RoundTable, a GS+ Magazine T-shirt, a one-year subscription to inCider/A+, Signature GS system enhancement utilities, Formulate formula calculating software, Salvation-Supreme hard drive management utility software, a one-year subscription to Studio City, and a six-month subscription to Softdisk G-S. "People say the Apple II is dead, but that's hogwash," said Dean Esmay, Head System Operator (SysOp) of GEnie's Apple II RoundTables. "There are millions of these computers still in operation. The first Apple II was introduced in 1977, so the way we see it, 1993 is the beginning of the second fifteen years of Apple II computing. This celebration shows the amount of support the Apple II still gets from users and third parties alike. We like to think of the 20,000 uploads we've received in A2 to date as 20,000 reasons why GEnie wholeheartedly supports the Apple II, as well." Remaining prizes donated by the listed companies were given away throughout the months of January and February in selected online Real-Time Conferences (RTCs) in the Apple II RoundTable on GEnie. The prizes were: two Copies of ProSel-16 hard drive management software, one copy of ProSel-8 hard drive management software, one Neuromancer game, one Shogun game, one Zoyon Patrol educational game, one free day on GEnie online in A2 and A2Pro, four one-year subscriptions to inCider/A+, two InSync T-shirts, two ProTERM 3.0 telecommunications software packages, one AccuDraw CAD software or Amazing Window educational software, one subscription to A2-Central On Disk, one subscription to Script-Central, one subscription to Timeout Central, one Roger Wagner Publishing software product of user's choice, and three Harmonie high resolution printer driver packages. "We didn't announce it in advance," said Esmay. "We just secretly got all these companies to help us out and sprang it at the last minute. It was a lot of fun. The guy who won was very surprised." All of the Apple II vendors mentioned provide direct online support on GEnie through individual support Categories and Topics in the Bulletin Boards of the A2 and A2Pro RoundTables. "We're incredibly grateful for the support we got from these companies. The amount of enthusiasm they showed for this idea actually caught us by surprise," said L. Bruce E'Sex, the GEnie Apple II RoundTables' Head of Promotions and Marketing. "Though these companies are only a small percentage of those which still support the Apple II, they're a big part of what makes the Apple II line continue to be interesting, fun, and as useful as ever for millions of computer users." //////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "Also, since this message is off topic, I have gave myself / / a warning [grin]." / ////////////////////////////////////////////// BRIAN.H //// [EOA] [MOO]////////////////////////////// CowTOONS! / ///////////////////////////////// The GEnieLamp Swimsuit Issue No.1 """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" (___) Concept by | Drawings by (o o) John Peters | Mike White (.) [GENIELAMP] | [M.WHITE25] __/ ~ \//^~ //`(>-<)` ~^ \_/ (\_/\ // || )___( `\\ || (o o) ~~' ~~ (~ (.) ~) \\/ ~ \// Cindy Cowford ^()-()^ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ \_/ (\_/) ( ) ( ) () () ( ) `~ ~' Ms. Mooniverse ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (___( (o o) _* (.) \__________/ ~ \_ || ( \___/~ ___ ____//-----db--\_/~~ ( ) ~~~~^ |\./ \ -========================|______\=====\ | _|- Elle MoocPherson | |~_|- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ vv | ~_|- Makes a splash \\ (___) | |~_|- \\ (o o) | ~_|- \\--\./--\\ | |~_|- ``/ ~ \``\\| ~_|- /\\_ ( )-( ) \| |~_|- // \ ~-__\___/ | ~_|- \========\______/ | |~ ^^ /~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | Cowthy Ireland | returns the wave (__) (~~) /-------\/ / | ) >> Watch for another thunderin' herd of * ||----|| Moo Fun in the next issue of GEnieLamp. ~~ ~~ Moodonna If you have an idea for a CowTOON, we ~~~~~~~~ would like to see it. And, if we pick Mooterial Cow your CowTOON for publishing in GEnieLamp we will credit your account with 2 hours ( Special appearance of GEnie non-prime time! cowrtesy of Moo-TV ) /////////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "That's quite a feat! I would have thought it impossible for / / you to find a way to be slower and less efficient. :)) " / /////////////////////////////////////////////// N.WEINRESS //// [EOA] [REF]////////////////////////////// REFLECTIONS / ///////////////////////////////// Thinking Online Communications """""""""""""""""""""""""""""" By Phil Shapiro [P.SHAPRIO1] >>> Approaching a More Perfect State of Human Communication <<< """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" ~ Part II ~ Before the days of online communication, connecting up with other people who shared your specific interests was not all that easy. You'd consider yourself quite lucky if you found someone in the same county who shared some of your specific areas of interest. Sometimes the only way to communicate with those of similar interest was to physically transport yourself to a statewide or national conference. In this age of the modem, however, powerful new tools are available to help connect like-minded souls. Making full use of these tools can link you up directly with colleagues in other states and countries. Model railroading buffs, for instance, can connect up with each other online. So too can Civil War buffs, quilting buffs, dog-lover buffs, alternative health care buffs, and any of a myriad other human interests, hobbies, and pastimes. But modem communication need not be restricted to recreational interests. People with more serious interests can likewise find fellowship online. On information services and bulletin boards across the country people with special interest in drunk driving, AIDS, violence against women, and many other "community interest" concerns are congregating, communicating, and working together to address these problems with the full force of group action. Unlike printed communication, which is slow and expensive to distribute, or phone communication, which is one-to-one, expensive, and disruptive, online communication is cheap, fast, and inherently streamlined. The power of online communication was made real to me in a personal way two years ago. Hoping to attend the annual KansasFest summer conference in Kansas City, Missouri, I posted a short message in the A2Pro Roundtable here on GEnie. The message I left stated simply: "I'm hoping on sharing a ride out to KansasFest July. I'd be interested in hearing from anyone driving out from the East Coast." Ten days later I received a phone call from Dave Ciotti, of Trenton, New Jersey. Dave's verbal response to my inquiry was equally brief: "Saw your message on GEnie. I'm driving out to KansasFest in my RV van. I'll stop by your house to pick you up." Somehow Dave's phone call didn't take me by surprise. Given the power of online communications, the chances of my linking up with an Apple II user driving to the KansasFest conference from a mid-Atlantic city were fairly good. The chances were increased even higher since Dave is a regular user of the GEnie Master offline message processor, which can be set up to capture to hard drive all new messages posted in designated roundtable topics. Whenever human beings write messages, online or offline, it is always with a sense of hope that someone may read and act upon the message. The inherent efficiency of online communication is such that hope becomes integral to the communication process. Of course, the first step of any communication process is the articulation of that hope. Without articulated hope, the desired communication exchange can never progress past that all-important first step. It's interesting to think that over time, as online communication becomes more widely used by the general population, an invisible web of social and intellectual connections will be woven across the country. And once that web is in place, the Wozniaks and the Jobs of this world need not necessarily live in the same town to cross-pollinate each others' minds. Living on opposite sides of the country Wozniak and Jobs could still exchange messages in, say, the "Homebrew Roundtable" under the topic of: "Making home computers a reality." A young fellow with the user name "B.Gates" would likely stop by to catch up on the new messages every once in a while. "Gee, sure seems energetic and focussed for his young age, don't you think?" "Nah. Once he starts dating women he'll forget about computers completely." -Phil Shapiro [*][*][*] [The author takes an interest in the social dimensions of communication 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 //// / "Want me to hold the coats and purses, girls?? :)..." / //////////////////////////////////////// T.EVANS21 ///// [EOA] [LIF]////////////////////////////// LIFESTYLES / ///////////////////////////////// I Became A Real GEnie Junkie! """"""""""""""""""""""""""""" By Gina Saikin [G.Saikin] >>> TALE OF A NEOPHYTE HACKER <<< """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" As I sat down at my computer the other day, I began reflecting over the last two years of my journey through "the land of computers." I was a novice secretary when I received my first introduction to computers. I applied for a job in an advertising agency and was asked if I minded learning "wordprocessing." Needing the job desperately, I eagerly said "no problem," and off I went. Three days later, I was something of an expert on the old Mag Cards, and thought they were the wave of the future, (and at the time, they were). Determination (and a continuing incentive to keep food on the table) kept me eagerly learning all I could about wordprocessors. Wang, Lanier, Xerox -- I sampled them all, and became proficient at most. However, a three-year gap in working taught me that technology moves faster than the speed of light; by the time I re-entered the workforce, the dedicated word processors were out, and the new personal computers were in. During those three years, I didn't really do much with computers, except for typing a few papers and doing a few statistical assignments for college - on, of all things, an Apple IIe. But, experience on dedicated word processors and typing a few papers on an Apple had ill-prepared me for the new office PC technology, and I felt like the proverbial "fish out of water." Because I desperately needed work (as always), and because I knew that I would have to "join the club" of PC users, I resorted to challenging a temporary agency to a dare: if I could, after a short review, make a passable grade on their WordPerfect test, they would in turn train me fully. (Their policy was NOT to train until a set number of hours had been worked - but with my lack of experience on PC's, those hours were almost impossible to gain). I won the dare, and was trained. I had dreams of computer ownership, but with two kids (one with medical problems), a husband who had his own dreams of trucking, and an income that raised "pinching pennies" to new heights, I gave it little thought. In 1991, however, my dream came true in a most unexpected way. I inherited my father's Apple IIe computer. Frustration still dogged my steps, though, as I discovered how little I knew, and how little support there was out there. It was scary, being on my own with a new computer! One of the first maxims I did learn, though, was "Nothing you do with software can hurt the hardware." I was often heard muttering this phrase to myself as I would observe odd gibberish on my screen after yet another attempt to get a program to work, and was sure I had blown a chip or something! Even though I had used PC's on my jobs - most of my work was simply turning on the machine, and running the current program. Now, I was faced with choosing programs, learning how to run them, and in many cases, figuring out why they wouldn't run! A few of my programs bit the dust, and another hard lesson was forever burned into my mind: "Always make backups". Fortunately, I found a user group, which not only saved my sanity, but probably saved my computer from frustrated revenge. So the group met 50 miles away - incentive was a great motivator! Through this same group, I met a lady who owned a store that sold used Apple equipment (a mere 30 miles from home), and my flirtation with the computer turned into a full-blown love- affair. I soon learned she was a barterer at heart, and we immediately struck a deal - I would work for her whenever I could, and in turn, she would "sell" me equipment and software. Believe me, I earned it - with blood (damn those sharp pc boards and chips!), sweat and tears. The most wonderful part of this arrangement was not the hardware and software that I "earned," but rather the knowledge that was imparted to me patiently by her. Remember when I was scared to even take the cover off my computer? Well, through her careful tutelage (even as she probably gritted her teeth at times), she taught me how to exchange and test cards, check drive speeds, and other little tasks that would not only help her out, but would be destined to give me an even greater hunger for further exploration into the land of computers. After a year of working at her shop, I soon realized that my IIe, albeit a great machine, was not enough for me. I began to bargain -- with her, my bank account, and my conscience -- to get hold of a IIGS. The IIGS opened up a whole new world, even greater than the IIe had, for I could do so much more on it. Even with all my experience as a IIe user, I felt like I was back to my earlier days of uncertainty. My poor friend, with infinite patience, once again drilled into my head "nothing you can do with your software will hurt the hardware!" Happily, I began playing around to see what I could do. Then, she introduced me to GEnie. Suddenly, I had more than I could ask for at my fingertips! Unfortunately (for my bank account, that is), I became a real GEnie Junkie, delving into all the BB's, and haunting the RTC's, especially the A2 ones. I soon discovered several BB that were of interest to me and jumped right in. Now, I am involved with the Family BB, trying to get a ToughLove Real Time Conference together, and the Environmental BB, uploading articles that my friend and I publish in a local recycling newsletter - which I produce on my GS. And I'm involved, of course, in A2, where I am breaking down the A2 library index into usable database segments. A dream has come true there, too! I have become a staff member in A2, where I host a regular kid's RTC, and abstract special RTC transcripts. I continue to make mistakes. But, the mistakes help me learn. And learn. And learn some more. All of this is okay, because the maxims "Nothing you can do with software will hurt the hardware", and "Always make backups of your programs" have become my household words, and I have discovered that the best way to learn - is to jump into whatever you want to do, and just do it!. By keeping in mind those maxims, exploration becomes fun and exciting, and not a little fascinating. I intend to keep on exploring! ///////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "Yes by all means get Aladdin. Ask away and you will get / / answers. I was shy at first but not anymore. No questions / / - no answers it's that simple. What you consider simple, a / / zillion people out there need the question & answer but are / / afraid to ask. There are no dumb questions - only fearful / / people who don't ask for fear of being considered dumb." / ////////////////////////////////////////////// K.OLSON10 //// [EOA] [TEL]////////////////////////////// TELETALK ONLINE / ///////////////////////////////// Online Communications """"""""""""""""""""" By Al Fasoldt [A.FASOLDT] >>> BANNED IN THE U.S.A. <<< """""""""""""""""""""""""""" ~ Copyright 1993 by Al Fasoldt. All rights reserved ~ I was banned in Boston the other day. And in Chicago and Los Angeles. I was banned in the rest of the country, too. It lasted for a week. It was the first time I've ever been censored. It all started when I tried to catch up on my mail. I had thousands of unread messages to look through on one of the national computer networks. Nearly all the messages were public postings in the conferences. Anybody in the United States can read them just by calling the network by computer. Public messages on this network are supposed to be civil. After all, the notes that are posted are just like the scraps of paper that you see on supermarket bulletin boards. You don't want to embarrass anyone or make unpleasant remarks in public. But as I started to read the public messages, I came across one directed solely at me. If it had been a private letter, I wouldn't have minded at all. But out in the open, where any caller could read it -- right out on the supermarket wall, so to speak -- was a note that said, more or less, that I had an unorthodox way of dealing with the truth. A liar? Was that what I was being called? So what, you say? You write for a living, you take your lumps, and that's that. I get letters now and then from regular readers who tell me I don't know what I'm talking about. One guy even sends me unprintable references to my ancestors. I'm used to it. But these aren't public remarks. They're personal and private. You can ignore something like that and nobody else cares. Nobody else knows. The public note I found on the computer network (NOT GEnie! -Ed :) had gone too far. I wrote a reply pointing this out. I made a couple of pointed remarks about the letter-writer's grumpiness, and then I posted my reply in the same area of the conferencing network. Since his note about me had been public, I made sure my response was public, too. I called back to look for any new mail the next day. I had a private note from one of the people in charge of the network. Cool it, he said. The other guy is being told the same thing, his note said. The two of you should calm yourselves down. I didn't like being told not to defend myself. I wasn't about to keep quiet. So I checked back into the public messages and found another one from the same caller. It slammed me even harder. And so I slammed back. Nothing could stop me now. Or so I thought. When I called again two days later, everything seemed normal. While I was reading a message, I pressed a couple of keys to tell the network that I wanted to write a comment. They were the same keys I'd always pressed. But this time instead of getting the OK from the computer system, I got a note back from the network. You can't do that, it said in network language. You can't reply to that message. I tried again. Same thing. I went to another message and tried to respond to it. Sorry! This isn't allowed, the network told me. The actual note was "access denied," or something like that. It was that way for all of the conferences I checked into. I had been silenced. I could read but not write. Later, I found an electronic mail letter from the network manager. His note had been mailed to both me and my antagonist. It said we were being childish. Our angry messages had been deleted so nobody could read them. The censorship would last a few days, he said. He also said things could get worse if we didn't behave. This last part was a little odd. Without the ability to write public messages, we had no way to misbehave. We were like patrons of the supermarket who were locked out just outside the door. We could see the little pieces of paper on the public bulletin board, but we couldn't put up any ourselves. I fired off a private reply to the manager. I pay for this service, I reminded him. It's not a service when I can't respond to public messages. I told him I shouldn't have to pay for the time that I was censored. He wrote back right away and told me I wouldn't be charged for that period. By the following week I was back to full status. I minded my manners, and I've been a good boy ever since. I haven't had an argument with anybody. But the whole experience has been unsettling. It's clear that nobody came out ahead, but I still haven't figured out who lost more -- the other network callers, presumably embarrassed, who had to pick their way past our public spat, or the two of us, muzzled and singled out, treated like 7-year-olds. Maybe the real loss is an almost insignificant erosion of the right of free expression. This decade will mark the beginning of true mass communication by computer. In some ways, conferencing networks will become as important as newspapers, and much of the time they'll serve as a replacement for the U.S. mail. However, unlike the press and the postal service, with their long traditions of free speech, computer networks don't have history as a guide. They'll do whatever their managers want. And that means censorship just as easily as it means anything else. When that day comes, who will decide what can be said in public? It's worth thinking about now, while networks and other information services are still young. It may be too late when they've grown up. [*][*][*] Al Fasoldt writes about computers and consumer electronics from Syracuse, N.Y., where he is a newspaper editor and programmer. ///////////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "Well, "Cut the muster" is a military term. I can't imagine why / / anyone would want to slice mustard." / ///////////////////////////////////////////////////// O-ZONE //// [EOA] [QUI]////////////////////////////// THE MIGHTY QUINN / ///////////////////////////////// Random Access """"""""""""" By Mark Quinn [NEWSIE] "A Whole Buncha Milliseconds with Mark" by Mark Quinn, DOA Forget Alvin Toffler: some of us are waiting for technology to catch up to _us_. I dream of the day when I can buy a MIDI synthesizer that, besides having a decent piano and electronic organ patch, also does a fair job of imitating an acoustic guitar. I'd like to have a vision recognition system good enough to handle driving my car. I'd like to see 40" active matrix TVs, after so many years of hearing that flat-screen TVs were "ten years away". And these are not pie-in-the-sky Star Wars doo-dads -- they are extrapolations of current technologies. Granted, such advances will come with time, but when they will arrive is anyone's guess. I really don't expect to hop in the back seat of my car, speak a destination and have the car do the rest during my lifetime (I am 34, and desperately counting down 40) -- I expect to see glimmerings of the technology, perhaps see a few "gee whiz" promises on _Beyond 2000_, but that's about it. Darn it, doesn't this child of the 60s and 70s, who saw astronauts play golf on the moon, the birth of MTV, and the death of communism, deserve the above wish list? I've been awfully good, I regularly back up my text files -- baby wants techno goodies. Baby promises not to do anything overtly obscene or outright dangerous with them. Sanity returneth. (Good, just in time for this paragraph, too.) Our ancestors made do with far less, and some of them excelled. And a whole lot of people in _today's_ world don't have access to the gee whiz technology (synthesizers that have good piano patches, Super VGA monitors, a reliable car with a full tank of gasoline) I take for granted, so a slice of humble pie is in order. Can I have that slice with a hang-on-the-wall, flat-screen TV, please? /////////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "Your probably right! But isn't mustard a plant or something / / that that the workers in the field used to have to cut, but / / when they get to hold, they can't cut the MUSTARD any more? / / hmmmmm! Hey! This sound like a new topic...........(HaHa) / / I think we better give this serious investigation.....:D " / /////////////////////////////////////////////// W.DAVIS20 //// [EOA] [PRO]////////////////////////////// PROFILES / ///////////////////////////////// Who's Who In Apple II """"""""""""""""""""" By Phil Shapiro [P.SHAPIRO1] >>> WHO'S WHO <<< """"""""""""""""" ~ A GEnieLamp Profile of Kenrick J. Mock ~ GEnieLamp> Kenrick, how did you first come to start programming the Apple """"""""" II? Do you have any anecdotes you can share about your early experiences with the Apple II? Mock> I first started programming in BASIC on my Apple II+ back when I """" was in the 5th or 6th grade. I'd have a grand old time typing in games from books. At the time there were also a couple of magazines that would publish games in BASIC for users to type in and run. Eventually I took a class in assembly and pascal, but I learned most of my programming skills by just hacking around on my own. Probably my favorite Apple II story comes a bit later in life. At one of the San Francisco Applefests, Activision sponsored a contest to promote their new GS game, GBA 2-on-2 Basketball. They had Joe Barry Carroll there and everything - it was a big deal! In the contest, whoever had the most points after playing the computer would win a new GS system. I made it to the final round in the playoffs. I played last - and the other two contestants actually lost their games to the computer! When it was my turn, I jumped out to an early lead and started messing around. The computer slowly caught up, and suddenly with about 10 seconds left to play, the game was tied! Fortunately, I was able to call a time-out and pass to my computer teammate, who made the basket and won the game! The slight controversy was that the other contestants didn't know about the time-out feature, but I won the GS nevertheless. (Ironically, I already owned a GS, while the other two contestants owned IIe's. GEnieLamp> Can you tell us a little about your background and education. """"""""" I understand you graduated from college not long ago. Did you study computer science in college? Mock> I graduated from high school in 1986 and attended UC Davis where I """" received my degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Originally, I had intended to focus more on the hardware aspects of computers (I have always enjoyed tinkering with electronics since an early age - I once made a robot which I could control from my Apple II+), but towards the end of my sojourn at UCD I found that I enjoyed the computer programming the most. I worked at the Los Alamos Nat'l Laboratory in New Mexico for about 3/4 of a year, doing some work with virtual- reality, user-interfaces, and software maintenance. A lot of the ideas for my games actually arose when I was working out in New Mexico. After I'd finished there, I worked for the MIS department of Chevron Chemical Company for another 3/4 of a year primarily doing work with multimedia. I left the "real world" to go back to school. Currently, I'm working on my Ph.D. at UC Davis, majoring in Artificial Intelligence. At the moment I'm being funded by NASA Ames to develop a prototype system for reasoning about failures aboard Space Station Freedom. It's kind of a precursor to a HAL 9000, since we are communicating with the user in plain english. I have a few AI projects I've been thinking about converting to the GS... GEnieLamp> Your shareware disks have achieved national recognition for """"""""" their quality and originality. Can you comment a bit on your ideas about shareware as a publishing channel? Mock> I think shareware is a pretty good publishing channel. However, """" shareware certainly doesn't reach as wide an audience as a commercial program. Moreover, as I'm sure you know, only a small fraction of those people who use shareware actually send in the fee. Nevertheless, I've been fairly pleased with the response to my programs, and would like to thank those who have paid. I'm not really in this for profit, so the money is really icing on the cake. GEnieLamp> Continuing further on the subject of shareware, what is the """"""""" furthest place on the globe from which you've received a shareware fee? Any interesting letters from shareware fans? Mock> I've gotten letters from all over the world. Quite a few from """" Canada and Australia, and a handful from Japan and the Middle East. One of my favorite letters contained a computer printout of the high score screen, showing that my score had been surpassed! (BTW, if you read this, my new high score is 1420.) My favorite is a letter which described how Columns GS had interested their learning-disabled daughter enough to want to play with the computer. After playing Columns, she began to branch out to using the computer for other things. It was quite heartwarming to hear how Columns had gotten someone else started with the Apple IIgs. GEnieLamp> Kenrick, all of your games seem to be centered around the """"""""" English alphabet - - - Boggled, LetterSlide and now VIAD. Is this due to a strong background in English? Mock> I've always enjoyed reading and word games, but I don't have much """" of a technical background in English. VIAD was actually written first. While I was waiting for James to finish the music, I thought I'd make use of his alphabet block-set and cranked out Boggled. At that point, James was still working on the music, so I was able to finish LetterSlide as well. GEnieLamp> Many people who use and enjoy your games must wonder what """"""""" programming tools you used to create them. Which are your favorite tools and what particularly do you like about them? Mock> I use a mixture of Orca/C and Orca/M for my programming. The nice """" thing about Orca is that it's possible to integrate assembly and a high-level language (like C) together. As far as tools, there's a package of text tools from 360 microsystems which I kind of like. I've also used the FTA's tool 219 to play soundsmith music, although one of these days I'll switch over to Ian Schmidt's music player. I've also got a variety of graphical and input/output tools I've developed myself - I used some of them in my SAP animation program. GEnieLamp> The background music for your Columns GS game is quite """"""""" striking. Did you compose this music yourself, or was it "inspired" from another source? Mock> Hardly! The music and graphical genius for Columns and VIAD is all """" the work of James Brookes. You've probably seen his work on the IRC demos, DuoTris, DuelTris, and a couple of other programs. In fact, Columns GS 2.0 would never have existed if it weren't for James. I was ready to stop programming at version 1.0, but James sent me some music and graphic samples which he'd created. Since he had already made them, I had no choice but to use them! As a result, Columns GS 2.0 was released and it would never have been as popular as it is without his music and graphics. GEnieLamp> Besides programming, what other hobbies and interests do you """"""""" have? What do you wish you could spend more time doing? Mock> Aside from computers, my next hobby has to be running. I used """" to run on the cross country and track teams in college. Lately, I've been a bit lax in my workouts, but I've been trying to get back into racing shape. I also enjoy various types of theater, concerts, anything having to do with the outdoors, and I've just started windsurfing. One of the things I'd like is to have some more free time for reading - I've got a long list of books I've been wanting to catch up on. GEnieLamp> As someone who has exhibited a strong creative flair, can you """"""""" share any ideas about ways of promoting creativity? Any general comments about the nature of human creativity? Mock> I subscribe to the same theory of creativity as a psychologist """" named Mednick - creativity is just the ability to take different ideas and mush them together to make new ones. I believe one way to promote creativity is to stop worrying what others may think about your work. Don't worry about being "graded"! Just have fun. GEnieLamp> Whose work do you admire most in the national Apple II """"""""" community? What about their work do you admire? Locally, was there any one person who helped ignite your interest in computers? Mock> The last question is the easiest to answer - my dad is the one """" responsible for getting me going with computers. As far as other people, that's a tough call. James Brookes is certainly a stud. I'd have to give him the artistry award. I've also enjoyed Will Harvey's and Bill Heineman's programs. Ken Franklin's relief-ware concept is also quite admirable. GEnieLamp> Any ideas on where the future of telecommunications is is """"""""" taking us? What services do you think GEnie might be offering in the year 2000? What services do you think it SHOULD be offering? Mock> Here in Davis, we've got a project called the Davis Community """" Network. It will bring digital communications to every home in town. I'll essentially have 57.6 Kbps lines going straight to my room! I think the future will see high speed networks and internet availability coming to residential areas. Eventually I see GEnie communicating to its users via a variety of media; e.g., visual and auditory, rather than just text. GEnieLamp> Are you currently working on anything that you can tell us """"""""" about? Mock> I have an artificial intelligence board game called Pente that """" will be out very soon. After that, I hope to finish up a dictionary editor for the word games, and I also want to make some improvements to the SAP program. After that, I've got a couple of ideas but nothing concrete. GEnieLamp> Where can people reach you to send their ideas for the next """"""""" great Kenrick Mock game? Mock> I'd love to hear any ideas or comments. My mailing address is: """" Kenrick Mock 2300 Sycamore Lane, 18 Davis, CA 95616-5511 And I can be reached via electronic mail at: GEnie: K.MOCK Internet: mock@toadflax.cs.ucdavis.edu BBS: (916) 757-7856 /////////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "BTW, Mandala is a term from Oriental Art, meaning a stylized / / representation of the Cosmos. I spend hours staring at the / / screen, hoping to soak up culture. But I just fall asleep." / /////////////////////////////////////////////// N.WEINRESS //// [EOA] [LIB]////////////////////////////// THE ONLINE LIBRARY / ///////////////////////////////// Yours For The Downloading """"""""""""""""""""""""" By Mel Fowler [MELSOFT] o Prime Bulletin Board System o Zippety-Doo-Dah! Zippety-Day! THINKING ABOUT STARTING A BBS? How many of you have wanted to start a """""""""""""""""""""""""""""" local bulletin board system (BBS) but just didn't want to spend the money on the new equipment such a venture would entail? Well, you may have the equipment hidden away in a closet or garage someplace. Dig out that Apple II+, IIc, or IIe and take a look at Prime.BBS version 2.2 which went public domain in the middle of 1992 and is available right here on GEnie, in the A2 Library. Prime.BBS is perfect for starting up a small (25 to 200 subscriber) local bulletin board. Its easy to install, simple to operate, and will run on any Apple II with 64K of RAM, including an Apple ][+ with some limitations. You will also need a modem (modulator/demodulator) that operates at 300, 1200, or 2400 baud and a Super Serial Card. A small hard drive of 5 to 10 Megs is also recommended but not mandatory if you have two disk drives, either 5.25 inch floppy or 3.5 inch. However, if you are using two 5.25 inch floppy disk drive you would be somewhat limited in your scope of operations, being able to have an E-Mail and a bulletin board area but not a software library. With two 3.5 inch drives you can handle just about everything with your software library or libraries on one drive and everything else on the other. A ProDOS compatible clock card is strongly recommended. A printer is optional. You may already have some or all this stuff just hanging around doing nothing. Now you can put it to work and become an all powerful System Operator (SysOp) on your own BBS. Start a BBS for your local Apple II users group. Share a collection of shareware, freeware, and public domain software with the club, and the club with you. Local BBSs are popping up all over and cover all types of special interests from chess clubs to retired senior citizens. Prime.BBS offers you complete access control so you can setup areas of your board that have limited access to users. You control everything your users see and do while they are on your board. If you don't like the look and feel of the default menus or the structure of the libraries, change them to meet your desires. You can edit almost anything about Prime.BBS. Electronic mail is an important part of every bulletin board and Prime.BBS supports a simple, elegant E-Mail system. You can create as many special interest areas within your board as you need, with each area having its own bulletin board and library. The libraries can also be divided into categories which reflect the type of software in them, such as separate sections for graphics, utilities, games, etc. A SysOp can be assigned to monitor and control each area. The External program section adds real power to your board and allows for the addition of external programs such as games, phrase of the day, "this day in history," or a calculator. You can even add external menus. You can control how the board answers callers, with a message for new subscribers that outlines what the board has to offer and the rules and etiquette required of a all subscribers. The 89 page (not counting appendices) manual covers every aspect of Prime.BBS and is written in Classic Appleworks for easy access. It is will organized and easy to follow, even though it covers everything you need to know down to the last detail. Downloading Prime.BBS can be done in two ways depending on your choice of disks. If you want to use 5.25 inch floppy disks you would have to download the following: File number Volume name """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" 18893 /INSTALL 18894 /SYSTEM 18895 /UTILITY 18896 /XFER1 18897 /XFER2 19050 /MANUAL PART1 19051 /MANUAL PART2 For 3.5 inch disks, or a hard drive, download the following: 19189 /Prime.BBS 18837 /Prime.BBS Doc Other recommended downloads are: 19649 /BUGS AND FIXES 18994 /USER REPORTS 19706 /USER REPAIR UTILITY 19175 /SYSTEM DIRECTORY LISTING 19249 /PRIME.TIP1 19228 /PRIME Alternative Xfer System 19227 /Prime Xpress Xfer Documentation 19545 /Prime Xpress Patch & Fixes For a complete listing of all Prime.BBS files just do a search of the A2 library for "Prime". They range from role playing games, sport simulations like golf and football, adventure games, board games, a lottery system, and general information like the complete history of the Apple II. Everything you need to make your BBS entertaining and fun to use. The best feature of Prime.BBS is William T. Goosey, Jr. (W.GOOSEY) here on GEnie and the Prime.BBS category. "Goose" is the resident guru for Prime.BBS and is available to answer any of your questions concerning installation and operation. So if you run into problems just go to Category 41, Topics 4: Prime BBS System goes Public, Topic 5: Prime Help and Bug reports, and Topic 6: Advertise your Prime BBS here. Goose has uploaded over 70 Prime BBS programs that can be used to enhance your bulletin board operation. He continues to upload tested modules for Prime. So what's holding you back? Dig out that unused Apple II and get into the Bulletin Board business. It's easy if you have Prime.BBS. And how can you go wrong with a resident expert right here on GEnie? Zippety-Doo-Dah! Zippety-Day! New 8-Bit Apple II Utility Opens Up a """""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Magical Kingdom of Zipped Text Files Thanks to the programming wizardry of Russ Woodroofe, Apple IIe, IIc, IIGS, and IIc+ users are now able to download and decompress text files archived in IBM "zip" format. The neat thing about Russ Woodroofe's UnZIP IIe program is that it looks, feels, and operates in much the same fashion as ShrinkIt. This opens many doors to downloadable files that were previously inaccessible to Apple II users. Federal government bulletin boards, in particular, seem to have many text files archived in "zip" format. But you can also find "zipped" text file goodies right here on GEnie. Two places to go hunting are GEnieLamp's own file library, accessed from page 515 on GEnie. And the Home Office/Small Business roundtable library, accessed by typing HOSB at any standard GEnie prompt. For your modeming convenience and pleasure, a complete listing of the GEnieLamp library of text files has been captured, shrunk, and uploaded to the A2 file library. Persons interested in delving further should direct their attention to A2 file number 20286, "GL.Library.BXY". Within the GEnieLamp library you'll find a smorgasbord of text files including information about the "Disktop Publishing Association," freeware fiction and non-fiction writings, and even freeware poetry. The instant popularity of UnZip IIe is evidenced by the fact that over 120 people have downloaded the file in the past month. One small pointer, though. The current version of UnZip IIe has problems decompressing files whose file name violates Prodos's rules. So some of the IBM zipped files which use underline characters and other oddities will cause UnZip IIe to give a "Bad Pathname Syntax" error. The good news is that although these "IBM oddities" files cannot be decompressed to disk, the program is still able to display the text in these files on your Apple II screen. ********************************* Number: 20121 Name: UNZIPIIE.BXY V1.0 Address: NORBY Date: 930119 Approximate of bytes: 18048 Number of Accesses: 124 Library: 40 Description: Here's a nice UnZIPer, complete with a ShrinkIt-type interface, which will run on any //e or up. I would recommend an enhanced //e (the extensive mousetext would look pretty confusing without), but doesn't check, and doesn't use any 65c02 opcodes. Docs with more info are included. Shareware $10 Keywords: ZIP,UnZIP,Archiver,Compression,8-bit,utilities [*][*][*] [Note: You can quickly navigate to the A2 Library on GEnie by typing M645;3 at any standard GEnie prompt. The letter "m" stands for the command "move." The number 645 refers to the "page" on GEnie where the A2 Roundtable is located. And the semi-colon 3 refers to the A2 file library, as opposed to the message areas of the A2 Roundtable. To navigate directly to the message areas (bulletin boards) of the A2 Roundtable, type: M645;1 at any standard GEnie prompt.] [EAO] [FUN]////////////////////////////// ONLINE FUN / ///////////////////////////////// Search-ME! """""""""" By Scott Garrigus [S.GARRIGUS] EXPLORING GEnie Have you ever wondered what will happen to you in the """"""""""""""" future? If maybe you'll find romance or become rich? Don't say no because like any other human being in this world I know you have! :-) Yes! We'd all like to see what the future might hold for us but unfortunately the time machine hasn't been invented yet. Here on GEnie though, we've got the next best thing... the Astrology Roundtable! That's right! This month I visited the Astrology Roundtable (page 1180) and found a lot of fascinating facts! If your interested in astrology at all you've got to check this RT out! Exchange messages with other astrology fanatics in the BBS and you can even download your horoscopes from the library! It's great fun! But before you go, be sure and solve this months puzzle... Until next month... Keep on smilin'! :-) >>> THE ASTROLOGY ROUNDTABLE <<< """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" ~ M1180 Keyword:ASTROLOGY ~ D V T U D B S S U I R A U Q A D A T M X Y Y S M G Z V H C K S A S K H E S W S U R U A T J Y K O L F O O Q A S Q N B P H O F G O P X E Y A M T R R N W N J K N Q C O S I Y E K D Z R R U P U P E F A S M J C O B C P A L J N X P B P R V I K D L X A C M C A P S P G O Q A X I I A I O L S Y Y S G A N G S P O T R S T E L D W J H U Y S C N B I N F W N G R I S N E V A E H A H O E Z G E V T C G U E U O I I N D Y A H S U Q S K I B I S T E Z M A T H C C O N Z N T M D S L S H L W J A R I H O S N U L O A C R Q U E G P A Q J E U R N W L B X T Q I W R O C I I I W T I C G R S I W M W F V I R G O L N N R K I S D F I I T C U C H A R T P S O O H B A X U K W M Y V A T I S F A U M T N R G L A Z X A C R D L V R W H S O L F D F A M I U B O S M U Q Y Q W S N F L Y Y K E W B F C Y S L U G P M M R H N D R K Q Y N M H D P A N T U A E Y Y L Z V Q Z D V M E A U F G X L N Z U L A P B A B S D H H A T R T V C N T E F M N Z R R L I Q Y L U R ANALYSES AQUARIUS ARIES ASTROLOGICAL ASTROLOGY CANCER CAPRICORN CHART GEMINI HEAVENS HOROSCOPE LEO LIBRA MYSTICAL PISCES SAGITTARIUS SCORPIO SIGNS STARS TAURUS VIRGO [*][*][*] 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 //// / "I would pound on the tree's until my characters needed rest / / then back off. Rest up and bash the tree's some more. If / / this got to boring I'd go off and chase rabbits for awhile, / / great fun, especially with throwing the baseballs." / /////////////////////////////////////////////// JLHOFFMAN //// [EOA] [AII]////////////////////////////// APPLE II / ///////////////////////////////// Apple II History, Part 10 """"""""""""""""""""""""" By Steven Weyhrich [S.WEYHRICH] >>> APPLE II HISTORY <<< """""""""""""""""""""""" Compiled and written by Steven Weyhrich (C) Copyright 1992, Zonker Software (PART 10 -- DISK EVOLUTION / THE APPLE IIC PLUS) [v1.3 :: 12 Nov 92] INTRODUCTION This installment of the Apple II History series focuses on """""""""""" the return of Steve Wozniak to Apple Computer. The evolution of Apple II computers takes one of its biggest strides with the Apple IIgs computer. The development and design decisions made for the IIgs are also covered in this segment. [*][*][*] THE APPLE II EVOLVES While the capabilities of the Apple II slowly """""""""""""""""""" advanced as it changed from the II up through the IIc, the one thing that remained essentially unchanged was the 6502 microprocessor that controlled it. Even though the 65c02 had more commands than the 6502, as an 8-bit processor it was inherently limited to directly addressing no more than 64K of memory at one time. (As an 8-bit processor, the 6502 could handle only 8 bits, or one byte at a time. However, its address bus was 16 bits wide, which made for a maximum address of 1111 1111 1111 1111 in binary, $FFFF in hexadecimal, or 65535 in decimal. If you divide 65536 bytes by 1024 bytes per "K", you get 64K as the largest memory size). When Wozniak designed it, 64K was considered to be a massive amount of memory, even for some mainframe computers. (For example, the old mainframe on which I learned programming during college back in 1975 was a ten-year-old IBM 1130 with 8K of memory; this was used for both the operating system AND user programs!) Most hackers of the time would not have known what to DO with four megabytes of memory, even if it had been possible (or affordable) to install that much. Consequently, programs of the day were compact, efficient, and primarily text-based. The non-Apple II computer world had developed and advanced, and Apple grudgingly allowed the Apple II to make its small, incremental advances. Occasionally, efforts were made within Apple to make a more powerful Apple II, but the lure of "better" computers always turned the attention of management away from allowing such a project to actually make any progress. First the Apple III, then Lisa, and finally Macintosh swallowed the research and development dollars that Apple's cash cow, the Apple II, continued to produce. The latter two computers were based around the 16-bit Motorola 68000 microprocessor, which had the capability to address far more than 64K of memory. The Apple II could make use of more memory only through complicated switching schemes (switching between separate 64K banks). Although "Mac-envy" hit many Apple II enthusiasts both inside and outside of Apple, causing them to move away from the II, there were still many others who continued to press for more power from the II. Eventually, a company called Western Design Center revealed plans to produce a new microprocessor called the 65816. This chip would have all of the assembly language opcodes (commands) of the 65c02 through an "emulation" mode. However, it would be a true 16-bit processor, with the ability handle 16 bits (two bytes) at a time and to address larger amounts of continuous memory. The address bus was enlarged from 16 to 24 bits, making the 65816 capable of addressing 256 times more memory, or 16 megabytes. The power to make a better Apple II was finally available. THE RETURN OF WOZNIAK Back in early 1981, Steve Wozniak was involved """"""""""""""""""""" with several projects at Apple. He had helped write some fast math routines for a spreadsheet product that Apple had planned to release in competition with Visicalc. Also, Steve Jobs had managed to convince Wozniak to participate with his fledgling Macintosh project. Then, in early February, Wozniak's private plane crashed. He was injured with a concussion that temporarily made it impossible to form new memories. He could not recall that he had an accident; he did not remember playing games with his computer in the hospital; he did not remember who visited him earlier in the day. When he finally did recover from the concussion, he decided it was time to take a leave of absence from Apple. Wozniak married, and returned to college at Berkley under the name "Rocky Clark" (a combination of his dog's name and his wife's maiden name). He decided he wanted to finally graduate, and get his degree in electrical engineering and computer science. When he was done with that, he formed a corporation called "UNUSON" (which stood for "Unite Us In Song") to produce educational computer materials, wanting to make computers easier for students to use. He also decided use UNUSON to sponsor a couple of rock music events, and called them the "US Festival".<1> Held on Labor Day weekend in 1982 and 1983, these music and technology extravaganzas were invigorating for Wozniak, but he lost a bundle of money on both occasions. Though nowhere near drying up the value of his Apple Computer stock, he decided that he was ready to return to work. In June of 1983, Wozniak entered the building on the Apple campus where the Apple II division was housed and asked for something to do. THE APPLE IIX When Wozniak returned, he discovered the latest of the """"""""""""" Apple II modernization projects, which was code-named "IIx". When he saw what the 65816 could do, he became excited about the potential of the new Apple II and immediately got involved. It was a tremendous boost in morale for the division to have their founder return to work. However, the IIx project was plagued by several problems. Western Design Center was late in delivering samples of the 65816 processor. First promised for November 1983, they finally arrived in February 1984--and didn't work. The second set that came three weeks later also failed. Other problems came out of the engineering mindset that still existed at Apple at the time. Recall that people there liked designing boxes that would do neat things, but there was not enough of a unified focus from above to pull things together. The marketing department wanted the IIx to have a co-processor slot to allow it to run different microprocessors. The code name of the project by this time was "Brooklyn" and "Golden Gate" (referring to the ability to make it a bridge between the Apple II and Macintosh). The co-processor slot could allow the IIx to easily do what third party companies had done for the original Apple II with their Z-80 boards (which allowed them to run CP/M software). Co-processor boards considered were ones for the Motorola 68000 (the chip used in the Macintosh), and the Intel 8088 (used in the IBM PC). The IIx project got so bogged down in trying to become other computers, they forgot it was supposed to be an advanced Apple II. Politically it also had problems at Apple, because it was being aimed as a high-end business machine, which was where they wanted the Macintosh to go.<2>,<3> Wozniak lost interest as things ran slower and slower, and eventually the project was dropped. THE 16-BIT APPLE II RETURNS When the IIx project was cancelled in March """"""""""""""""""""""""""" 1983, some of the Apple II engineers were assigned the task of reducing the cost of the Apple II. Engineers Dan Hillman and Jay Rickard managed to put almost the entire Apple II circuitry onto a single chip they called the Mega II. Meanwhile, after the "Apple II Forever" event that introduced the IIc, interest in the Apple II revived and sales were quite good. Management saw that sales of the open IIe were better than the sales of the closed IIc, so they were agreeable to the idea of another try at the 16-bit Apple II, possibly utilizing the Mega II chip. By late summer 1984 it was revived with the code name "Phoenix" (rising from the ashes of the IIx project).<3> THE APPLE IIGS: GOALS OF THE DEVELOPMENT TEAM The people involved in the """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Phoenix project were very knowledgeable about the Apple II, from the days of the ][ through the //c. They knew what THEY wanted in a new computer. It should primarily be an Apple II, not just something NEW that tried to be all things to all people.<4> Dan Hillman, who had also been involved as the engineering manager for the IIx project, stated in an interview, "Our mission was very simple. First we wanted to preserve the Apple II as it exists today. It had to work with Apple IIe software and Apple IIc software. That was goal number 1. But we recognized that the Apple II was an old computer. It had limitations. The new machine needed to address those limitations, break through those barriers--and the barriers were very obvious: We needed to increase the memory size. We had to make it run faster. We needed better graphics. And we had to have better sound. That was our mission." Since advanced graphics and sound were what would make this new Apple really shine, the name eventually assigned to the final product was "Apple IIGS".<3> Having learned from their experience in building the Apple IIe and IIc, they knew what would make the new 16-bit Apple II more powerful. The Apple IIc was easy to use because the most commonly needed peripherals were already built-in. The Apple IIe, however, excelled in its ability to be easily expanded (via the slots) to do things that were NOT commonly needed or built-in. Harvey Lehtman, system software manager for the project, stated, "We ... wanted the Apple IIGS to be easy to set up, like the IIc, and easy to expand, like the IIe."<3> THE APPLE IIGS: ARCHITECTURE Wozniak was quite involved in designing the """""""""""""""""""""""""""" general layout of the IIGS. Insisting on keeping it simple, he recommended AGAINST a built-in co-processor (as they tried to do with the IIx). He also wanted to keep the 8-bit part of the machine separate from the 16-bit part. To accomplish this, he and the other engineers decided to design it so the memory in the lower 128K of the machine was "slow RAM", which made it possible for it to function just as it did on the older Apple II's. This included the memory allocation for the odd addressing schemes used in the text and graphics modes and (which made sense in 1976, but not in 1986). The rest of the available memory space would be fast, and could be expanded to as much as 16 megabytes. With a faster microprocessor, it would also be possible to run programs more quickly than on the older Apple II's.<3> THE APPLE IIGS: GRAPHICS One area they decided to focus on was bringing """""""""""""""""""""""" the quality of graphics on the new Apple II up to modern standards. Rob Moore, the Phoenix project hardware group manager, helped define the new graphics modes of the IIGS. Because a change that increased the vertical resolution from 200 dots to 400 dots would make the computer too expensive (it would require a special slow-phosphor monitor), they purposely decided not to go in that direction. Instead, they increased the horizontal resolution, and created two new graphics modes (called "super hi-res"); one was 320 x 200 and the other was 640 x 200. This decision also made it easier to keep compatibility with older graphics modes.<3> As mentioned above, the text and graphics addressing on the old Apple II was odd, from a programming standpoint. When Wozniak originally designed the II, he made the memory allocation for text and graphics to be "non-linear", since this saved several hardware chips and made it less expensive to build. This meant that calculating the memory address of a specific dot on the hi-res graphics screen or a character on the text screen was not as simple as most programmers wanted. The hi-res screen began at $2000 in memory, and the first line on the hi-res screen (line 0) started at that address. Each line on the hi-res screen was made up of 40 bytes of 8 bits each, and seven bits of each byte represented a dot or pixel on the screen, giving a possible 280 dots horizontally. Since 40 bytes is $28 in hex, line 0 then ran from $2000 to $2027 in memory. However, the second line (line 1) of the hi-res screen did NOT start at $2028 as one would expect, but at $2080. The hi-res screen line represented by memory locations $2028 to $204F was line 8, and $2050 to $2077 was line 16. The last eight bytes of this 128 byte section of memory was unused. The next 128 bytes were allocated to screen lines 1, 9, and 17, and so on. Because this complicated things considerably for programmers, the design team for the IIGS wanted linear addressing, which would allow the memory addresses of line 0 to be followed by the addresses for line 1, and so on. Because the graphics resolution and range of available colors planned was much greater than either of the older graphics modes (hi-res or double hi-res), they needed 32K of continuous memory to use. Because they planned on a minimum memory configuration of 256K for the IIGS as it would be shipped, they could not come up with that much memory in one single block. Engineer Larry Thompson designed a special Video Graphics Controller (VGC) to solve the problem. The chip combined two separate 16K blocks of memory and make it appear as a single continuous 32K block of memory, as far as the graphics programmer was concerned.<3> The new super hi-res graphics modes also gave far more color choices than either the old hi-res mode (which had six unique colors) or even the double hi-res mode (which had sixteen colors). In the 320 x 200 super hi-res mode, each line could have sixteen colors out of a possible 4,096, and in the 640 x 200 mode, each line could have four colors out of 4,096. This gave graphics power that was not even available on a Macintosh (which was still black and white at the time). THE APPLE IIGS: SOUND The second major area of focus for enhancements """"""""""""""""""""" over the old Apple II was sound reproduction. The original sound chip that had been proposed for the IIGS would have given it the sound quality of a typical arcade game. However, this was no better than what other computers in 1986 could do. Rob Moore suggested using a sound chip made by Ensoniq, one that was used in the Mirage music synthesizer. He had to push hard to get this included in the final design, but was able to convince management of its importance because he told them it would be "enabling technology" (borrowing a phrase from a Macintosh marketing book). He told them "it would enable people to do things they'd never dreamed of doing."<3> The Ensoniq chip was capable of synthesizing FIFTEEN simultaneous musical voices. To help it in doing such complex sound reproduction, they gave the chip a separate 64K block of RAM memory dedicated specifically for that purpose. THE APPLE IIGS: MEMORY The 65816 is designed to address up to 16 MB of """""""""""""""""""""" memory. The IIGS, however, was designed to support only 8 MB of RAM, and up to 1 MB of ROM (in high memory). With cards specially designed by third-party companies, up to 12 MB of RAM could be added, but the memory manager in ROM was only aware of the first 8 MB. A special patch was needed to allow the system to use memory beyond that point. Building on the traditional memory organization from 6502 days, memory in the IIGS was usually referred to in banks, from $00 through $FF. Each bank refers to a 64K chunk of memory. The lowest bank, $00, was identical to the 64K memory space in the original Apple II. The next bank, $01, was the same as the auxiliary memory bank used on the Apple IIe and IIc. (Additionally, the super hi-res graphics display was found in 32K of the memory in bank $00, from $2000 to $9FFF). The banks from $02-$7F were also for RAM storage, and covered things up to the 8 MB limit. Banks $80-$DF could be used for another 4.25 MB of RAM, but as mentioned above they were unusable (without a patch) because the memory manager didn't know how to access it. The memory expansion slot designed for the IIGS only had two lines to decode addresses. This allowed for direct access to each of four 256K RAM chips, or four 1 MB RAM chips. In order to make use of the next 4 MB of RAM some special logic was needed to find and use it. RAM cards with more than 4 MB were never directly supported by Apple.<5> Banks $E0 and $E1 were a special part of RAM that was used to duplicate ("shadow") banks $00 and $01. This RAM was designed as "slow" RAM, and would better be able to run some of the older 8-bit Apple II software. When shadowing was active, anything a program did to addresses in banks $00 and $01 was duplicated in banks $E0 and $E1. Although it appeared to a program that it was running in the lower two banks, it was really running in the slow RAM in banks $E0 and $E1.<6> Banks $E2-$EF were undefined. The last one MB from $F0-$FF was allocated to ROM. The lower 512K (banks $F0-$F7) were set aside for a ROMdisk. (A ROMdisk is just like a RAMdisk, except it will not lose its contents when power is turned off). For a ROMdisk to be installed, a device driver for the disk had to be located at the beginning of bank $F0 (at address $F0/0000), and the driver had to start with the phrase "ROMDISK". The most common way this was used by third-party hardware providers was to take some of the GS memory, protect it with a battery (so its contents didn't disappear when the computer was turned off), and designate it properly to the IIGS as a ROMdisk (even though it was simply protected RAM, and not true ROM).<7> The rest of the space from $F8-$FF was reserved for system ROM. The original IIGS had ROM code only from $FE-$FF, while later versions expanded this space to include $FC and $FD. [*][*][*] NEXT INSTALLMENT The Apple IIGS, cont. """""""""""""""" NOTES """"" <1> Miller, Jonathan. "The Life And Times Of Rocky Clark", SOFTALK, June 1982, pp. 141-144. <2> Pinella, Paul. "In The Beginning: An Interview With Harvey Lehtman", APPLE IIGS: GRAPHICS AND SOUND, Fall/Winter 1986, pp. 38-44. <3> Duprau, Jeanne, and Tyson, Molly. "The Making Of The Apple IIGS", A+ MAGAZINE, Nov 1986, pp. 57-74. <4> Hogan, Thom. "Apple: The First Ten Years", A+ MAGAZINE, Jan 1987, p. 45. <5> Regan, Joe. A2PRO ROUNDTABLE, Oct 1991, Category 16, Topic 2. <6> Williams, Gregg. "The Apple IIGS", BYTE, Oct 1986, pp. 84-98. <7> Nolan, Sean. "GS Memory Cards Compared", CALL-A.P.P.L.E., Aug 1987, pp. 10-17. ///////////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "Thanks Alan and Charles. I don't know what I would do without / / you all and GEnie. I knew C was going to be different but, WOW! / / It's like a whole new world." / ///////////////////////////////////////////////// R.WATSON15 //// [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), 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/PD_Q """""""""" IBM o Robert M. Connors [R.CONNORS2] Editor """ o Peter Bogert [P.BOGERT1] IBM Staff Writer 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 Dan "Remo" Barter [D.BARTER] Mac Staff Writer 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 Co-Editor o Mel Fowler [MELSOFT] A2 Staff Writer A2Pro o Jim B. Couch [J.COUCH2] Editor """"" 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!) GEnieLamp CONTRIBUTORS """""""""""""""""""""" o Steven Weyhrich [S.WEYHRICH] o Bill Yung [W.YUNG1] o Al Fasoldt [A.FASOLDT] o Gina Saikin [G.SAIKIN] >>> SEARCH-ME! 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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. Include the following at the end of every reprint: \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\//////////////////////////////////// (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]***** ÿÿ