

     |||||| |||||| ||  || |||||| ||||||
     ||     ||     ||| ||   ||   ||
     || ||| ||||   ||||||   ||   ||||               Your
     ||  || ||     || |||   ||   ||
     |||||| |||||| ||  || |||||| ||||||             GEnieLamp Computing

     ||    |||||| ||    || ||||||                   RoundTable
     ||    ||  || |||  ||| ||  ||
     ||    |||||| |||||||| ||||||                   RESOURCE!
     ||    ||  || || || || ||
     ||||| ||  || ||    || ||


                    ~ WELCOME TO GEnieLamp APPLE II! ~
                      """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""
          ~ POLISHING GREEN APPLES:  Hooked on Storage, Part 4 ~
                ~ THE TREASURE HUNT:  HyperStudio Stacks ~
                  ~ PAL NEWSLETTER:  New GEM and more! ~
            ~ APPLE II HISTORY:  Part 22, Telecommunications ~
                   ~ HOT NEWS, HOT FILES, HOT MESSAGES ~

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\////////////////////////////////////
  GEnieLamp Apple II ~ A T/TalkNET OnLine Publication ~  Vol.3, Issue 27
  """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" 
  Editor....................................................Douglas Cuff
   Publisher.............................................John F. Peters
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\////////////////////////////////////
  ~ GEnieLamp IBM ~ GEnieLamp ST ~ GEnieLamp [PR] ~ GEnieLamp Windows ~
        ~ GEnieLamp A2Pro ~ GEnieLamp Macintosh ~ GEnieLamp TX2 ~
          ~ GEnieLamp A2 ~ LiveWire (ASCII) ~ GEnieLamp MacPRO ~
                 ~ Solid Windows ~ Config.sys ~ A2-Central ~
              ~ Member Of The Digital Publishing Association ~
  GE Mail: GENIELAMP  Internet: genielamp@genie.geis.com   FTP: sosi.com
 ////////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

           >>> WHAT'S HAPPENING IN THE APPLE II ROUNDTABLE? <<<
           """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
                             ~ June 1, 1994 ~


 FROM MY DESKTOP ......... [FRM]        HEY MISTER POSTMAN ...... [HEY]
  Notes From The Editor.                 Is That A Letter For Me?

 HUMOR ONLINE ............ [HUM]        REFLECTIONS ............. [REF]
  Internet Fileman.                      Facts About Postal Service.

 BEGINNER'S CORNER ....... [BEG]        ASCII ART GALLERY ....... [ASA]
  Polishing Green Apples.                That Doggie in the Window?

 THE TREASURE HUNT ....... [HUN]        PAL NEWSLETTER .......... [PAL]
  Yours For the Downloading.             May 1994 Report.

 APPLE II ................ [AII]        LOG OFF ................. [LOG]
  History 22: Telecommunications.        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's monthly fee is $8.95 for which gives you up to
"""""""""""   four hours of non-prime time access to most GEnie 
services, such as software downloads, bulletin boards, GE Mail, an 
Internet mail gateway, and chat lines, are allowed without charge. 
GEnie's non-prime time connect rate is $3.00.  To sign up for GEnie 
service, call (with modem) 1-800-638-8369 in the USA or 1-800-387-8330 
in Canada.  Upon connection type HHH.  Wait for the U#= prompt.  Type: 
JOINGENIE and hit RETURN.  When you get the prompt asking for the 
signup/offer code, type: DSD524 and hit RETURN.  The system will then  
prompt you for your information.  Need more information?  Call GEnie's 
customer service line (voice) at 1-800-638-9636.

SPECIAL OFFER FOR GEnieLamp READERS!   If you sign onto GEnie using the
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""   method outlined above you will 
receive an *additional* six (6) free hours of standard connect time 
(for a total of 10) to be used in the first month.  Want more?  Your 
first month charge of $8.95 will be waived!  Now there are no excuses!
                      *** GET INTO THE LAMP! ***
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""



           //////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE ////
          /                                                            /
         /  NTSC _does_ stand for "never the same color," doesn't it? /
        /                                                            /
       ///////////////////////////////////////////  J.SCHONBLOM  ////



[EOA]
[FRM]//////////////////////////////
                 FROM MY DESKTOP /
/////////////////////////////////
Notes From The Editor
"""""""""""""""""""""
by Douglas Cuff
    [EDITOR.A2]



               >>> IN WHICH WE CONSIDER SERPENTS' TEETH <<<
               """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

     Now, look.  I know you don't think you're hurting anybody, but your 
mother and I are very worried about some of the things you've up to 
recently.

     Like what?  Well, do you recognize this?
        __________________________________________________________
       |                                                          |
       |                   REPRINTING GEnieLamp                   |
       |                                                          |
       |   If you want to reprint any part of GEnieLamp, or       |
       |   post it to a bulletin board, please see the very end   |
       |   of this file for instructions and limitations.         |
       |__________________________________________________________|

     Have you ever seen it before?  You have.

     Have you ever bothered to look at the end of GEnieLamp A2 to READ the 
instructions?  You haven't.  Well, here's a shortened version:

 Material published in this edition may be reprinted  under the follow-
 ing terms only.  Reprint permission granted,  unless otherwise  noted,
 to registered  computer user groups and  not for profit  publications.
 All  articles must  remain unedited and  include the issue number and
 author at  the  top of  each article  reprinted.   Please include the 
 following at the end or the beginning of all reprints:
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\////////////////////////////////////
 (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 (USA)  or  1-800-387-8330
 (Canada).   When  you  get a CONNECT  message, type  HHH.   At the U#=
 prompt, type:  JOINGENIE  and hit  the [return] key.  When you get the
 prompt asking for the signup code, type  DSD524  and hit  RETURN.  The
 system will then prompt you for your information.  Call 1-800-638-9636
 (voice) for more information.
////////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

     Don't squirm in your chair!  That stuff that you find "too boring to 
read" is important.  Damned important.

     Yes, I know you've heard it all before, but apparently it hasn't 
sunken in, or I wouldn't be seeing Apple II newsletters each month that 
reprint whole sections of GEnieLamp A2, and the only acknowledgement is 
"Downloaded from GEnie".  No mention of GEnieLamp, no mention of the issue 
number, and certainly no sign-up information.  You've even been leaving off 
our COPYRIGHT information!

     No, your mother and I are NOT "being mean".  We work work long, hard 
hours each month to provide a free magazine for the Apple II community.  
No, we do NOT get paid.

     We're not ASKING you to pay for what we write, just watch how you 
quote it.  If you don't care enough about our work to give us proper credit 
for us, don't copy it for your own purposes.

     It doesn't matter if you think our rules are "dumb".  You have to 
abide by them if you use our material.  If you don't want to abide by them, 
you can't use our material.  There is no third option whereby you get to 
use our material according to YOUR rules.

     "All the other kids' parents let them?"  Can you name any?  Sure, I 
can name a newsletter that DOES take the trouble to credit us properly -- 
WAUCtalk.  There are others too, all of them bored to tears by all this 
garbage and wondering when the heck I'm going to start my "real" editorial.  
They have to sit through this -- which is wholly unfair to THEM -- just so 
you can feel important because you won't play by the rules.

     When you start ACTING like a grown-up, that's when.

     Yes, you can come downstairs again when you're ready.  Just remember 
-- this bored me more than it bored you.

                                 [*][*][*]


     Sorry about that, people.  Domestic matter.

     I'm pleased to report that the PAL Newsletter is back this month, but 
you'll also find that the Apple II Hybrids column is missing... don't 
worry, it will be back next month, I promise!  Darrel Raines's DR's 
Examining Table is missing again this month -- unfortunately, I wasn't able 
to find a guest reviewer this month.

-- Doug Cuff

GEnie Mail:  EDITOR.A2                  Internet:  editor.a2@genie.geis.com



     _____ ______       _      _                              ___  ___  
    / ____|  ____|     (_)    | |                            / _ \|__ \ 
   | |  __| |__   _ __  _  ___| |     __ _ _ __ ___  _ __   | |_| |  ) |
   | | |_ |  __| | '_ \| |/ _ \ |    / _` | '_ ` _ \| '_ \  |  _  | / / 
   | |__| | |____| | | | |  __/ |___| (_| | | | | | | |_) | | | | |/ /_ 
    \_____|______|_| |_|_|\___|______\__,_|_| |_| |_| .__/  |_| |_|____|
                                                    | |                 
                                                    |_|                 



[EOA]
[HEY]//////////////////////////////
              HEY MISTER POSTMAN /
/////////////////////////////////
Is That A Letter For Me?
""""""""""""""""""""""""
by Douglas Cuff
    [EDITOR.A2]

     o BULLETIN BOARD HOT SPOTS

          o A2 POT-POURRI

                    o HOT TOPICS

                         o WHAT'S NEW

                              o THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE

                                   o MESSAGE SPOTLIGHT



                     >>> BULLETIN BOARD HOT SPOTS <<<
                     """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

     [*] CAT2, TOP7 ................. New Co-Pilot in planning stages
     [*] CAT29, TOP1 ................ New Co-Pilot in planning stages
     [*] CAT28, TOP4 ................ Shareware Solutions II title change?
     [*] CAT42, TOP5 ................ Shortage of SCSI cards
     [*] CAT43, TOP13 ............... ProSel-16 and OptionList


                           >>> A2 POT-POURRI <<<
                           """""""""""""""""""""

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY DON'T GET NO RESPECT   Well, Software of the Month 
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""   Club has done it again.

     Issue 181 includes Jason Harper's SHRConvert v2.1.

     It was my understanding that when SuperConvert was introduced as a 
commercial product, he withdrew SHRConvert as shareware.  I think I 
remember a bruhaha a few months ago where LRO was chastised for including 
it on the hard drives they sold.

       () ()
Rich   ('-')      (R.HARE2, CAT2, TOP20, MSG:168/M645;1)


HYPERCARD:  MISSED IT BY THAT MUCH!   We are indeed sold out of HyperCard 
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""   IIgs.  More maddening, a few months 
ago Addison-Wesley told us they had 2,000 copies of the HC IIgs Script 
Language Guide, but when we called to order more last week they claimed 
they were out of print.  We contacted the product manager of the Apple 
Library who checked for us and confirmed that the books had been recycled.

     This leaves A2Pro and Script-Central as the only living repositories 
of HyperCard IIgs information.
                     (TOM.W, CAT23, TOP33, MSG:5/M645;1)


GLEN BREDON'S WHEREABOUTS   He retired recently, and so far as I know, is 
"""""""""""""""""""""""""   in the process of finishing off the writing of 
a textbook. That is a MAJOR project. I hope we will be seeing more of him 
when it is done.

Gary R. Utter    (GARY.UTTER, CAT30, TOP3, MSG:129/M645;1)


EXPRESS TIP   I wanted to pass along a tip I just figured out for using 
"""""""""""   Express...

     Since some programs don't start the Print Manager, Express cannot 
print from within those programs. One such program is the "DoubleSolitaire" 
game I sometimes play.  Even though it is a desktop program, it does not 
use the Print Manager.  I tried to edit the ToolStartup Record, but it 
doesn't even use resources (imagine a new program out there not using 
resources!).

     I had a whole bunch of printing to do that was already spooled on 
disk, so I tried this:  I opened ShadowWrite NDA, which is a Word Processor 
NDA (so naturally uses the Print Manager) for those who are not familiar 
with it, and Express took off printing, even within the Solitaire game, 
even with the NDA window not frontmost.

     So the tip is, if you want to spool-print from within a desktop 
application that does not use the Print Manager itself, open an NDA that 
does use it and leave the window in the background, Express will take care 
of the rest.

     Also, another tip is for programmers of new Applications:  Please 
start up the Print Manager, even if you are not going to use it yourself 
from within your application, so that us Express users can still print in 
while in your application!

    Ken Lucke         < Delivered by Co-Pilot & Spectrum v1.0>
                   (K.LUCKE, CAT43, TOP10, MSG:232/M645;1)


@ROUND BUG IN APPLEWORKS?   I forgot which category was the spreadsheet cat 
"""""""""""""""""""""""""   here but I've got a bug for you.

     Using AppleWorks 4.1 on an Apple IIGS, the @round function has 
stopped working.  I noticed this in 4.0.2 as well.  I'm not sure about 
earlier versions of aw4, but it did work in aw3.

     Try placing the number 1.234 in cell A1

     Not place @round(a1,2) in B1.

     You'll get 1.234.... Surprise!

Quality Computers --- Power for Pperformance.
                    (QUALITY, CAT38, TOP5, MSG:66/M645;1)


BUG IN RAMFAST 3.01E ROM (NO IDEA ABOUT 3.01EZ)   Uhm... the built in
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""   backup / restore function 
in this version of the rom _IS_ broken. BUMMER!!!

     The backup function appears to work properly, leaving one with a 
false sense of security. As near as I'm able to tell at this point the 
partition map for the device(s) being backed up is not written to the 
backup in the proper format, so one can't restore from the backup. [I have 
been able to recover data from these backups, it's not fun, but I can do it 
if _really_ needed]

     I've also had problems trying to restore from a tape that was made 
using the 3.00l roms. (restores fine with 3.00l rom, but not with 3.01e) 
This makes me suspect that there may also be a problem in the restore 
function itself.

     Also I am unable to load a tape and bring it up on the Finder 
desktop. (GS/OS can't reconise... Eject or Format.... Yeach!!!):

     >>> This does NOT affect GSTape!!!! (which still works just fine :)

     Not only have I made sure that Jawaid is aware of this problem, but I 
learned that he too has recently been "bit" by this. (he had a HD fail and 
couldn't use his backups... he was able to get the "dead" drive going long 
enough to recover data, but he learned :) I would expect that he's busy 
trying to find the bug(s) and correct them.

-Harold
Resident solder slinger.
                   (H.HISLOP, CAT11, TOP8, MSG:287/M645;1)

>>>>>   I hope so. I reported the problem here back in early March
"""""
Speedy....Keep smilin'
                   (R.REEDY, CAT11, TOP8, MSG:288/M645;1)


DISCONTINUED SOFTWARE AT COMPUSULT   I just received a catalog that I 
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""   requested form Compsult. It is a 
company in CA that specializes in discountinued software. The Apple section 
is very small so I will post it here for anyone interested. They anly list 
the GS stuff. They have ALOT more stuff for the Amiga and the Commidore and 
of coures MessyDos. They have some Mac stuff too. I did notice that the 
list of the Apple stuff does not include some of the titles I saw at the 
booth they had in Phx a couple of weeks ago. So if you are looking for 
something you could call them and ask about it. Here is the Apple ][ GS 
list:

     Final Assault            $ 5.00
     Balance of Power         $16.00
     List Plus                $ 5.00
     Mean 18 Famous Courses   $ 5.00
     Writer Choice Elite      $10.00
     Jack Nick. Crse Vol.1    $ 9.50
     Jack Nick. Crse Vol.3    $ 5.00
     Muscle Cars for TD II    $14.50
     Super Cars for TD II     $14.50
     Jack Nick. Intl. Cse V2  $ 5.00
     Jigsaw Image Library #2  $ 5.00
     Jigsaw                   $10.00
     Deluxe Write             $20.00
     Three Stooges            $10.00
     Kings Quest 4            $15.00
     World Tour Golf          $10.00
     Print Shop Part Graphics $ 5.00

     Compsult
     PO Box 5160
     San Luis Obispo, CA 93403
     (805) 544-6616
     credit card orders 1-800-676-6616

     I hope this helps someone.

       ___________ /\ ___________
         ---------- | ----------        D. Singleton
           ~~~~~~~~ | ~~~~~~~~
                  / |\
                 (D.SINGLETON2, CAT2, TOP20, MSG:170/M645;1)


ZIP GS AND CPS FOLLOW   Harold.. I reset all my Zip delay settings 
"""""""""""""""""""""   according to your guidelines as described in Zip 
topic 2, message 87, (all delays disabled except CPS follow), and my GS 
runs even faster still!

     BTW, what does CPS follow do?

                      ...mike  (moving faster and faster)
                   (DRIBNIX, CAT22, TOP10, MSG:151/M645;1)

>>>>>   CPS Follow means that when you set your GS to Normal speed (using
"""""   the Control Panel, for instance), the ZipGS automatically slows 
down to 1 MHz.
                 (POWERPC.PRO, CAT22, TOP10, MSG:153/M645;1)


SPECTRUM AND SECOND CHANCE ON QUIT   Anyone who's been annoyed by the fact 
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""   that Spectrum doesn't verify a quit 
command, add the following line to the file "User.Script" in the 
"Spectrum.Scripts" folder (create the file if it doesn't already exist; 
it's run automatically by Spectrum each time Spectrum is run):

       Record "Accidental Quit Protection Enabled!!^M"

     This will ensure that you get at least one chance to cancel a quit 
command, no matter what.  :-)

...Sloanie       (A2PRO.HELP, CAT43, TOP16, MSG:72/M645;1)


PRINT SHOP GS EASTER EGG   I was cleaning out my garage again today, and I 
""""""""""""""""""""""""   was going through some old user group 
newsletters when I came across a note that I hadn't paid attention to when 
it was published years ago.  Did you know that in PSGS if you click on the 
word "printer" at the top of the screen in the printer setup screen you get 
a prompt to enter a custom printer driver?

     The note went on to include an IWII driver that supposedly corrected 
a problem with printouts because the printer was always printing bi- 
directionally.

     I tried it tonight, and sure enough, it's there.  Haven't entered the 
driver because I haven't noticed a problem, but now I'm going to have to 
look.

     I got my copy of PSGS when I bought my second GS (actually my third, 
but it's the one my son uses - the second is in the garage) and it's an 
original disk, but he didn't have the manual.  So I have no idea if this is 
mentioned in the dox or not.  If anyone is interested, I could post the 
codes to enter here.

Dave Rogers      (D.ROGERS2, CAT6, TOP34, MSG:132/M645;1)


                            >>> HOT TOPICS <<<
                            """"""""""""""""""

HFS FST AND FINDER   As an aside... I, and others, have verified that under 
""""""""""""""""""   certain circumstances (not always predictable), the 
HFS FST will TRASH the directory structure. There is however one sure fire 
way to avoid this. Do not ever allow the Finder to create a Finder.DooDoo 
(Finder.Data, Finder.Root, etc) file on the HFS volume. Also do not attempt 
to copy one of these files to the HFS volume. (either to the root 
directory, or any subdirectory) [it seems that the HFS FST attempts to 
interpret the data in these files so it may be stored in the directory 
structure instead of a file, as is normal for the HFS file system, and it 
fails miserably in it's efforts]

-Harold
Resident solder slinger.
                   (H.HISLOP, CAT20, TOP15, MSG:12/M645;1)

>>>>>   This is quite incorrect. The FST does nothing special to try and
"""""   convert the GS desktop files to the Mac desktop file on HFS disks. 
There certainly could be a directory corruption bug in the FST, but it has 
nothing to do with Finder data files. I have no idea where this very-much 
incorrect rumor got started, but it's not true.

 Jim               (MURPH, CAT20, TOP15, MSG:14/M645;1)

<<<<<   My personal experience, and that of quite a few others, indicates
"""""   that the HFS directory structure will be trashed if Finder.DooDoo 
files are present, but appears to be stable if these don't exist. [ergo 
it's reasonable to assume that something wierd is going on with the 
handling of Finder.DooDoo files] This could be (apparently is) an erronious 
conclusion, but hey... it walks like a duck, etc :) This is usually a 
repeatable on demand situation (>75% incident of trashing the directory 
upon demand for me).

I'm not refering to the Desktop file at all, only the Finder.xxx files.

-Harold
Resident solder slinger.
                   (H.HISLOP, CAT20, TOP15, MSG:15/M645;1)

>>>>>   Desktop file, Finder.xxxx file, whatever, it doesn't matter.
"""""   Neither are special-cased by the HFS FST, so it's very-much a 
coincidence. Quite possibly the problem could be brought about easily by 
the manner in which the Finder uses GS/OS calls, but it has nothing to do 
with HFS-level data translation, 'cause that doesn't happen.

 Jim               (MURPH, CAT20, TOP15, MSG:16/M645;1)

>>>>>   Doug Pendleton writes:
"""""   
     > Do you have any suggestions on how to avoid the HFS trashed volume
     > problem that Harold and you have been exchanging messages on?

     I'm sorry to say, but I really don't. I've actually never experienced 
the problem myself. This is most-likely because I really only use the FST 
as an interchange mechanism - I just use it to read HFS-format disks from 
my various Macintosh machines. It's difficult, if not impossible, to 
suggest a work-around for a problem that you haven't seen and have no idea 
what it's root cause may be. Sorry.

 Jim               (MURPH, CAT20, TOP15, MSG:18/M645;1)


PROBLEM DOWNLOADING MAC FILES WITH SPECTRUM SOLVED!   As long as the 
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""   Macintosh program you 
are downloading has been wrapped in MacBinary (almost all files are) you 
can download to any Apple II and the Mac will be able to unpack it.  The 
trick is in getting the file from the Apple II to the Mac.

     If you have a IIgs and Spectrum, you can download the file directly 
to an HFS disk.  Then take the disk over to the Mac and strip off the 
MacBinary header.  You should now have a perfectly normal Mac archive 
(Stuffit) that the Mac can unpack.

     If you have a IIgs, but you don't have Spectrum, download the file to 
a ProDOS disk (just like you would any Apple II file.)  Now return to 
Finder, move the file to an HFS disk, and follow steps listed above.

     If you don't have a IIgs, you will need to use Apple File Exchange to 
move the file to a HFS disk.  Then follow the rest of the steps and all 
should go well.

 - Tony Ward       (A2.TONY, CAT2, TOP4, MSG:117/M645;1)

>>>>>   Actually, Spectrum automatically strips off the MacBinary header
"""""   (whether you want it to or not).  That means when you download the 
file onto an HFS disk, you WILL have a Stuffit or Compact Pro archive file 
that looks like it should in the Mac Finder.

     The problem with this method, however, is if you download the file 
onto a ProDOS volume.  Then, you have a Mac archive file WITHOUT a 
MacBinary header, and if you move it onto an HFS disk for transfer to a 
Mac, the Mac won't know what to do with it because it has no valid Mac 
filetype information.  (As far as the Mac is concerned, it is some sort of 
generic binary Apple II file).  

     So, if you are going to be successful with downloading Mac files with 
Spectrum, do it directly to an HFS disk, and you won't have to bother with 
the MacBinary-stripper program.

Steve Weyhrich <IX0YE>--<
                  (S.WEYHRICH, CAT2, TOP4, MSG:122/M645;1)

<<<<<   Thanks for clearing that up.  I always thought Spectrum handled
"""""   MacBinary according to the "Binary II Down" check box, but I never 
actually tested it.  Apparently, Spectrum always strips MacBinary whether 
you want it to or not, regardless of the "Binary II Down" check box.  This 
is bad.

New rule:  Don't use Spectrum to download Mac files unless you download 
directly to a HFS disk.

 - Tony Ward       (A2.TONY, CAT2, TOP4, MSG:124/M645;1)

>>>>>   Hold it
"""""
     I routinely douwnload Mac files with Spectrum.  Spectrum DOES strip 
the MacBinary headers, and it will modify the names of the files to match 
ProDOS naming conventions.

     However, it will also save the necessary file information (Spectrum 
knows Resource Forks, and so does ProDos). I just double checked to be 
sure. I downloaded half a dozen files from the Mac RT last night, and this 
morning I dumped them onto an HFS floppy and put them in the Mac. No 
problem, none at all.

     I can't account for anyone having problems doing this, and if anyone 
IS having problems, we need to figure out why. 

Gary R. Utter    (GARY.UTTER, CAT2, TOP4, MSG:129/M645;1)

>>>>>   When the IIGS Finder copies a file from ProDOS to a Mac disk, it
"""""   extracts the Mac filetype and creator out of an "optionList" so it 
can set the type/creator on the Mac disk.  If you are using AFE to move a 
ProDOS file from a ProDOS disk, AFE knows NOTHING about the "optionList" so 
AFE sets the type to "PDOS".

     So, use the IIGS Finder to copy from ProDOS to an HFS disk, then 
insert that HFS disk into the Mac (no further conversion necessary).
                 (SEVENHILLS, CAT43, TOP15, MSG:528/M645;1)

>>>>>   Ah, now THAT might be the key to the problem.  I've been using
"""""   ProSel 16's file utility (the 16-bit Cat Doctor) to copy my files, 
and I'll bet that Gary always uses the Finder.  I'll try it using the 
Finder (which is not so annoying to use now, since I =finally= have a Zip 
GS.

Steve Weyhrich <IX0YE>--<
                 (S.WEYHRICH, CAT43, TOP15, MSG:529/M645;1)

>>>>>   I can almost guarantee ProSel 16 is why you're having trouble. 
"""""   It's older and probably unaware of the optionList.  If the (System 
6+) Finder doesn't work then you might have to download to an HFS disk in 
the first place (though I think the optionList is set regardless, so that 
step shouldn't be necessary).

--Dave          (SEVENHILLS, CAT43, TOP15, MSG:531/M645;1)

>>>>>   What?  I am not sure what you are saying.  Is optionList newer than
"""""   SYSTEM 6.0.1?  I don't know if ProSel-16 is aware of optionList or 
not, but I do know that ProSel-16 was updated for SYSTEM 6.0.1.............

     FYI, ProSel-16 relies HEAVILY on GS/OS, and uses it a great deal.

     I'll re-read this thread later this weekend, and see if I can 
summarize, send to Bredon and see what he sez.

     BUT, IF ProSel-16 can't handle something, its most likely because 
GS/OS cannot.

Chuck
Charlie's AppleSeeds
                  (A2.CHUCK, CAT43, TOP13, MSG:243/M645;1)

>>>>>   The optionList was not used until System 6.0, and is only used for
"""""   keeping Macintosh file information.  For instance, the Macintosh 
type and creator and the like are in the file's optionList.

     If ProSel-16 causes files to lose their Macintosh type and creator 
information when you copy them, then it doesn't recognize the optionList, 
and that's a Bad Thing.
                 (POWERPC.PRO, CAT43, TOP13, MSG:244/M645;1)

>>>>>   Option Lists..
"""""
     These are described in my copy of the GS/OS Reference (for GS/OS 
System Software Version 5.0 and later) but, as Sheppy points out, they 
weren't used until System 6.0 (as we didn't have the "extra" FST's till 
then, so there was no use for option lists :)

     (back from snOOping ProSel-16 8.84...)

     Uhm... it sure looks to me like option lists aren't being supported. 
(all I see are nulls where the option list long pointer should be in the 
call lists... ugh.)

-Harold
Resident solder slinger.
                  (H.HISLOP, CAT43, TOP13, MSG:245/M645;1)

>>>>>   I'll pass this info on to Glen Bredon, regarding optionsList....
"""""
Chuck            (A2.CHUCK, CAT43, TOP13, MSG:247/M645;1)


WHAT HAPPENED TO TMS?   An update on PowerCity controversy.
"""""""""""""""""""""   
     This morning I called Power City and spoke with a man named Tony 
Brown. I told him my sob story (I will spare you this again) and asked him 
if Power City had been TMS. 

     Tony Brown from Power City told me that TMS has not become Power 
City.  He said that Zorch had obviously been in touch with Power City, and 
they had helped him with his problem, as they would have helped me with my 
problem.  (I don't want their help if they had not been TMS) and that is 
why he had an invoice with Power City name on it.  He again told me what 
the salesman had told me in April, This rumor had been started because this 
company is located down the road from where TMS had been, and some 
employees previously employed at TMS, had become employed at PowerCity.  It 
is obvious to me that some people who frequent this board have been stiffed 
by the demise of TMS, and it would be wrong to paint Power city with TMS's 
problems if they do not have the same owners.

     I have no reason to believe that Tony Brown is lying.  I am inclined 
to believe that this is the truth.  I know the importance of posting things 
like this on busy bbss and I didn't think it was fair that this rumor 
should go unanswered (especially since I had posted that this was not true 
before).  I asked Mr Brown if I could post a synopsis of our conversation 
tonight and use his name; he said I could.

     To finish the conversation, He inquired as to what Computer I used 
the drive on, and when told, he said "Oh, well we don't sell products for 
the Apple II".  I told him you certainly do. 

     Well, enough of this.

bill             (W.GEORGE2, CAT20, TOP13, MSG:486/M645;1)

>>>>>   "Is it legal for these guys to just close down and quit honoring
"""""   their warranties?"

     It is not only legal, it was unavoidable. I know those guys, and they 
would NOT have done this if they had any choice. They were driven out of 
business by something (probably the shortage of Quantum drives, and 
competition from bigger companies).

     "Forget about TMS, They have forgotten about you."

     Again, I know thase guys, and I would be VERY surprised if they have 
forgotten about their customers. Remembering their customers is not the 
same as being able to do anything for them, however.

     Let's get a little balance here folks.  You can be sure that Steve, 
Scott and Greg suffered a lot more financial and personal distress over 
this than any of YOU did.  All these guys did was fail in a business that 
they spent years of blood, sweat and tears building up from nothing.  They 
didn't set out to screw anyone.

     FYI, all the TMS drives were Quantum or Syquest mechanisms, which 
come with a two year warranty of their own.  That warranty is still good, 
honored by Quantum and Syquest.  For the past couple of years, they used 
CRU cases, which are ALSO waranteed by the manufacturer, for at least a 
year.  Now I don't know how to contact CRU, but they are a MAJOR supplier 
of hard drive cases to assemblers like TMS and APS and MacLand and what 
have you.  They DO advertise in the Computer Shopper, and it is entirely 
likely that you can track them down and get that cable from them at a real 
reasonable price.  (But probably not under warranty at this point, 
although, who knows, it might be.)

     The cable (for those who might be making one) is a 50 pin header 
which feeds two 50 pin Centronics connecters.  The only thing unusual about 
the TMS cable in this case is that the 50 conductor ribbon cable has been 
seperated about every 10 conductors or so in order to make it a bit more 
flexible, allowing you to connect both 5.25 and 3.5 form factor drives 
without stressing the cable.  (I purchased one of the "seperated" cables 
when I wanted to install a Syquest mech in a case that had originally held 
a Quantum 105, and found that the "solid" cable wouldn't flex far enough by 
about 1/8th of an inch.)

     Anyway, what TMS did, in terms of their two year warranty, was to 
make things easeir for you by taking in your defective Quantum or whatever, 
swappign out a new one, and sending your old one back to Quantum.  They 
served as a "middleman", in other words, and while they definitely had 
costs in doing this, they didn't REALLY do anything, warrantywise, that you 
can't do for yourselves.  As Tim has already discovered, Quantum will be 
quite accomadating about warranty work, they are NOT interested in screwing 
their customers, and you will find (in my experience, at least) that 
Syquest is the same way.

     I know it's aggravating (I probably have more TMS equipement on hand 
than anyone reading this), but TMS never set out to screw anyone, and if 
they had been able to stay in business, this would not have happened.  I 
really hate to see people slamming them just because their business (and 
their livliehood) went down the tubes.

Gary R. Utter   (GARY.UTTER, CAT20, TOP13, MSG:91/M645;1)


SKULLEY'S REVENGE VIRUS?   I think I may have a virus, new to the Apple 
""""""""""""""""""""""""   Community, on my Apple IIgs. At the suggestion 
of Tom Zuchowski, I am posting a description of some of the effects I have 
noted, here, in hopes that someone that reads this can help me with a 
solution.

     Tom,

     Thank you for responding.  Yours is the only response I've had to 
date. I've been struggling with this virus for over one year now, and just 
haven't been able to get rid of it.

     The virus 'program' seems to interfere with AppleWorks as well as 
other programs, causing crashes to occur at the most unexpected moments.  I 
think I received the virus shortly before I installed GEM last year and 
blamed some of the early instability on that program.  Since that time I've 
had plenty of evidence of a virus, so now know those crashes were no fault 
of GEM.

     Some of the odd happenings, I now attribute to the virus are as 
follows:

     1) The 'kicker' that convinces me that I have a virus is that when I 
take a look at the Clipboard, using Edit from the Menu Bar, I see a picture 
of a grinning skull.  The skull fills the Clipboard and has a crack 
appearing on top of its head.

     2) Another odd thing that has happened since the virus came is that 
the Apple Menu (bar) becomes transparent.  By that I mean when I pull down 
a menu item (File, Edit, View, Special, etc.) I can see right through it. 
The writing on the menu list is written over any windows that may be open. 
The resulting garble is hard to read at best.

     3) Yet another feature of the virus is that some times when opening a 
window, the writing on the Title Bar becomes gibberish.  Other times one or 
more of the file information lines become gibberish.  Sometimes all the 
written data in the window becomes gibberish, and sometimes it will all 
appear normal.

     4) Sometimes when you open a window in the finder, it will be filled 
with multicolored dots.  At times the color fills the whole window and at 
times it only fills part of the window with the remaining part appearing 
normal.  When the color fills the whole window, if you wait a while, the 
titles for each file will begin to appear.  One can double-click where the 
icon for the program startup should be located, and it will appear to 
operate normally (except for AppleWork/GEM).  Then when quitting that 
program, the windows on the finder desktop all appear normal.

     5) The once rock stable operation of the Classic AppleWorks program 
has become a thing of the past.  I have deleted and re-installed this 
program on my hard disk many times over the past year, trying to solve the 
problems. 

     One time, last fall, two files (with identical names??) appeared in 
my AppleWorks folder and defied any attempt to place them in the trash or 
otherwise to delete them.  I finally got rid of them by initializing that 
section of my hard drive. 

     Just recently (about two weeks ago) when the problems again became so 
severe I couldn't use the computer, I tried reformatting my hard drive for 
the second time.  (I tried this last year too.)  When I reloaded AppleWorks 
and applied TimeOut Ultramacros, everything appeared normal.  However when 
Itried to boot UltraWorks, the program crashed on startup.  I then tried 
restarting AppleWorks.Sys with the same results.  I next tried shutting 
down and restarting by booting AppleWorks from my 3.5-inch drive.  The 
results were the same.  I then got an AppleWorks disk, I knew was clean of 
any virus and tried booting it from the disk drive.  Same results.  Then I 
tried something I had never done before.  I turned off my hard disk.  I 
then booted AppleWorks from the 3.5-inch drive.  Every thing worked fine, 
that time!!  It made me feel that the virus must be residing on the hard 
drive.

     None of the above features appear in the memo describing Apple II 
viruses you wrote to me.  Could this be a new Apple virus?  Any help in 
identifying the virus and in getting rid of it would be appreciated.  Right 
now that computer wouldn't make a good fishing sinker.  I'm always afraid 
that I might inadvertantly infect my daughters computers or those of other 
relatives and friends.

     Thank you for your response.

 Doug            (D.FISHKIN, CAT12, TOP16, MSG:70/M645;1)


                            >>> WHAT'S NEW <<<
                            """"""""""""""""""

TENTATIVE ICONFERENCE SCHEDULE   ICONFerence July 21-23 1994   Tentative 
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""   Session Schedule, as of May 27:

     Keynote speaker: Randy Brandt, Project Manager, AppleWorks 4.0

     Pat Wilson, Microsoft - Special Preview of Microsoft Windows 4.0 
         (Chicago) (non-disclosure required)
     Pat Wilson, Microsoft - Microsoft Office for Windows Demo (2 hours)
     Nick Dazio et al - Launch of the The Mensch Computer
     Roger Wagner - subject to be announced
     Mike Westerfield - subject to be announced
     Michael Lutynski - Animasia 3-D
     Jim Maricondo - UNIX & the Internet; UNIX and the Apple IIgs: GNO/ME
     Bill Lynn - Way Cool & Way Cheap Macintosh Utilities
     Greg Nelson - Multimedia Authoring with CD-ROM
     Nathaniel Sloan - The Ins and Outs of Telecom Scripting
     Joe Kohn - Looking Good in Print
     Joe Kohn - All About the Internet
     Lane Roathe - How to get a job in the computer industry
     Erick Wagner - Apple II Interfacing, How to Control and Monitor 
         Real-World Devices
     David Ciotti - Soldering for Beginners, Which End of the Iron is Hot?

     We are also still hopeful that we can get a session on Mac System 7.5
from Apple.  Anything else you'd like to see that not's on the list yet?
                    (TOM.W, CAT23, TOP10, MSG:136/M645;1)


APPLE II T-SHIRTS   GS Resources "II Infinitum!" T-Shirts, now available 
"""""""""""""""""   for $15.00 each plus $2.00 S/H, in the following sizes 
and shirt colors:

     Sizes:
          Adults
          S, M, L, XL, XXL, XXXL

     Children
          S (6-8), M (10-12), L (14-16)

     Shirt Colors:
          Black, White, Navy, Red, Royal Blue, Lt. Blue, Turquoise, Kelly 
          Green, Jade (Green), Bright Yellow, Yellow Gold, Aqua, Pink, 
          Fuchsia, Purple, Maroon, Watermelon, Ash, Wedgewood, Peach, Mint 
          Green, & Orange.

     Each shirt will have the infamous "II Infinitum!" logo in gray and 
blue on the front, along with the words "II Infinitum!" under it in blue.  
(Darker T-Shirt colors will look best.)

     To order send your check or money order for $15.00 per shirt and 
$2.00 S/H (each order), along with you name, address, phone number, email 
address, Size, color, and quantity to:

     Jeffery S. Rash
     GS Resources, T-Shirts
     30 Woodgreen Dr.
     Thomasville, NC  27360

     Make your checks payable to "Jeffery S. Rash".  Please allow 4 to 6 
weeks for delivery.

     Please fill free to put this press release into any A2 newsletters, 
magazines, etc. 

                          ________________________
                         |                        |
                         |____      ____      ____|
                    ********* |    |    |    | *********
                 *************|    |    |  ****************
               *****        **|    |    ********        *****
              ****            |    |******** |            ****
              ****            |    ******    |            ****    
              ****            | ********|    |            ****
               *****        ********    |    |**        *****
                 ***************   |    |    |*************
                    *********_|    |____|    |_*********
                         |                        |
                         |________________________|

                               II Infinitum!
                  (GS.OZONEMAN, CAT4, TOP2, MSG:250/M645;1)


TIMEOUT DESKTOOLS IV   Just wondering how DeskTools IV (?) is progressing.  
""""""""""""""""""""   I ordered a set back in the Fall, and the received a 
note in January the program was still in development, and would be released 
in the "next few weeks".

Haven't heard anything since...
                  (N.SPANGLER, CAT42, TOP24, MSG:69/M645;1)

>>>>>   I saw someone working on a manual for it the other day so it's
"""""   getting close.  B)
                   (II.ALIVE, CAT42, TOP24, MSG:70/M645;1)

>>>>>   DeskTools IV should ship soon. The programs are about done, and the
"""""   installer was nearly finished as of Friday. I think the docs will 
be done next week and it should ship by May 16.
                    (BRANDT, CAT42, TOP24, MSG:71/M645;1)


BIG RED COMPUTER CLUB TO CLOSE   Just got Scarlett the other day and am 
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""   saddened by the announcement that BRCC 
will "close it's doors by the end of 1994."  Sorry to see them go--thank 
goodness for Softdisk, QC, GS+, Joe Kohn (SS II), and GEnie.  We still have 
alot to be grateful for...but it hurts.

John            (J.STANKOWSKI, CAT2, TOP7, MSG:138/M645;1)

>>>>>   I have little doubt that a large part of the reason BRCC is closing
"""""   down is that it put so much effort into bringing new software to 
the IIGS and got so little in return.  Yes, Out of This World sold around 
3,000 copies, but although that's good for the Apple II community, it's 
really not a lot, especially considering the number of Apple II users out 
here.

And Lost Treasures of Infocom... I'm willing to say they probably didn't 
sell enough of those to even break even, which is another shame -- a couple 
of VERY minor problems aside, it's an excellent package, and a lot of fun.
                  (POWERPC.PRO, CAT2, TOP7, MSG:140/M645;1)

>>>>>   To tell the truth, I'm thinking more along the lines of Scarlett
"""""   readers needing another source for Apple II information, and SSII 
could certainly meet that need.

     The reality of the situation is that many of the software licenses 
that BRCC had were time-limited.  By that, I mean, that BRCC only had the 
rights to publish some of the programs for a year or 2.  So, a lot of the 
original commercial titles that BRCC sold are no longer theirs to sell.

     Although I don't know it for a fact, I imagine that John Wrenholt got 
out the old spreadsheet, and concluded that it just wouldn't be financially 
advantageous to re-new the licensing agreements.

     BRCC is many many times larger than SSII, and therefore has many more 
resources.  If BRCC decided that it wasn't financially feasible for them to 
continue marketing some of the older games, I'm sure that it wouldn't be 
feasible for me to attempt to market them either.

     I've known for a long time that this was coming.  Please keep in mind 
that BRCC's decision was not strictly based on finances.  John Wrenholt 
started BRCC more than 12 years ago, and in the computer industry, that's a 
heckuva long time.  So, don't discount the "burned out and tired" aspect of 
it.

     Probably 6 months ago, or more, I talked with BRCC about the 
possibility of SSII somehow taking over the Scarlett subscriber list.  
There were just so many details involved, that we both just dropped the 
ball.  The last time I talked to John, I did suggest that maybe we continue 
the conversation at KansasFest.

     In the meanwhile, I'm just really saddened by this turn of events.  
John Wrenholt has always been one of the Apple II people that I've always 
respected and admired.  I've learned a lot from John, and as I told him 
just a few weeks ago, in a lot of ways I used Scarlett as a model for SSII.  
(Remember, my involvement with Scarlett was in the pre-commerical software 
phase of BRCC.)

     I mourn the loss of BRCC, and feel that the Apple II community is 
losing a very old and good friend.

Joe Kohn
(BRCC Librarian 1989-1992)
                   (J.KOHN, CAT6, TOP3, MSG:141/M645;1)


NEW X-10 SOFTWARE   A new version of the X10 Survival Kit is now available.  
"""""""""""""""""   The Kit consists of:

     X10House (v 2.2)  - new features:

     * Events can now be updated via an Update Event dialog.
     * A Sound dialog allows selection of sound files and volume settings. 
       Sound files no longer have to be in the X10.Data folder.
     * Events that are being corrected for sunrise or sunset are now 
       flagged in the display list and when printed.
     * A Preferences option to automatically update the CP290 clock during 
       startup.

     X10Doctor (v 1.1) - new features:

     * Events that are being corrected for sunrise or sunset are now 
       flagged in the various lists.
     * Menus and dialogs have been added to control X10ACE, PowerScreen 
       and Virtual10.
     * Uses the IIgs Battery Ram to determine Daylight Savings / Standard 
       Time for sunrise / sunset corrections.  Time no longer has to be 
       selected in the Setup dialog.


     X10ACE  (new)   -

     Automatically Corrected Events.  X10ACE allows you to apply sunrise 
     and/or sunset corrections to specific events at an interval of your 
     choosing.  The corrections can take place during boot-up, or X10ACE 
     can remain memory resident and apply the corrections at a specific 
     time of day (for those who run their IIgs 24 hrs a day).  X10ACE is an 
     Init and is placed in the System.Setup folder.  Requires a desktop 
     environment.

     PowerScreen (new) -

     A "screen blanker" that uses the CP290 to turn your monitor off and 
     on.  PowerScreen can be controlled from X10Doctor or from a seperate 
     NDA, both use IPC (InterProcess Communication) to "talk" to 
     PowerScreen.  PowerScreen is an Init and requires a desktop 
     environment and System 6.x.  You will have to attach an appliance 
     module to your monitor for PowerScreen to work.

     Virtual10  (new)  -

     An automatic schedule loader that allows you to load multiple 
     schedules (up to 128) throughout the year.  Requires a desktop 
     environment and System 6.x.   Virtual10 can run in 3 modes:

          * Normal boot-up: Virtual10 will check during boot time to see 
            if it's time to load a schedule.

          * Auto-boot: Virtual10 will set 2 events in the CP290 to 
            auto-boot your IIgs at a specified time of day and then turn it 
            off. During auto-boot Virtual10 will do the schedule check 
            then, if it detects the Finder, it will use IPC to tell the 
            Finder to do a "safe shutdown" and then wait for the 2nd CP290 
            event to turn off the power.  An appliance module must be 
            attached to the IIgs for auto-boot mode to work.

          * Memory resident: Virtual10 will remain in memory and check 
            each day at a specified time to see if it's time to load a 
            schedule.  This mode is for people who run their IIgs 24 hrs a 
            day.

     2 bonus NDAs
     (1 bonus NDA if you have the previous version of the X10 Survival Kit)

     The shareware fee is $22 (US).  If you have registered a previous 
     version of X10House, the upgrade is $7.  To get your copy, send a 
     check or money order to:

          Art Coughlin
          230 Clamer Road
          Trenton, NJ 08628

     I've uploaded a "demo" copy of X10House v2.2 to the library.  The 
uploaded version is fully functional except the Set button on the Update 
Event dialog is disabled.  File number 22718.

      /\
     //\\ rt
    //~~\\........
                  (A.COUGHLIN, CAT6, TOP10, MSG:101/M645;1)


RUN-TIME HARDPRESSED   I've uploaded HPRT v1.0 to the A2 library (file 
""""""""""""""""""""   #22768).

     If you haven't been following the discussions, HPRT is a 
stripped-down version of HardPressed that can only expand files, and only 
knows about the LZSS module.  However, it's freely distributable, and can 
be used for things like user group mailings and on-disk magazines (see the 
documentation for info about commercial use though... it's still free, but 
we'd like a little free advertising in return).

     Owners of HardPressed may find it useful for things like bootable 
800K system disks, since the whole thing is in a single 96 block INIT 
instead of half a dozen different files.  It's also nice for sending 
LZSS-compressed stuff to your friends who don't have HP.

     To demonstrate HP and HPRT to people who don't know anyone with HP, 
I've also uploaded a collection of files compressed with HP (file #22769). 
The archive is about 100K (I tried to keep it small so that people would be 
willing to download it), and is about 10K smaller than it would have been 
had I used GS/ShrinkIt to pack everything instead of HardPressed.

     Let me know if you have any problems with these.

- Andy             (FADDEN, CAT37, TOP3, MSG:192/M645;1)


15 ATARI GAMES   AEC Apple II Software Clearance Specials:
""""""""""""""   
     Atarisoft for the Apple II:

BattleZone      Centipede       Defender        Dig Dug      Donkey Kong
Galaxian        Gremlins        Joust           Jungle Hunt  Moon Patrol
Ms. Pac-Man     Pac-Man         Robotron 2084   Stargate     Track & Field

                         Any 5 Titles: Your Choice $29.95
                         All 15 Titles: $74.95

     Track & Field includes the special controller, which also works for 
the Atari 2600 Version.

     Other Titles Available:

          Epyx: California Games (GS) $9.95
          Epyx: Final Assualt (GS)    $9.95
          microIllusions: FirePower GS $9.95

          MouseWrite 1.4.5 (128K //e) (Mouse NOT Required)  $9.95

     Misc Books:

          Assembly Lines: The Book. by Roger Wagner   $9.95
          AppleWorks: The Program for the Rest of Us. $9.95
          AppleWorks Reference Card (Laminated-- From Apple) $1.00

     Orders only: 800/995-7773 -+- Q&A 619/721-7733 -+- Fax 619/721-2823
                    (T.DIAZ, CAT46, TOP7, MSG:61/M645;1)


                       >>> THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE <<<
                       """""""""""""""""""""""""""""

UPDATE ON SOUNDMEISTER PRO   The board was never built, to this day. It 
""""""""""""""""""""""""""   exhists in the form of a working prototype and 
simple test  Applicat Z  does not support digitizing to the hard disk. 
Never did. If thats the featere people are going to want, that may be the 
sticky part. 

the Soun Z  and was not part of the deal for the SoundMeister. The 
artwork/layout of the Pro was not started. It exhists in wirewrap form only 
at this time. 

We are going to look into it more, if it appears to be a finishable product 
without too much more engineering, then a deal can be worked out, and only 
then. Having a working wirewrap prototype is one thing, getting it on a PCB 
and working can be another half of the game. 

Digital Session software in it's current for supports the Pro hardware if 
found, fully with more capability. Very much similar to what the Audio 
Anoiimator is capable of. In fact, if the complete technical specs to the 
AA were available, Digital Session could be made to support it much better 
than AEs's software did. 
                    (T.DIAZ, CAT46, TOP7, MSG:44/M645;1)


WHAT ABOUT ECON?   Certain products are being sold off and the ones that
""""""""""""""""   you are aware of are the SoundMeister and Digital 
Sessions to Alltech.  Other information is forthcoming.  Econ still exists 
as a corporation, but their future is in vertical market Macintosh and 
Power Macintosh products.  It is unfortunate, but they just can't seem to 
be able to make a living on Apple IIgs products alone any more.  The market 
is just not what it used to be and the Pronis do really regret the 
situation.

     Tyler
                   (PPC.TYLER, CAT35, TOP2, MSG:57/M645;1)


A BUNCH OF SHORT MESSAGES ABOUT APPLEWORKS 4.1!   AW 4.1 should ship in 
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""   June with about 20 or so 
bug and quirk fixes, and an updater for ReportWriter and PickFonts.
                   (BRANDT, CAT42, TOP29, MSG:359/M645;1)

<<<<<   > Have you found anything on the Mail Merge spacing problem
"""""   
     Yep. It's fixed in AW 4.1.
                   (BRANDT, CAT42, TOP29, MSG:355/M645;1)

<<<<<   I plan to include an updated of RFP on the AW 4.1 disk if QC
"""""   approves. I expect it to ship in June. I'm waiting on a slinky card 
to solve a couple of bugs related to that before we ship.
                   (BRANDT, CAT17, TOP14, MSG:193/M645;1)

<<<<<   Sales people haven't heard of AW 4.1, and won't until we know when
"""""   it will ship and how much the update will cost.  It won't be much, 
and will likely be available online as well.
                   (BRANDT, CAT17, TOP14, MSG:198/M645;1)



SHAREWARE SOLUTIONS II TO (RE)PUBLISH CONTACTS GS   What a difference a day 
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""   can make!?!?  All 
copies of Shareware Solutions II, Issue 5, have been mailed, and it's now 
time for Shareware Solutions II to take yet another giant leap on its 
exciting Apple II journey into the future!

     Shareware Solutions II is branching out.

     Shareware Solutions II is expanding.

     Shareware Solutions II is growing.

     Shareware Solutions II is taking on a new project.

     Shareware Solutions II is pleased to announce that it is now the 
publisher, and exclusive distributor, for a IIGS commercial software 
product.

     Previously available from Simplexity Software, ContactsGS is a IIGS 
New Desk Accessory that allows you to keep and easily maintain a 
rolodex-style name and address databse that is accessible from the IIGS 
Finder and from within any Apple IIGS program that displays the Apple Pull 
Down Menu.

     ContactsGS was written by (Burger) Bill Heineman.

     Pricing information is not yet available.  The ContactsGS NDA, 
however, should be available for sale within the next several weeks.  
First, though, a manual needs to be written.

     Stay tuned for additional details.

Joe Kohn           (J.KOHN, CAT28, TOP4, MSG:568/M645;1)

<<<<<   > Can you refresh us as to what ContactsGS is and does
"""""   
     Sure I can.  It's a IIGS New Desk Accessory that, in essence is a 
name, address and telephone number database.

     When accessed from the Apple Pull Down Menu, ContactsGS takes up 
about 2/3 or 3/4's of the screen.  Call it up, and you're ready to start 
entering information into the different fields.

     There are fields for Last Name, First Name, Street Address, City, 
State, Zip, Telephone Numbers, and then there are 2 Misc.fields that allow 
you to jot down any info you want.  Each of those Misc fields can hold a 
total of 80 characters (when running System 6 or later).  With System 5, I 
believe that each Misc field can only contain 42 characters.

     Like other databases, you can sort your data.  You can also use 
ContactsGS to dial your telephone using 2 different methods.  If you have a 
modem connected to the built in modem port, you can call up any particular 
record, and if you click on the Modem option, it'll dial that phone number.  
Or, you can transmit the tones to the built in (or external) speaker.  
Theoretically, you could then hold up your touch tone phone to the speaker, 
and it'll dial the number.

     On that last point, my neighbor told me yesterday that I have a very 
loud modem, because he heard me testing that feature out.  I laughed when 
he said that.

     ContactsGS stores the data in an ASCII Text file, where the different 
are separated by Tabs, and each record ends in a carriage return.

     One of the options in AppleWorks, when creating a new database file 
from an already existing ASCII text file, asks (paraphrased) if the fields 
are separated by tabs and each record ends with a Return.  So, just choose 
that option when loading in the ContactsGS data, and it'll import 
everything.

     And, I plan to add some automation for the AW import/export of data.

Joe               (J.KOHN, CAT13, TOP24, MSG:180/M645;1)


BYTEWORKS TO RELEASE NEW PROGRAM   We're in the process of releasing a new 
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""   program for the Apple IIGS that is not a 
programming product.  I'd like to see about getting an area set up here in 
A2 to support it, since A2Pro doesn't fit the bill.  I'd also be interested 
in scheduling some conferences to chat with A2 folks about the new program.

     Who do I talk to over here to get the ball rolling on something like 
this?

Mike Westerfield
                   (BYTEWORKS, CAT2, TOP4, MSG:374/M645;1)


USER GROUP CD UPDATE   The Apple IIGS SIG and Mac SIG here in Germany are 
""""""""""""""""""""   producing a joint CD. It will contain about 180 (?) 
disks worth of Macintosh PD and 250 disks worth of Apple IIGS PD. Provided 
everything works out well (this week the HD contents are copied onto a CD-R 
for delivery to the CD production firm and I do hope there'll be no glitch 
in that process) the CD will cost US$ 43.00 resp. CAN$ 60.00 plus s/h.

     Shipping the CD airmail with jewel case to the US or Canada will cost 
US$ 10.00 resp. CAN$ 14.00, shipping the CD with booklet and inlay card in 
a 5.25" disk mailer will cost US$ 6.25 resp. CAN$ 8.75. (I suggest you buy 
your own jewel case and get the CD in a floppy disk mailer...)  I will 
accept cheques in US or Canadian currency. Please, add US$ 2.00 resp. CAN$ 
3.00 for  cashing fees. So to get the CD, mail me a cheque for US$ 51.25 
resp. CAN$ 71.75. I'll post my address here, when the CD is done. Guys 
living in Europe send me an Eurocheque for DM 77.00 (CD with jewel case). 
Within Germany the price will be DM 72.00 (for nonmembers of AUGE).

Udo      - ... just a IIGS freak -
                    (U.HUTH, CAT20, TOP15, MSG:32/M645;1)


FOUNDATION RESOURCE NOW FREEWARE   Yes, that's right!  Foundation, the 
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""   resource editor created by Lunar 
Productions, is now Freeware.  It should arrive on GEnie in just a few 
short weeks, after undergoing some revamping and modification.

     We're waiting for some missing source files to be sent to us, and for 
the completion of the port from ORCA/C v1.3 to ORCA/C v2.0.1 of the source 
code. Then we'll be making minor modifications, to add new copyright 
messages (to indicate freeware status) and to list the names of some new 
maintenance contacts.

     The source code has been released as freeware as well, and will be 
uploaded to GEnie at the same time as Foundation v1.0.2 is uploaded. 
However, in order to help control and maintain Foundation, a small group of 
people, including myself and Andy Wells (who is doing the port to ORCA/C 
2.0.1), are asking that a small group of people be selected to maintain an 
"official" version of Foundation.

     This is NOT intended to keep other people from making changes to 
Foundation. The plan is to have the "official" source maintained and 
available online for download, and to allow other people to make changes 
and/or suggestions and submit them for inclusion in the "official" version 
of Foundation.

     This is a great opportunity for the Apple II community to come 
together to build its own software library -- as a team.  Let's make 
Foundation great!

     A topic will be created in A2Pro, after Foundation has been released, 
for discussing changes to it and programming issues about it.

Eric Shepherd    (POWERPC.PRO, CAT13, TOP39, MSG:1/M645;1)

>>>>>   For the benefit of those like me who don't understand, what is the
"""""   purpose of a resource editor?  (Please, don't tell me it edits 
resources!)

Charlie          (C.HARTLEY3, CAT13, TOP39, MSG:2/M645;1)

<<<<<   A resource is a small bit of data that contains information used by
"""""   a program.  Resources are often used to contain the necessary data 
to create menu bars, windows, and buttons, along with lots of other things.

     A resource editor lets users and programmers alter these resources.  
A resource editor can, for example, be used to change the name of the 
Finder's trash can from "Trash" to "Land of the Dead" (which I have done 
:).  A programmer could use a resource editor to create and modify the 
menus in a program he or she is writing.

     It's a wonderful tool when used properly, and gives a lot of power to 
its users.

     The original Foundation Project was eventually supposed to result in 
two resource editors: Foundation for developers and Foundation for users.  
The User's version of Foundation would have more warning messages and would 
be easier to use.  The programmer's version (which is the only existing 
version) is a little harder to use, but is still a very effective tool.

     The freeware Foundation Project will almost certainly combine these 
into one package, probably involving a Foundation which features an Expert 
mode for programmers that know (or THINK they know) what they're doing and 
a User mode for weekend resource editors.

     Anyone who currently has Foundation: your input is welcome!  Although 
the first freeware release will be almost identical to Foundation v1.0.2, 
we'll want your suggestions for 1.0.3!

Eric Shepherd     (Sheppy)
                  (POWERPC.PRO, CAT13, TOP39, MSG:3/M645;1)


EDIT MAC RESOURCES ON A IIGS?   Softdisk has mentioned publicly that they 
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""   plan to write a read/write Macintosh 
resource manager for the IIGS eventually.
                 (POWERPC.PRO, CAT13, TOP39, MSG:24/M645;1)


ETHERNET CARD FOR APPLE II?   I'll tell you what I am working on - a driver
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""   to allow to use one of these SCSI Ethernet 
units so prevalent in the Mac world.  I've contacted several different 
makers, but I'm still waiting for anything useful to be given to me.  A 
couple of the companies sound more promising, but I'll be giving them 
another round of pestering this week, and continue until I get direct 
answers.

     Anyway, I'm pleased to see there is a fair amount of interest in this 
sort of thing, both here and on the Internet Apple II group.  I will 
definitely let everyone know if anything comes of it.  In the meantime, if 
anyone has any experience (good or bad) with any of these Ethernet boxes, 
please drop me a line or post in an appropriate area (maybe CAT 12, TOP 4 - 
A2-Mac, or perhaps a new category).  I'd like to know if there are any 
significant differences between these units, especially in terms of speed.

Michael Hackett
Some Assembly Required 
                  (M.HACKETT, CAT12, TOP23, MSG:240/M645;1)


DISCQUEST ENCYCLOPEDIA ON CD   > Sequential isn't answering its e-mail...
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""   
     All: I apologize for this, but I've been hard at work on Compton's
Interactive Encyclopedia.

> Does this mean current owners of diskQust can get the update by getting
> the Encyclopedia?

     If you currently own discQuest, you can get the Compton's front-end 
software free if you buy the Compton's CD-ROM from Sequential for $99 (well 
below the regular retail price, I might add).

> Will it work with other CD's beside the Encyclopedia?  I have noticed
> that "Comptons" is on a lot of CD's.

     We don't know yet.  We will be looking into this; there are at least 
_four_ different CD's that are Encyclopedia's from Compton's! Each seem to 
be a bit different.

Jawaid          (PROCYON.INC, CAT20, TOP12, MSG:{460}/M645;1)


                         >>> MESSAGE SPOTLIGHT <<<
                         """""""""""""""""""""""""

Category 13,  Topic 25
Message 117       Wed May 04, 1994
A2.CHUCK                     at 22:49 EDT
  
     I was asked to send an E-Mail telling all about Charlie's AppleSeeds, 
and while flattered, decided it would be a good idea to tell the world 
about Charlie.

     Charlie's AppleSeeds was established as a result of three problems 
that developed within the first year after I obtained my Apple IIe 
Computer.

     First, I quickly became addicted to the computer.  After I had a 
checkbook up and running, had typed in all the interesting but frustrating 
Nibble programs and had nothing much left to do, I started an AppleWorks 
database of all of my VA manuals on procedures, regulations and laws.....  
That lead to the second problem; memory.  With a 128k machine, I quickly 
had about 8 database files that literally took several hours each night to 
add a mere 100 new lines of data to.

     That lead the final problem; my wife would not hear of me spending 
budget money on my TOY!  The argument got rather bitter at times.  Finally 
she did agree to allow me to buy a memory card on the Master Card and pay 
it back from my $25 a payday allowance.  I then spent days driving all over 
San Diego County looking for an inexpensive memory card to replace the 
extended 80 column card.  I finally ended up at the store where I purchased 
the machine in the first place, and, GET THIS, the dealer that sold me the 
computer, gave me $129 in trade for the Extended 80 Column card, towards 
the purchase of a 768k Checkmate card.

     Rather than relieved, I felt, "I can do better than this!" So, I went 
down town to get a business license, register a company name and set up a 
sales tax account with the state.  I knew that I had to have a fictitious 
name (business name) and that I had to search local records to make sure it 
was not in use in San Diego County.  I had always been a garden hobbyist, 
and as I was driving down town, trying to think of a really neat name, I 
remembered Charlie Appleseeds, the guy that planted Apple Trees all over 
the place in the 19th century.  Well, heck, I got the name wrong, it was 
Johnnie, but since I was Charles, at the time it seemed to fit, since I 
would be selling memory cards and those are found in Apple Computers, and 
Appleseeds are the things inside an Apple, I had my name.

     I then established business relations with Checkmate, a great bunch 
of people back in 1986.  I advertised in the local computer magazine which 
came out every two weeks, and allowed cheap ads.  I would get about 20 
calls and send a great deal of time on the phone, advising people, knowing 
from what they were telling me that they would find out what I thought was 
the way to buy, then buy somewhere else.  My first sale was to Jean in 
Chula Vista, and it was AutoWorks by Alan Bird, NOT a Checkmate memory 
card!

     Then I would do things like create massive speadsheet price lists 
that I forgot to audit, and then end up selling programs and memory cards 
for like less than a dollar over my cost...... After the first six months, 
everything I had in the bank was owed to the California Sales Tax guys.  I 
was depressed.

     BUT, during that time, I was doing a lot of beta testing and leg work 
for the programmers at Software Touch (Alan Bird, and Mark Simonsen).  
After AutoWorks was released, coincidentally with MacroWorks (Beagle Bros 
Randy Brandt), I wrote a letter to every Apple II magazine editor about how 
great the program was and Paul Statt actually called Alan Bird as a result 
of my letter writing campaign and some good things started to happen for 
Software Touch.

     Then one day when I stopped by Alan's office, he showed me a new 
feature that he had working inside AppleWorks, MY FAVORITE PROGRAM.  That 
window turned out to be TimeOut.  I was involved with beta testing of all 
the TimeOut but had no idea until just before the AppleFest that year, that 
Mark Simonsen had bought out Beagle Bros.  At that point, there were seven 
TimeOut packages and four more nearly completed.  I had acquired the 
competitions programs from Pinpoint and was very impressed with what they 
offered, and then I got a newsletter that had an article about the Pinpoint 
User Group assistance program; I forget what it was called now, but it got 
me to thinking that the Beagle Bros TimeOut family needed something similar 
because not only were we introducing a massive number of add-on programs, 
but we were rapidly providing changes, enhancements and bug fixes.  So I 
went to Mark Simonsen with what became the Beagle Buddy idea, which we 
started up in early 1988.  My idea was that I would keep these Local Apple 
II User Group AppleWorks gurus updated and current on all of the TimeOut 
stuff and get them to help me sell Beagle Bros software to their user group 
members.  I ran the Beagle Buddy program for three years without pay from 
Beagle Bros, but free reign at the shop, so to speak.  The program was 
taken in-house and became part of the advertising budget, but the full-time 
employees never really had the time to devote to the program that I had 
provided.

     When AppleWorks 3.0 was introduced, Beagle Bros took me to San 
Francisco to the AppleFest with them, and I met the buyer from Programs 
Plus and Roger Coats.  I had just, after a year, convinced Professor Glen 
Bredon to let me publish and distribute ProSel and ProSel-16, and Programs 
Plus started buying, on average, 50 copies of ProSel-16 per month, while 
Roger Coats was buying upwards of $6000 (wholesale value) worth of Beagle 
Bros product from me.  Let met tell you, it was a neat feeling to take a 
box containing fifty 3.5" disks to the Mail Bank and asking that they be 
shipped COD for $2,000.00!  And how depressing, in June 1991 when I had to 
write over $4500 worth of checks to pay income taxes because 1990 was such 
a great year. AND ALL IN MY SPARE TIME TOO!

     In all the years since 1986 when I started, I have never regretted 
starting my little side business, but I have done all this without paying 
nearly enough attention to my kids and wife, and now, they are letting me 
know.  I am still addicted to my Apple II systems (I have three in the 
house, and a computer room, stuffed with box, magazines and computers).  
Last year was pretty slow, but still more than I did in sales in 1988, and 
while this year seems pretty slow too (where the heck did all the Apple II 
Buyers go?), things are not entirely bleak.  I am starting to sell hard 
disk drives, something I have wanted to do for three years, and now that I 
have a really nice drive enclosure (the Diplomat), drives smaller than 540 
megs are hard to find.  However, with TMS closing their doors and Quality 
Computers growing so fast that they are having (apparently) a hard time 
finding sales people knowledgeable in Apple II, I feel more than ever that 
I must continue to try to stay active in business for the Apple II Users.  
Its almost like an obligation to me.  I don't want to stop what I am doing, 
business wise, and I don't want to turn my back on Apple II Users.  I use 
almost everything I sell and that makes it easier for me to sell.  It also 
allows me to assist users after the sale!

     So, there you have it; Charlie's AppleSeeds, how and why.

Chuck
Charlie's AppleSeeds
9081 Hadley Place
San Diego, CA 92126-1523
Phone/Fax 619-566-1297

========================== END ========================================

     Too keep my hand in, I am also doing the software for the A2GEnie 
Disk of the Month (locating and downloading, then writing a brief 
discriptor file) and recently, I started doing the same for Resource 
Central with their A2-Central On Disk.

Chuck

                                 [*][*][*]


    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 Apple II, 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.



[EOA]
[HUM]//////////////////////////////
                    HUMOR ONLINE /
/////////////////////////////////
Fun & Games On GEnie
""""""""""""""""""""
by Steve Weyhrich
     [S.WEYHRICH]



     Here for your amusement, in honor of our own Brian Tao:


                         >>> INTERNET FILEMAN <<<
                         """"""""""""""""""""""""
                    (to the tune of "Wichita Lineman")

     I am a FileMan for the I'Net
     And I cruise the main node
     Searchin' on the run
     For another hot upload.

     I send them zingin' through the wires
     I upload them while online
     And the Internet FileMan
     Is still on the line...

     The last batch needs ver-i-fi-cation
     Hope that Sysop's been trained
     And if that virus scan fails
     It will cause no end of pain

     And I need them more than want them
     And I want them all for MINE
     And the Internet FileMan
     Is still on the line...

                                 [*][*][*]


     EDITOR'S NOTE:  "InterBrian" Tao is a member of the A2 RoundTable who 
     voluntarily uploads program and messages from the comp.sys.apple 
     groups to GEnie's A2 libraries.



[EOA]
[REF]//////////////////////////////
                     REFLECTIONS /
/////////////////////////////////
Thinking About Online Communications
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
by Phil Shapiro
   [P.SHAPIRO1]



             >>> SOME FACTS ABOUT THE U.S. POSTAL SERVICE <<<
             """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

     Last month this column included the recommendation that the U.S. 
Postal Service raise the rate of first class stamps from 29 to 40 cents.  
Loyal readers of the column were kind in letting me know that the editorial 
was long on opinions and short on facts.  Taking a second look at the 
editorial, I can't help but agree with them.

     Here then is the U.S. Postal Service revisited -- but this time 
supported by facts.

THE QUANTITY OF MAIL DELIVERED EACH YEAR   The first fact that stares you 
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""   in the face when dealing with 
the U.S. Postal Service is the humongous quantity of mail that is delivered 
each year.  I called the national headquarters of the U.S. Postal Service 
in Washington D.C. and asked them how much mail they delivered last year.  
A polite and friendly postal service employee informed me that the Postal 
Service delivered 171,219,994,000 pieces of mail in 1993.

     Well, that looks like a large number, certainly, but what does it 
mean in more practical terms?  In practical terms, the Postal Service 
delivers about 500 million pieces of mail per day.

     If this doesn't seem like a large number, try this little experiment: 
Take a day off from work sometime, and in your free time casually sort and 
deliver 500 million pieces of mail.  [Or just try counting to 500 million. 
-- Ed.]

     How much does all this mail weigh?  In 1993 the Postal Service 
delivered 19,592,264,000 pounds -- that's 19 billion tons -- of mail.

     To make this figure more meaningful, we can say that the Postal 
Service delivers 10 million tons of mail per year.  On a daily basis that 
works out to 27,400 tons per day.  To help haul that mail to your mail box, 
the Postal Service uses 100,000 trucks.

SHIFTING HARD COPY MAIL TO ELECTRONIC MAIL   If just one percent of all of 
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""   the current mail were shifted 
to electronic mail, the load on the U.S. Postal Service would be 
substantially diminished.  (To the tune of 5 million fewer pieces of mail 
to deliver each day.)  If ten percent of all current mail were shifted to 
electronic mail, the load on the U.S. Postal Service would be diminished by 
50 million pieces of mail per day.

     A ten percent reduction in mail volume would yield all sorts of 
efficiencies:  Fewer sorting machines would be needed, fewer mail carriers 
would be needed, fewer delivery trucks would be needed, fewer fuel would be 
needed for those trucks, fewer mechanics would be needed to repair the 
trucks, etc.

HUMAN NATURE SLOW TO CHANGE   But you can bet your last postage stamp that 
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""   people are not going to change the way they 
communicate unless they start feeling the pinch in their wallet.  Raise the 
price of a first class stamp to 40 cents, and a lot of people will have a 
spontaneous new interest in learning about telecom.

     To be sure, in some ways it's unfair to talk about shifting hard copy 
mail to electronic mail.  Some mail, such as glossy advertising flyers, is 
just unsuited to the e-mail format.  (Thanks be!)   And other mail has no 
meaningful ASCII content at all.  (Tangible merchandise and other types of 
"non-letter" mail.)

     But over 90 percent of current mail is ASCII text, being physically 
shuttled around the country by trucks and planes. How much more efficient 
would it be to shuttle this mail around via computers?  Plenty.

     The U.S. Postal Service has ambitious plans to modernize its sorting 
facilities in the next ten years.  Billions of dollars are being allocated 
for this venture.  Wait a second, folks.  That money is being thrown into a 
huge hole. Far better to use that money to subsidize inexpensive terminals 
for each and every person in the country.

     Set up free public access terminals in public libraries, railway 
stations, shopping malls, government buildings -- anywhere where people 
could sit down and jot off a quick e-mail note to a colleague, a 
legislator, Al Gore, or Bill Gates.  You shouldn't have to own your own 
dedicated phone line to travel down the information superhighway.  On-ramps 
should be provided wherever human beings have a need or an interest to 
communicate.

     Then we as nation can get serious about moving ahead in the 
Information Age -- without having to worry about sorting and delivering 500 
million pieces of mail per day.

-Phil Shapiro

                                 [*][*][*]


          The author takes a keen interest in the social and economic 
          dimensions of communications technology.  He can be reached on 
          the InterNet at:  pshapiro@aol.com.



           //////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE ////
          /                                                            /
         /  The skull in the clipboard doesn't sound good.  Sounds    /
        /   very possibly like somebody's screwing around on your    /
       /    system.   That really steams me.  I consider the        /
      /     Apple II community to be, like, my extended family.    /
     /      To have a relative screwing around with MY system     /
    /       would make me really ticked off.                     /
   /                                                            /
  ///////////////////////////////////////////  POWERPC.PRO  ////



[EOA]
[BEG]//////////////////////////////
               BEGINNER'S CORNER /
/////////////////////////////////
Polishing Green Apples
""""""""""""""""""""""
by Steve Weyhrich
     [S.WEYHRICH]



                    >>> HOOKED ON STORAGE (Part 4) <<<
                    """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

STAKING OUT YOUR TURF   If you've been following the previous installments 
"""""""""""""""""""""   in this series, I have led you through the decision 
of when and if to purchase a hard disk or other mass-storage device, and 
how to find and connect one to your particular flavor of Apple II.  Now we 
need to discuss methods of dividing up (and safe-keeping) all that lovely 
space for most efficient use.


BACKGROUND   Unless the hard disk that you purchased is only 20 megs in 
""""""""""   size, you will likely need to partition (divide) that disk to 
be able to make use of it.  There are many reasons for partitioning, and 
the size you choose depends on your particular needs.

     First, the ProDOS operating system has a built-in limitation of 32 
megs per disk volume.  In 1994 this limit seems just a bit too 
constricting, especially on the Apple IIgs, where large programs are more 
the rule than on 8-bit Apple II's.  In 1979, however, when SOS (the 
Sophisticated Operating System for the Apple III) was designed, 32 megs was 
as enormous a size as 32 GIGAbytes seems to be today.  ProDOS was designed 
to be compatible with SOS, and thus the 32 meg per volume limit remains to 
this day.  It would be POSSIBLE to overcome that limit, but not without a 
major rewrite of ProDOS, and the hassles of compatibility problems with 
older software.  It is unlikely that we will ever see this changed, now 
that the status of the Apple II unit at Apple Computer is a mere shadow of 
its former self; so, like everything else we do in the Apple II world, we 
learn to make do with what we have.

     An obvious solution to this problem would be to take whatever size of 
disk you've purchased and divide it up into multiple 32 meg volumes, with 
the final one being the remainder after the division.  For example: A 120 
meg hard drive would be divided up into three 32 meg partitions, with a 
fourth partition that was something under 24 megs in size.  That last 
partition would not be EXACTLY 24 megs in size, although the mathematical 
logic works out that way.  Some of the space on the hard disk needs to be 
used for a partition map that lets the SCSI controller keep track of where 
a partition begins and where it ends.  A 300-meg drive would be split into 
nine 32-meg volumes, with less than 12 megs remaining.


BACKUP   Real life, however, is not that easy.  The decision on how many 
""""""   partitions to make, and what their sizes should be, depends on 
more than what the operating system will allow.  One consideration to make 
is this:  What do you plan to use in making backups of this hard disk?

     "Backups?  I have to make BACKUPS too?!"  Darn right you do.  
Murphy's Law of Data Loss states that the likelihood of losing all or part 
of your disk files is inversely proportional to the amount you are at risk 
of losing.  In other words, if all you have to lose are the files on a 143K 
floppy disk, it won't disappear easily.  When you have an 800K disk, it 
gets a bit more risky.  With 32 megabytes, you can almost guarantee that 
eventually, SOMETHING will clobber your disk and cause you to lose hundreds 
of files, many of which may be difficult to replace.  So, the rule is BACK 
UP YOUR FILES, and do it regularly.  Did you hear me?  *B*A*C*K* *U*P* -- 
Do it regularly!  You've been warned.  Don't you come whining to ME when 
your disk crashes and that file you worked on for two whole WEEKS is gone 
forever!


BACKWORK   What should you use for doing your backups?  You have several 
""""""""   choices available to you:

Floppy Disks (5.25)      PLUS:  Dirt cheap
'''''''''''''''''''
                         MINUS:  To back up a full 32 meg volume it would 
                         take just over 234 of these disks and probably an 
                         entire day of time.  Probably would cause 
                         repetitive strain injury, too.  And acne.

Floppy Disks (3.5)       PLUS:  Still pretty cheap
''''''''''''''''''
                         MINUS:  Full 32 meg backup still takes a LOT of 
                         disks, over 40 of them.  Still slow, but not as 
                         bad as 5.25 disks.

Tape Drive               PLUS:  MUCH more convenient than floppy disks.  
''''''''''               Time spent doing a backup depends primarily on 
                         how much money you choose to spend on a tape drive 
                         to begin with.  The least expensive, a 3M 40-meg 
                         SCSI tape drive (available for as little $150 
                         used), may take an hour to back up a full 32 meg 
                         partition; however, it is VERY reliable.  Other 
                         SCSI devices are available, with larger capacities 
                         and faster backup times, but their cost is 
                         significantly higher.

                         MINUS:  Because tape access is sequential rather 
                         than random, recovering individual files from a 
                         backup tape can be a slow and tedious process 
                         (just as locating and playing a specific song on 
                         an audio cassette is less convenient than on a CD 
                         or vinyl recording).

Syquest Cartridges       PLUS:  Pretty good speed for both backup and 
''''''''''''''''''       recovery of disk volumes.  Sizes run from 44 meg 
                         up to 270 meg per cartridge.

                         MINUS:  The initial outlay for a drive runs from 
                         $230 and up, with the 270-meg drives costing more 
                         than $550.  Also, individual cartridges are 
                         expensive, costing over $70 apiece.  Still, $70 
                         for 40 megs of storage is cheaper than buying 
                         another hard drive.

Floptical disks          PLUS:  As with Syquest cartridges, good speed.
'''''''''''''''
                         MINUS:  Still an expensive hardware item, and 
                         size is usually 21 megs (actually more like 19 or 
                         20 megs of useful storage), so it would take about 
                         one and a half to store a full 32 meg volume (more 
                         about this later).

Hard Disk                PLUS:  Using a second hard drive of the same size
'''''''''                for doing backups is not as silly as it might 
                         sound.  The cost of a second hard drive may be 
                         less expensive than buying a Syquest and 
                         cartridges, for example, and it should be as fast 
                         as what you have right now.

                         MINUS:  The backup hard drive is subject to the 
                         same failures and losses as the original drive is, 
                         and if something goes wrong with the backup drive, 
                         you've lost EVERYTHING that you stored on it the 
                         last time you did your backup.


BACK TO WHERE WE WERE   So, if the point of this article is to talk about 
"""""""""""""""""""""   partitioning a hard disk, why so much time spent on 
discussing methods of doing backups?  Because backups are so important, and 
you will be doing them regularly (RIGHT?), it will help you to have your 
hard disk organized in such a fashion as to get the most out of your chosen 
backup method.

     For example: If you plan to do your backups to 800K floppy disks, you 
can decrease the amount of time spent on one volume by making them smaller.  
If it takes 40 disks to back up a full 32 meg volume, consider that it 
takes only 26 disks to back up a 20 meg volume.  You have more volumes to 
back up, perhaps, but fewer disks per volume.

     If you buy a Floptical drive, the disks on which you will do your 
backups will be around 21 megs in size (not quite all of the 21 megs on 
those disks are available).  So, it might make sense to divide your hard 
disk into 20 or 21 meg partitions, so you can more efficiently use the 
space on those Floptical disks.  The same goes with the 40 meg 3M tapes:  
Two 19 meg partitions will fit onto a single 40 meg tape (some space is 
used for tape directory), so creating 19 meg partitions may be the most 
efficient way to divide that space.  None of the Syquest cartridge sizes 
come out to exact multiples of 32 megs, so it may be prudent to set the 
sizes of your partitions to coincide with the available space to use in 
doing backups with THAT device.


BACKUP METHODS   And, since we've gone so far down the backup path as to 
""""""""""""""   talk about backing up full volumes, and the consequences 
of those choices, this would be as good a time as any to discuss what 
software is available for doing backups.  The cheapest method of doing 
backups is to just use a file copy program and copy files one by one over 
to a backup disk until it is full, and then repeat the process until the 
entire hard drive partition is completed.  This will certainly work, and 
has the advantage of letting you decide exactly WHICH files you REALLY need 
copies of.  The disadvantage is it is a labor-intensive process that you 
will not do as regularly as you should.

     [By the way: I do know some folks who NEVER make backup copies of 
their system files or commercial software, since they have the originals 
around to reload if something happens to trash the copies they use on their 
hard drive.  This is all fine and dandy if you never make any patches to 
these programs.  However, the more complicated the software, the more it 
can be customized to your likings, and the hassle involved in reinstalling 
and reconfiguring all those programs needs to be weighed against the 
convenience of being to simply restore it all from a backup if something 
DOES crash.]

     There are two main methods used in doing backups:  A FULL-VOLUME 
backup copies ALL the files from the hard disk to the backup media, either 
as an automated file-by-file copy, or as a literal image, block by block, 
of the original disk.  A full-volume backup really should be done 
periodically to make sure that all the files on your hard drive are safely 
stored SOMEWHERE.

     The second method of backing up files is called an INCREMENTAL 
backup.  Incremental backups only copy certain files to the backup disks.  
This can be done either by date of the files, or by whether or not files 
have changed since the last full-volume backup (whether the "backup-bit" is 
set; this is something the operating system takes care of).

     People who are EXTREMELY careful about their disks and their 
work-in-progress will do a full volume backup weekly, and an incremental 
backup on a daily basis.  (I've even heard of those who do this on a daily 
and HOURLY basis.)  The advantage of incremental backups can be seen when 
there are several versions of a program, for example, which change when the 
program is being developed.  If it turns out that a new method being used 
simply doesn't work, the programmer can go back to the version he saved 
three days ago and start from there again, rather than trying to remove all 
the changes he added since then.


BACKUP SOFTWARE: 8-BIT
""""""""""""""""""""""   

Backup II   For the Apple II Plus/IIe/IIc computers, the least expensive 
'''''''''   option for hard disk backup is a program called Backup II, 
written by Apple Computer.  However, the program has given problems to some 
people, and it is possible that recovering a single file may simply not 
work.  For instance, if one disk in a series of backup disks develops a bad 
block; the entire backup may be unavailable.  However, it is "free" for the 
cost of a download from the A2 Library on GEnie (a part of file #13735, 
SCSI.UTILS.BXY).

EasyDrive   Quality Computers sells this program, which is a file selection 
'''''''''   utility for 8-bit Apple II's.  It also has a hard drive backup 
and restore utility, but is limited to being able to only do a full-volume 
restore.  That means if you only need to recover ONE file, you had better 
have a spare hard disk partition that you can make use of, to restore the 
last full backup of the disk where the file was last stored.  

     EasyDrive's backup utility is unique in its ability to use multiple 
different sizes of backup media.  For example:  You could begin a backup 
from a 32 meg hard drive partition to a 21 meg Floptical disk.  If that 
disk became full before the backup was completed, you could finish it on 
3.5 floppy disks.

ProSel 8   Glen Bredon's ProSel 8 is the oldest and most comprehensive of 
''''''''   the available disk management programs for the Apple II.  One of 
its many features is a hard disk backup package that also allows recovery 
of specific files.  However, you must know the name of the file you wish to 
recover to successfully do so without restoring the entire backup.  For 
this reason, it is a good idea to use the included Info Desk utility to 
make a full disk directory on either paper or a disk file and store it 
somewhere safe before doing a backup, so you can find the exact file and 
path at recovery time.

     ProSel 8's disk backup software uses an image, rather than 
incremental, method of backup.  Also, it is hard coded to use either 5.25 
OR 3.5 disks, but not a mixture of them (as EasyDrive can do).

     One feature of ProSel 8 that should be discussed here:  Disk 
optimization.  Because of the feature of ProDOS that dynamically allocates 
disk space as it is needed, files have a tendency to eventually become 
fragmented as they are saved over and over.  This may begin to slow down 
the loading files from the disk.  To combat this creeping lethargy, disk 
optimization/defragmentation utilities were developed, and ProSel 8 had one 
of the first:  Beach Comber.

     This brings up the limitations of Beach Comber.  To properly plan 
your disk partitioning in such a way as to allow use of this program, keep 
the following information in mind.  If you have a plain vanilla Apple IIe 
or IIc, with 64K or 128K of memory, Beach Comber will not work if your disk 
partitions are greater than 10 meg in size.  If you have a 1 meg RAM card, 
you can use Beach Comber to defragment hard disks up to 20 meg in size.  To 
defragment a 32 meg disk partition requires an Apple IIgs, and the 
optimization utility in this ProSel-16 is more comprehensive anyway.

     How critical is disk defragmentation anyway?  If you are using 3.5 
disks (which do not have the memory limitation mentioned above), it may 
make quite a bit of difference.  If you are using an older, slower hard 
drive or interface card, disk optimization may also achieve some 
performance improvement.  On an Apple II High Speed SCSI card, or on a 
RamFAST card, with a newer SCSI drive, the improvement achieved may be 
minimal.


BACKUP SOFTWARE: 16-BIT   
"""""""""""""""""""""""   

ProSel-16   Like ProSel 8, this 16-bit version of ProSel is primarily a 
'''''''''   program selector, but has many utilities that come with it, 
including a backup and restore utility that is done by file, rather than as 
a disk image.  Backups can be done for an entire volume, for changed files 
only (those with the backup bit set), and for files newer than a certain 
date.  Files can be restored either individually or through an entire set.

     The limitations of this set of utilities are primarily due to its 
roots in the Apple II text screen.  (Although most ProSel-16 displays are 
in super hi-res graphics, they only use it to the extent of printing text 
that is indistinguishable from Apple II text, except they can be in 
multiple colors.)  When ProSel was first written for 8-bit Apple II's, it 
started as a program selector, and then more features were added as the 
author, Glen Bredon, felt it necessary to add them.  When the Apple IIgs 
came to be, the utilities were updated to make use of the GS/OS 
environment; however, their appearance was NOT changed, except in minor 
ways.  Access to desk accessories is available, and the mouse can also be 
used.  However, despite all its power, ProSel-16 has been known to be 
difficult for a new computer user to make use of; it just works differently 
from graphic-based programs like the GS Finder.  I find ProSel-16 to be 
extremely valuable; but then, I've been using it since I had a IIc, and am 
familiar with it.

Salvation-Bakkup   Vitesse sells a collection of utilities that is 
''''''''''''''''   currently bundled as Salvation Supreme.  It includes a 
program launcher (Wings), virus checker (Deliverance), Backup/Restore 
utility (Bakkup; yes, that IS how they spell it), and more.  The Salvation 
utilities are GS/OS desktop-based; that is, they use the graphic user 
interface in a similar fashion to the GS/OS Finder, with icons, windows, 
and so on.  It is preferred by many GS users who like to use programs that 
adhere to the Apple's desktop guidelines, and allows access to desk 
accessories via the Apple menu.  Beyond this general information about 
Salvation-Bakkup, I do not have any personal experience on which I can draw 
for making comparisons.  For a discussion of Salvation-Bakkup compared to 
ProSel (from Vitesse's point of view), you can download file #10167, 
"VITESSE.BXY", in the A2 Library.  (From ProSel's point of view, try file 
#10051, "COMPAR.BXY".)  There is a demo file of Bakkup in file #9854, 
"SALV.DEMO.BXY", in the library as well.  It works but has some features of 
the commercial version disabled.

Universe Master   Another graphic-based disk backup program, this has a 
'''''''''''''''   demo file of version 1.0 available in the A2 Library, 
file #19188, "UM.DEMO.BXY".  It performs disk repair operations as well as 
backup and restore.  The version 1.1 revision has been due to be released 
for about a year now, and it is hoped that Econ will have this available 
soon.

GS-Tape   This utility by Tim Grams is supposed to make use of a tape 
'''''''   backup drive very easy.  It does full or partial backups, and I 
believe that it will span over several tapes, which makes it more efficient 
to backup from 32 meg partitions to 40 meg 3M tapes.  I found that I was 
unable to try the demo file, #19742 "GSTDEMO.BXY", because it claimed that 
there was no valid RamFAST driver available (not true); apparently it 
chokes because I've used a utility to rename the partition names of my hard 
drive to something else.  It requires the RamFAST SCSI card, obviously, and 
needs version 3.0 or higher of the ROM for that card.


THE BOTTOM LINE   If you plan to get a hard drive larger than 20 megs in 
"""""""""""""""   size, you need to be aware of what I've discussed here 
about planning your partitioning properly.  It will save you headaches 
later, especially if you do your backups regularly.


NEXT TIME   A look into the world of hard disk directory organization.  
"""""""""   Hasta la vista... baby.


                                 [*][*][*]

          Steve Weyhrich is a family physician from Omaha, Nebraska.  
          He has been using Apple II computers since 1981, and writing 
          about them since 1990.  He follows closely the events that 
          continue to shape the destiny of the legendary Apple II and 
          IIgs computers, and compiles a monthly column called the "A2 
          News Digest" for A2-Central disk magazine.  He is also the 
          author of the "Apple II History", available on fine BBSes 
          everywhere.



[EOA]
[ASA]//////////////////////////////
               ASCII ART GALLERY /
/////////////////////////////////
How Much is That Doggie in the Window?
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
by Susie Oviatt
        [SUSIE]



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[EOA]
[HUN]//////////////////////////////
               THE TREASURE HUNT /
/////////////////////////////////
Yours For the Downloading
"""""""""""""""""""""""""
by Charlie Hartley
      [C.HARTLEY3]



     Welcome back to the Treasure Hunt!  This month we will take a look at 
some HyperStudio stacks and related materials.  Unless otherwise indicated, 
these are freeware stacks.

                                  [*][*][*]


                Much Ado About Shakespeare (by Larry McEwen)
                ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

     This six-disk multi-stack is about as nice a presentation as I have 
seen done with HyperStudio.

     To quote the author, "The ultimate objective for creating MUCH ADO 
ABOUT SHAKESPEARE is to interest the user in Shakespeare's works and to 
promote a desire to read them.

     "The immediate objective is to provide the user with a brief overview 
of the life, theatre, and the works of Shakespeare as seen through both 19th 
and 20th century introductory writing, art works, and photo and lithographic 
plates.  Synopses of the plays are included as aids to study and 
understanding."

     Mr. McEwen, who is a retired teacher, has succeeded admirably in 
reaching his immediate objective.  His love for his topic shines through in 
the quality of the material.

     This massive presentation includes 259 cards, 856 buttons, 298 text 
fields, more than 250 separate graphics, and more than 47,000 words.  As you 
might have guessed, this is not free.

     To get this masterpiece, you are looking at close to five hours of 
downloading time at 2400 baud.  At $3.00 an hour, that's about $15.

     In addition, Mr. McEwen has copyrighted this work and requires that you 
send $25 to the Immune Deficiency Foundation if you wish to keep it.  Let him 
tell you why you should do this in his own words:

     "MUCH ADO ABOUT SHAKESPEARE was created during 1990 and 1991.  During 
that period of time I was growing an intra-spinal-cord tumor.  I finished it 
the night before my entry into the hospital for spinal cord surgery the next 
morning.  On that day, my wife walked from the hospital to a nearby postal 
service center and sent all six disks to Roger Wagner Publishing.... During 
the next few months, v2.0 of MUCH ADO ABOUT SHAKESPEARE was finished and was 
advertised in the Roger Wagner Publishing Company catalog at $29.95.

     "This is an improvement over those early versions.  Because my immune 
system continued to deteriorate, I found that I was sick more days per month 
than well.  Finally, I faced the fact that I could no longer work 
productively and was disabled.  As a hobby for those very few days in some 
months when my energy level allowed me to dabble with the IIgs, I finished 
v3.11 of MUCH ADO ABOUT SHAKESPEARE.

     "This is a good cause and we need help.  The first case of Primary 
Immune Deficiency Disease which caught the public's eye and ear was the case 
of the 'Houston Bubble Boy', a boy who lived in 1950's Texas.  His story was 
made into a movie.  A very young John Travolta starred as the 'Bubble Boy' 
whose short life was contained within that plastic sterile environment.

     "The Primary Immune Deficiency Diseases do not receive the attention 
that the HIV 'AIDS' cases do.  Our cases do not get the headlines, and they 
do not get the political attention or the budgetary appropriations.

     "Thank you for your help and kind consideration.  Thank you!"

     So there you have it, folks.  About 40 bucks will get you a fine 
HyperStudio presentation AND a warm feeling in your heart.  Go for it!

     Here is the information you will need to download MUCH ADO ABOUT 
SHAKESPEARE.  Make certain you are using GS/OS 6.0.1.  Mr. McEwen has tried 
it with System 5.0.4. and found no problems.  However, it was written in this 
form under System 6.0.1.  If you are using your own HyperStudio, make certain 
you are using version 3.1j or above.

     First download either file #22583 or #22584 depending on whether you 
need the runtime version of HyperStudio or not.  Then download each of the 
other files listed below.

File#   File Name       # bytes   Description of file

22583   SHAKESPR.1.BXY   219904   Much Ado Shakespeare #1 w/runtime
22584   SHAKESPR.1X.BXY  103680   Much Ado Shakespeare #1 w/o runtime
22585   SHAKESPR.2.BXY   483328   Much Ado About Shakespeare - Disk 2
22592   SHAKESPR.3.BXY   520192   Much Ado About Shakespeare - Disk 3
22587   SHAKESPR.4.BXY   497024   Much Ado About Shakespeare - Disk 4
22588   SHAKESPR.5.BXY   492160   Much Ado About Shakespeare - Disk 5
22589   SHAKESPR.6.BXY   442112   Much Ado About Shakespeare - Disk 6
22639   MENU3.SHKPR.BXY   39168   Menu.Stack.3 plus corrected Read.Me

     Each download has a copy of the Read.Me file on it.  The copy on 
download #22639 is the most accurate.  That file gives more information, 
including the address for your payment.  It also contains detailed 
instructions for how to put the stacks on separate 3.5 disks or on your hard 
drive.

     Some final pointers:  Mr. McEwen has included several hidden buttons in 
these stacks.  To find them, remember to press both the option and command 
keys simultaneously.  This will force a display of the locations of any 
hidden buttons.  Also, I'm not entirely pleased with how the stacks exit back 
to HyperStudio.  The best way I've found to leave these stacks is to press 
command-M to get the menu bar displayed.  Then you can use it to move on.

                                  [*][*][*]


                    Sound Effects Stacks (by Joel Helton)
                    '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

     There are three volumes of these sound effects stacks by Joel Helton. 
Joel has recorded these sounds from his own LPs.

     Volume 1 contains the following sounds (sound file name in brackets, if 
different): radio static [AM.STATIC] , bong, door creak [CREAKDOOR], 
explosion, gunshots, telephone ring [TELEPHONERING], telegraph, wireless, 
thunder/rain [THUNDERRAIN], and wind.

     Volume 2 contains the following sounds : steam engine [STEAMENGINE], 
diesel loco [DIESELLOCO], puke (yes, that's right), pocket change, more 
thunder [THUNDER], warning signal, and dog howling.

     Volume 3 contains the following sounds: Twilight Zone [TWLIGHTZONE], 
20th Century [TWENTIETH], Scary Organ [SCARYORGANMUSIC], Lone Ranger 
[LONGRANGERSTART], Far East [FAREASTMUSIC], Dramatic [DRAMATICMUSIC], and 
Dragnet [DRAGNET.SND].

     The quality of the sounds is good, for the most part.  If you're 
looking for sounds like these, these downloads may be just the ticket. 
However, these are fairly large downloads, and many sounds are available 
elsewhere.  I have not had time to determine how many of them are available 
in the library as individual sounds.  Searching in the library on the 
individual sound names should let you know.

     Here is the information that you need to know to download these files:

     File#   File Name       # bytes   Download Time at 2400 baud

     15934   SND.FX.01.BXY    444288   approximately 41 minutes
     15935   SND.FX.02.BXY    435456   approximately 40 minutes
     15949   SND.FX.03.BXY    515328   approximately 48 minutes

                                  [*][*][*]


                  Sounds of History Stacks (by Joel Helton)
                  '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

     Also from Joel Helton, three stacks that give us a taste of the sounds 
of history in the 20th century.  He describes the first stack this way: "This 
stack contains scanned pictures using the Quickie hand scanner.  Each graphic 
matches a sound file.  For instance, you can see a graphic of the Hindenburg 
explosion and listen to a part of the famous radio broadcast of the disaster.  
Others include Charles Lindbergh, Caruso singing 'Over There', and Edward 
VIII giving up his throne for the woman he loved."

     Joel describes the second stack this way: "Included in this stack are 
sound files of:  the start and end of World II, Challenger disaster the 
dropping of the first Atomic Bomb, and Winston Churchill's 'finest hour' 
speech.  Also included are Quickie scanned graphics."

     This is how he describes the third stack: "In this stack are sound 
files of famous moments in baseball history (via radio broadcasts).  Also 
included are scanned graphics....  Sounds include:  Larson's perfect game, 
Lou Gehrig retiring, Babe Ruth retiring, and Bobby Thompson's homerun.

     The black and white graphics are well done, as are the sound clips, 
even if they are too brief at times.  Keep in mind, however, that the longer 
the sound clip, the longer the download.  

     These stacks require at least HyperStudio 2.1 to function, and work 
just fine with the latest version.  Here is the information that you need to 
download these files.

     File#   File Name       # bytes   Download Time at 2400 baud

     11813   SND.HISTORY.BXY  538020   approximately 48 minutes
     12084   SND.HIST.02.BXY  437220   approximately 40 minutes
     12120   SNDS.HIST.3.BXY  378000   approximately 34 minutes

                                  [*][*][*]


                    Earth Stack (uploaded by N.JENTZSCH1)
                    '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

     I was disappointed with this stack.  According to the long description, 
it was written by a high school senior for his final project for an honors 
science class, and was to be a "suggestions" stack on ways to save the 
environment.

     I cannot fault the student for his facts.  The problem is with his 
presentation.  In a word, the stack is boring.  It fails to make use of the 
tools that make hypermedia effective.  Beyond a few graphics and some 
connecting buttons, this is essentially a written report.

     Usually I try not to criticize like this.  However, since this stack 
takes over two hours to download at 2400 baud, I felt the need to caution 
others about its contents.

     If you really must see it for yourself, here are the details.

     File#   File Name       # bytes   Download Time at 2400 baud

     12061   EARTHBASE.BXY    679140   approximately 60 minutes
     12085   EARTH.DATA.BXY   718200   approximately 64 minutes

                                  [*][*][*]


             Viking History Stack (by Ms Ross's 5th/6th graders)
             '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

     This is a neat stack.  Created by fifth and sixth graders at Idelwild 
Elementary School in Tacoma, Washington, it is a fine example of what 
children can do with HyperStudio.

     Apparently each child took one aspect of Viking lore and created one or 
more cards for it.  Even the simplest of them are informative and contain 
original artwork.  Some of them allow the viewer to decide what he wants to 
know more about by providing several buttons.

     Since it only takes about 10 minutes to download this stack, I can 
recommend it to you highly.  The pleasure of seeing how creative the kids can 
be is worth the download.

     Look for file #22176, titled VIKING.BXY, uploaded by T.MCNAIR4, and 
containing only 107,648 bytes.

                                  [*][*][*]


              Egypt Stack (by Ms Ross's 5th Grade Gifted Class)
              '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

     This is not as good as the Vikings stack, in my opinion, but it is 
still good enough to merit your attention, especially if you are looking for 
examples of how kids can use HyperStudio.  It is another 10 minute download 
at 2400 baud.

     Look for file #20986, titled EGYPT.STACK.BXY, uploaded by T.MCNAIR4, 
and containing 105,088 bytes.


                                  [*][*][*]


                        Button School (by Bill Lynn)
                        ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

     Bill Lynn is a master at creating neat HyperStudio stacks.  This stack 
is an excellent tutorial on creating animated buttons for your stacks.

     Bill begins by explaining basic button drawing, and continues with five 
additional lessons that detail how to create a variety of button styles.  
Included are momentary pushbuttons that appear to be pressed and then 
released, momentary flashing pushbuttons that do the same but with a change 
in color, latching pushbuttons and lighted latching pushbuttons that stay 
down until you click outside the button area, and finally lighted 
latching/reset pushbuttons that display a pattern of buttons.  In this last 
case, the button stayed depressed until another button in the array is 
pressed.

     This is file #17302, titled BUTN.SCHOOL.BXY.  It contains only 63,616 
bytes.  This is a must-have stack if you want to learn how to create your own 
buttons for your stacks.

                                  [*][*][*]


                       Animation School (by Bill Lynn)
                       '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

     Bill Lynn has also created a comprehensive tutorial on "cel" animation 
in this stack.  Learn how to create your own animations by following his 
clear and easy to follow examples.

     This is an updated version of the original stack first published on 
Stack-Central.  It takes advantage of the new features of HyperStudio 3.0 and 
later versions.

     Bill first teaches you how to create a flower in bloom with expanding 
petals.  Next, he describes how to do a paddle ball in motion animation.  He 
also teaches you how to create your own "dialog boxes" and how to use masks 
to create large scale animation.

     This is a $5.00 shareware product.  It is file #18907, titled 
ANIMSCH3.0.BXY, containing 367,360 bytes.  Expect it to take about 34 minutes 
to download at 2400 baud.

                                  [*][*][*]


     That's it for this month.  I hope you have found something here to whet 
your interest.  Drop me a line and let me know what you think of this column 
and offer any suggestions you might have about what should be in it.

     Next time we'll take a look at some great graphics files uploaded by 
Pat Kern.  Until then, happy downloading!

                              -- Charlie Hartley



[EOA]
[PAL]//////////////////////////////
                  PAL NEWSLETTER /
/////////////////////////////////
May 1994 Report
"""""""""""""""
by GEna Saikin
     [A2.GENA]



     PAL (Planetary Apple League) is an online user group and has a meeting 
the third Sunday of every month in the Apple II RT (m645;2).

     Last summer, the idea of an online usergroup was conceived by Lunatic 
E'Sex in a dorm room at Kansas Fest, and took root.  With the waning support 
of the Apple II in general, it was felt that an online user group would help 
infuse new interest and fill in the gaps, for folks finding themselves 
without a nearby group.  GEnie has the best Apple II support of all online 
services -- Apple II Forever!

MAIN MENU   Many Apple II publications have come and gone.  Yet there are
"""""""""   many strong survivors out there -- among them, A2-Central, 
published by Resource Central.

     Sam Latella had the idea of compiling newsletters from Apple II 
usergroups from around the world.  Tom Weishaar got wind of his idea, and 
suggested that he incorporate it into A2-Central -- a marriage made in 
heaven!  He will be writing a monthly column encapsulating what's going on 
around the world in the Apple II world -- taking articles and snippets from 
newsletters worldwide.

     This is an intro to his A2World, in his own words:

                            ---------------------

     Not another International Apple ][ User Group Newsletter!!!

     Welcome to the beginnings of a truly International Apple ][ newsletter 
called A2World...<----- "What else would we call it."

     Ever wonder what other Apple ][ users groups were doing around the 
world or just A2 users in general?  Well I have, and actually have talked to 
several people around the world, and exchanged newsletters.  I've chatted 
with people in several countries like Italy and Israel.  The information from 
these A2 users is vast and unbelievable.

     Now you're probably asking why am I mentioning this?  Well for 
starters, I'm interested in this kind of information, and secondly I think 
you are too :-).  Want to find out more about the A2World Newsletter?  Well 
then join us at the next PAL meeting on MAY 15, 1994 (at 4:00pm) to find out 
more about A2World, and the far off places it could lead you and ][.

                            --------------------

THE LIBRARY STACK   As usual, A2 has a bunch of great files for everyone.  
"""""""""""""""""   Below is a collection of files posted as the Dean's List:

 +22594 A2NDX9404TX.BXY          Apr '94 A2 Category/Topic Index (TXT)
 +22591 A2.DOM.0494.BXY          A2 Disk of the Month, April 1994
  22571 FGS.DEMO.BXY             Demo - GS specific financial application
  22563 MENUFIX.BXY              MenuFix NDA - changes menu bar colors
  22562 WORLD.GS.BXY             World - IIgs text adventure game
  22559 GSTAPE.UPD.BXY           Updates GSTape to v2.1.3
  22558 FILEPSG.202.BXY          File Passage v2.0.2 - GS file utilities
 +22550 GLAMPA29404.BXY          GEnieLamp A2, April 1994 (AWP version)
  22546 MATHGRPH221.BXY          MathGraphics v2.2.1 - function plotter
  22530 SPLASH.ED.BXY            IIgs splash screen editor
  22528 MUSICOMP2.2.BXY          MIDISynth Music Composer v2.20
  22525 ZIPGS.FAQ.BXY            Documentation on accelerators
 +22521 QUITTER4.0.BXY           Quitter v4.0 for ProDOS 8

(The +'s denote that these files are ProDOS 8)

WHAT'S NEW IN A2?   There are many new things happening in the Apple II RTC 
"""""""""""""""""   here on GEnie.  Among them is the release of an updated 
GEM for not only AppleWorks 3.0, but for AppleWorks 4.0.2 as well.  Below is 
further information on this release:

GEM (GEnieMaster)   There are two new versions available for this venerable 
'''''''''''''''''   GEnie front end for the Apple II in the A2 library: GEM 4 
for AppleWorks 4.0 (File #22690, GEM4.V4.22.BXY) and GEM 3, for AppleWorks 
3.0 with UltraMacros 4.2 installed (File #22688, GEM3.V4.22.BXY).  If you do 
not have AppleWorks 4.0 or UltraMacros 4.2, do not despair, the "standard" 
version of GEM (4.21) is still available (File #20978, GEM.4.21.BXY), and all 
you need is AppleWorks 3.0 -- you don't even need UltraMacros, since the 
run-time version is included with GEM.  You also need one of the following 
telecommunications programs for GEM to work properly: ProTERM 3.0, Talk Is 
Cheap 3.2, or Point-to-Point 4.0.  (Or later versions, of course.)

     The folks in A2 will be supporting all 3 versions of GEM.  Stop by A2 
Category 29 to get quick answers to your GEM questions.  The A2 experts in 
offline processing are more than willing to help.

     If you have an Apple IIgs, we also have available a program called 
Co-Pilot, a full desktop offline message processor that does not require 
AppleWorks.  A new upgrade to Co-Pilot is currently being tested and will be 
available soon.

ICONference   July 21-23, 1994 will mark the annual conference, sponsored 
'''''''''''   by Resource Central in Kansas City, MO.  This year, there will 
be more platforms represented... including the new Power Mac.

     Traditionally, this is a conference for programmers and developers, but 
there are many seminars of interest to non-programmers, and of course, much 
of the fun is meeting people in person that you've only met online!  Last 
year, activities outside the conference included such zany things as a 
bag-biting contest and Roger Wagner's imitation of Spiderman, as he attempted 
to scale the roof at Avila College, where the conference is held.  It's three 
days of learning, fun and hilarity.

     Please see Category 23 (Resource Central Online), Topic 10 for further 
information on the conference.

New Hosts   As you have probably noticed, there are some new faces in A2 
'''''''''   conducting RTCs.  Let's welcome Tim Kellers, Doug Pendleton, 
Cindy Adams and Eric Sheppard (Sheppy)!

     Cindy Adams helps out on Sundays and co-hosts the PAL meetings.  Tim 
Kellers hosts the first half of the RTC on Tuesday nights.  Doug Pendleton 
and Harold Hislop are our resident solder slingers, hosting a hardware 
conference on Wednesday night; and Sheppy holds down the fort for the first 
half of Saturday's RTC.


CONCLUSION   Remember that the Apple II RT has nightly conferences from 9 
""""""""""   p.m. to 1 a.m. seven days a week, and an afternoon conference on 
Sunday, from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m.

     Our bulletin board is a wealth of information on all sorts of topics, 
from hard drives to the intricacies of desktop publishing.  We also have a 
category dedicated to buying and selling equipment... many good buys can be 
found there!

     With over 22,500 files uploaded to our library, there is no doubt that 
the file you are looking for -- if it's not a commercial release -- can be 
found!  Just explore!



[EOA]
[AII]//////////////////////////////
                        APPLE II /
/////////////////////////////////
Apple II History, Part 22
"""""""""""""""""""""""""
by Steven Weyhrich
      [S.WEYHRICH]



                          >>> APPLE II HISTORY <<<
                          """"""""""""""""""""""""
                   Compiled and written by Steven Weyhrich
                     (C) Copyright 1994, Zonker Software
                       (PART 22 -- TELECOMMUNICATIONS)
                             [v1.1 :: 04 May 94]

INTRODUCTION   As we near the conclusion of the Apple II history series, we
""""""""""""   will this month dwell on telecommunications services available 
for Apple II users.  Admittedly, my direct experience here is limited except 
for a year or two on CompuServe, and several years on GEnie.  The information 
presented on America Online, Delphi, and the Internet is, unfortunately, 
second hand.  If anyone wants to better educate me on errors in what I've 
presented, feel free to send me e-mail at s.weyhrich@genie.geis.com and set 
me straight!


REACH OUT AND BYTE SOMEONE   Since the earliest days that it was available,
""""""""""""""""""""""""""   there have been those who have found ways to 
communicate using their computers with other Apple II users over the phone 
lines.  Although some inexpensive imaginative methods have been employed 
(such as A.P.P.L.E.'s "Apple Box" that used the cassette port to send and 
receive programs via the phone line), the release of the DC Hayes Micromodem 
II in about 1979 made it possible for a new type of computing.  Although 
there were those who wanted to use their Apple II as a home terminal for 
access to a school or business mainframe from home, many users created their 
own small systems that could be called from elsewhere.  These "bulletin board 
systems" consisted of a single computer that was always waiting to answer the 
phone.  When it rang, the computer would answer the phone and establish 
two-way communication via the modem.  A program running on this computer 
would then allow the calling computer to do various things, such as reading 
messages left by other users, to posting messages for others to read.  As 
these systems became more sophisticated, it became possible to send and 
receive programs or other data files on these BBSes, play games, and 
participate in online surveys.  The system operator ("sysop") was responsible 
for maintaining the software and the message databases, often leaving his 
computer on for 24 hours a day to be available for callers.

     The success of these small, local systems encouraged the larger, 
mainframe-based systems to expand and offer services to non-business users 
during off-peak hours.  They figured that since the equipment was idle during 
that time anyway, they might as well have SOMEONE use it and earn them some 
extra money.  Most of the major online services that started in the late 
1970s are still in business, in one form or another, and others have entered 
the game since then.  Competition has increased, the number of users 
accessing these national systems has grown, the number of features offered 
has also gone up, and the cost of online communication has dropped.

     The ability to transfer files from one Apple II to another has evolved 
over time.  Initially, an Applesoft or Integer BASIC program might be 
"downloaded" (sent from the BBS to the calling computer) by simply doing a 
"LIST" of it.  That was fine, unless the program had some machine language 
parts added on.  Then, the bytes of that assembly code had to be sent as hex 
digit pairs (i.e., 20 00 BF 65 10 03 04, etc.), since anything shared between 
the computers had to be in printable ASCII codes.  With the noise possible on 
some telephone connections, this could result in a single character becoming 
garbled now and then, resulting in a program that wouldn't run because of the 
error that was introduced.  Various programs for the Apple II were devised 
over time to make this more efficient, including some that used the method of 
encoding the hex bytes (digit pairs) into single printable ASCII codes that 
were then decoded on the receiving end into a usable program.

     Eventually, Apple II BBS programs (and the terminal programs that were 
used to call those BBSes) began to use the "XMODEM" standard devised in 1982 
by Ward Christensen to more efficiently and accurately send such files over a 
phone line.  As Apple software became more sophisticated, and as the files 
became larger and larger (particularly with the introduction of the IIgs), 
protocols were established to allow more than one file to be sent in a single 
transmission.  The first major protocol that was agreed upon among the major 
online services was the Binary II protocol.  Designed in 1986 by Gary Little, 
this allowed a standard method of grouping files that could work for any of 
the disk formats available on the Apple II.  In 1988, Andy Nicholas designed 
a more comprehensive method of not only putting several files into a single 
file (usually called an "archive"), but also compressing those files to save 
time and space when transmitting them between computers.  He called this 
protocol "NuFX" (NuFile eXchange), and implemented it and the data 
compression in a program called ShrinkIt (and later GS-ShrinkIt) that he 
released as "freeware" -- that is, he did not charge for the use and 
distribution of his program.  The NuFX protocol was adopted by Apple Computer 
as the official protocol for file transmission for the Apple II, and Nicholas 
later went to work at Apple after his graduation from the college that he was 
attending when he designed the protocol.


NATIONAL ONLINE SERVICES   Since there are far too many local systems to
""""""""""""""""""""""""   discuss in even a passing manner here, let's take 
a look at the various nationally available systems and their history as it 
applies to the Apple II.


Internet (1970s-Present)   The United States Department of Defense began a
''''''''''''''''''''''''   computer network in the late 1960s called ARPAnet 
(Advanced Research Project Agency Network) to facilitate communication 
between widely scattered universities and research centers.  To make it 
possible to have real-time intercommunications, electronic mail, and the 
ability to exchange files and other important information, they developed a 
set of standards to make it possible to carry out these functions.  The 
effort was very successful, and eventually the university research groups 
wanted to use it for everything, not just Department of Defense work.  
Eventually it was opened up to non-Defense projects (with restrictions to 
prevent commercial ventures) and it was called Internet. To gain access to 
Internet required a computer "node" (usually through a university).  Although 
the term "Internet" -- sometimes simply "the net" -- is often used to refer 
to all these computer networks, there are at least three major ones that are 
linked together at most sites:  Internet, Bitnet, and Usenet.  Internet is 
most commonly used to send electronic mail and messages.<1>

     With the widespread penetration of Internet across the country, there 
have developed many different groups and forums, including ones that were 
specific to the Apple II.  Since Internet was already in existence when the 
Apple II was released, and long before any home users with modems created 
single-user bulletin board systems, it probably represents the first online 
"service" available for the Apple II.  The original newsgroup was called 
"comp.sys.apple", and in 1990 its name was changed to "comp.sys.apple2" to 
distinguish it from newsgroups that were dedicated to the Macintosh.  Through 
Internet addresses, Apple II users can even communicate directly with 
employees of Apple who have accounts on the net.<1>,<2>


The Source (1979-1989)   The Source began in 1979 and lasted until 1989.
''''''''''''''''''''''   For much of its life, it was owned by Reader's 
Digest.  It was accessible through Telenet or Tymnet nodes; that is, through 
computers in a locality that act as gateways to many other online computer 
services across the country.  (Often there is an additional fee for using the 
Telenet or Tymnet node, besides the charges for the specific service being 
accessed.)  The Source had many online services available, including over 
twenty financial and business services, access to several national and 
international news services, and computer-specific news features.  An online 
encyclopedia, shopping, interactive games, and airline reservations were also 
available.  One feature unique to The Source was the capability to create 
"scripts" that the mainframe kept track of (rather than being on the user's 
local terminal program disk).  These scripts could be used to quickly move to 
certain areas and perform repetitive functions (such as scanning and reading 
electronic mail, and checking for new files in the library).

     The Apple II had a presence on The Source from its earliest days, but 
the APPLESIG was updated in 1987, and Joe Kohn (who has written articles for 
inCider/A+, had worked with the Big Red Computer Club, and now has his own 
newsletter, "Shareware Solutions II") was the chief sysop.  He operated the 
APPLESIG from May 1987 until The Source closed down.

     Kohn worked to make APPLESIG a major information source for Apple II 
users.  Registered with Apple as a user group, they had expert advice 
available, as well as a large library of articles and software.  The online 
charges were lower for APPLESIG, which also made it attractive for users.  As 
with other online services, a bulletin board section was also maintained for 
ongoing discussions between users about various topics of interest.  They 
also had an online presence maintained by "The Apple IIgs Buyer's Guide", and 
were allowed to reprint articles from "MicroTimes" and "A+" magazines.<3>

     According to Kohn, one thing that likely contributed to the demise of 
The Source was their insistence on a $10 monthly minimum charge, long after 
other national online services had either eliminated or significantly lowered 
such charges.  [Recently, monthly minimum charges have returned to some 
networks. -- Ed.]  Another problem that he identified was that their system 
was not as easy to use as some other services (although former users feel 
that the Source's library search protocol was better than any other).  The 
Source was bought out by CompuServe, and its subscribers merged with that 
service in 1989.<4>,<5>


CompuServe (1979-Present)   This service originally began as "Compu-Serv"
'''''''''''''''''''''''''   in 1969 as an in-house computer processing center 
for Golden United Life Insurance Co.  During the next ten years they expanded 
their offerings to business users, and by 1972 had over four hundred accounts 
across the country.  In 1977 the name was officially changed to "CompuServe 
Incorporated", and by 1979 they were ready to begin offering service to 
computer hobbyists.  Their new service was called MicroNET, and it started on 
July 1, 1979 after two months of testing with the 1,200 members of the 
Midwest Affiliation of Computer Clubs.  Items available online were bulletin 
boards, databases, and games.  Soon after they started this, an Apple II 
special interest group was begun.  It gave itself the name "MAUG" (for 
"MicroNetted Apple User Group").

     In 1980, CompuServe merged with H&R Block, and changed their personal 
computer service name from MicroNET to CompuServe Information Service.  They 
have continued to expand their services and capabilities through the years, 
and are widely available across the country.<6>

     Each user on CompuServe is assigned an eight or nine digit ID code, 
divided into five digits, a comma, and then the other three or four digits. 
For example, a user's code might be 76543,4321.  When directing electronic 
mail to a specific user, it is necessary to use that ID code so the system 
knows exactly WHICH Joe Smith you want to receive your message.

     The bulletin board and message sections on CompuServe are divided up 
into Forums, usually dedicated to a specific service.  The MAUG section 
covers more than one forum, since the message traffic is too large to manage 
in a single forum.  Messages within a forum are organized under major 
subject, and then under minor subjects.  Each message is assigned a number, 
and the various messages are linked together into "threads".  For instance, 
user #1 asks a question about a brand of modem.  User #2 links his answer to 
that message and answers the original question.  User #3 also answers the 
question, but adds a comment about terminal programs.  User #4 picks up on 
THAT comment, and adds his views about the terminal program that HE likes, 
without mentioning anything about the modem question that user #1 asked.  And 
on it goes.  Eventually, the topic will probably die out, to be restarted 
later by someone else when it is necessary.  The message thread can be 
followed when reading these posts, or you could simply read all the messages 
sequentially by their message number.  A sequential scan would read ALL 
messages about ALL topics, whether the messages were connected or not.  
Following the thread pursues one conversation; following all the messages 
pursues ALL conversations that are going on.

     One problem that can occur with this type of system depends on the 
volume of message traffic.  The software that CompuServe uses will assign a 
new number to each new message, but when the total number of messages has 
passed a certain point, the first messages will be deleted.  If the range of 
messages when signing on Monday runs from 15000 to 17000, by Tuesday it may 
run from 15500 to 17500 (and the first 500 messages from 15000 to 15499 have 
disappeared).  If there are any especially useful conversations going on, the 
Sysop (system operator) for that forum may choose to save the messages and 
their threads into a file in the library for access in the future by those 
who were not involved in the conversations when they were going on.

     Each forum on CompuServe has the capability of supporting live 
conferences, where many users can be present simultaneously and hold live 
interactive conversations (as opposed to the bulletin board conversations 
where you must post a message, and then log on later to see if there has been 
a reply to it).

     The MAUG libraries hold programs that have been uploaded for years; 
some are from the early part of the 1980s (if you can wait for the file scan 
to get back that far).  Of course, there are also many files that are new, 
and they are added daily by the active people there.

     As with the other major online systems, there are many other services 
available online besides the MAUG forums, including news services, online 
shopping, games, and more.<7>


Delphi (1982-Present)   In 1982 the General Videotex Corporation began an
'''''''''''''''''''''   online service called Delphi (probably named after 
the oracle of ancient Greek mythology).  They have not been a major player in 
the competition for customers between national online services, but neither 
have they succumbed to financial pressure and passed away.  Like The Source, 
they are accessible through Telenet and Tymnet.  They have had an Apple II 
SIG (Special Interest Group) since around 1985.  Erik Kloeppel was head Sysop 
(and still may be) for that SIG for several years.

     In January 1992, General Videotex purchased the BIX online service 
operated by Byte magazine in an effort to enlarge Delphi and increase its 
market share.  Delphi today is unique in the degree and scope of its access 
to the Internet.


GEnie (1985-Present)   GEnie is owned and operated by General Electric, and
''''''''''''''''''''   the name stands for "General Electric Network for 
Information Exchange".  It has been in business since 1985, and, like other 
online systems, offers many different services to its subscribers, including 
news, an online encyclopedia, online shopping, games, financial information, 
and areas of interest to users of various brands of computers.

     Where CompuServe's sections are called Forums, GEnie calls their 
sections RoundTables (or RTs for short).  Each RT is divided up into a 
bulletin board, library, and conference rooms (called "Real Time 
Conferences", or RTCs).  The bulletin board is divided up into a number of 
categories, and each category consists of a number of topics.  Each topic 
then has individual messages that (hopefully) deal with that topic.  Unlike 
CompuServe, messages will not disappear from a topic until the Sysop decides 
to delete them (and this does not occur until the number of messages either 
get too large to be manageable, or they become old and outdated).  If a topic 
contains messages that are particularly helpful (such as information about 
the use of a common computer utility program), the messages may stay up for 
YEARS.  If it becomes necessary to purge old messages, they may be placed 
into the library so they are still available for reading in the future.

     As for user IDs, GEnie decided to use a combination of letters and 
other symbols to give each user a unique name, instead of the number system 
CompuServe employs.  A new user is typically assigned a user name that 
consists of their first initial, a period, and their last name.  If there is 
another user with the same user name at that point, a number is added. For 
instance, Joe Smith would be given the name J.SMITH; if there already are 
three Joe Smith's on the system, then this name would be assigned as J.SMITH4 
to tell him apart from the others.  A user may ask for a different name (for 
a price) if the one assigned to him or her is not satisfactory.  These tend 
to be as varied as vanity license plates on automobiles.  If J.SMITH4 owns a 
restaurant, he may ask GEnie to give him a name such as EAT.AT.JOES instead 
of his original name.

     GEnie started supporting the Apple II computer on October 27, 1985, 
about five days prior to its going public.  Kent Fillmore was the first Apple 
Information Manager, and the first Sysop was Cathy Christiansen.  Fillmore 
started the America Apple RoundTable (AART), for the Apple ][ and /// 
Computers, as well as the A2PRO RT (Apple II Programmers) with Michael 
Fischer (MFISCHER), A+ Magazine RT with Maggie Canon (A.PLUS), the Apple/Mac 
User Group RT with Leonard Reed (BIBLIA), the ProTree RT with Bob Garth 
(PROTREE), and the GEnie Sysop's private RoundTable.<8>  Fillmore left GEnie 
in October 1987 and Tom Weishaar took over some of those RTs.  Fillmore later 
returned to GEnie in June 1992 to become the Product Manager for Computing 
RoundTables/ChatLines.<9>  Currently, Weishaar has formed a new organization 
called ICON, standing for International Computer Owner's Network.  ICON has 
taken over the management of A2 (Apple II) and A2Pro (Apple II Programmer) 
RTs, the Mac and MacPro RTs, and the PPC (Power PC) and PPCPro (Power PC 
Programmer) RTs.

     To stay competitive with older and sometimes larger information 
services, GEnie has usually kept its online costs below those of the other 
systems.  The association with Tom Weishaar and his newsletter, A2-CENTRAL 
(originally OPEN-APPLE), has been beneficial for both.  GEnie's 100,000th 
member in March 1988 was an Apple II user that joined because of a special 
offer through OPEN-APPLE.  Weishaar has been able to keep more direct contact 
with Apple II users, from both those who work professionally with the II to 
those who use their Apple II's for special purposes only.<10>


AppleLink-Personal Edition / America Online (1988-Present)   Beginning in
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''   May 1988, Apple 
Computer contracted with Quantum Computer Services to start a consumer 
version of its AppleLink network.  Apple's original network, in operation 
since 1985, had been used primarily for communication functions within Apple 
Computer and its various sites across the country, as well as a source of 
technical support for certified Apple developers.  When their new consumer 
service, AppleLink-Personal Edition (ALPE) was introduced, they changed the 
name of the original network to AppleLink-Industrial Edition.  Apple's hope 
was to use ALPE as a method of providing better support to its customers.

     AppleLink-Personal Edition was unique for an online computer service in 
its use of a custom terminal program.  Rather than requiring the user 
(possibly a novice) to spend a lot of time in learning how to use a terminal 
program, a modem, AND ALPE, Quantum and Apple designed a special program that 
handled all the communications details, including the sign-on password.  Each 
time that the user signed-off from ALPE, a new, randomly selected password 
was selected and saved on the ALPE disk for the next time.  ALPE was aware of 
this password, and so the chances of someone breaking in on another user's 
account and using time (and money!) was nearly eliminated.

     The ALPE terminal program was intuitive, as was the use of the 
Macintosh (and Apple IIgs) desktop interface.  Icons (pictures of desired 
functions) were selected with the mouse or cursor (depending on how you had 
it configured).  Making the call and logging in were handled by the terminal 
program, transparently to the user.  When the connection was made, a choice 
between Apple-specific services and ALPE general services was available.  The 
general section was directed to entertainment, business services, online 
shopping, and general education.  There was also a place for playing online 
games, alone or with other users.  An "auditorium" could be used for members 
to attend conferences with special guests, allowing direct questions and 
answers with the guests.

     The Apple Community section was the part with the greatest importance 
to the dedicated Apple II (or Macintosh) user.  Here direct contact with 
Apple Computer, Inc. was available (through the "Headquarters" icon), as well 
as other hardware and software vendors.  Apple product announcements and 
information about products in testing could be found here, as well as direct 
access to Apple engineers and developers.  There were Forums (special 
interest groups) for various aspects of Apple computing, Apple University 
(with courses on productivity, programming, and specialized software 
applications), and Software (library of available programs for downloading).

     In 1990, AppleLink-Personal Edition was modified to connect with the 
services Quantum provided for other home computers, and the name was changed 
to America Online.  It was still slightly less expensive than the other major 
online services, and because of the icon-based terminal software, still the 
easiest to use for the beginner.<11>


CONCLUSION   The main benefit for an Apple II user on a large, online
""""""""""   service such as those described above is the availability of 
many experienced users that can provide prompt, timely answers to questions 
or problems.  Some hardware and software companies maintain an online 
presence, to allow immediate feedback for their customers with technical 
problems.  There are also many files in the libraries on these services, 
providing software at low cost, some quite professionally written.  Apple 
Computer has also allowed most of these services to act as official "user 
groups", and so have availability of official technical notes and file type 
description notes for the Apple II series.


                                  [*][*][*]

NEXT INSTALLMENT:  Renaissance?
""""""""""""""""

                                    NOTES
                                    """""

     <1> E'Sex, Lunatic.  GEnie, A2 ROUNDTABLE, Feb 1992, Category 2, Topic 
         16.

     <2> Bouchard, J.  GEnie, A2 ROUNDTABLE, Jan 1992, Category 12, Topic 7.

     <3> Kohn, Joseph.  "The Source", CALL-A.P.P.L.E., Jan 1989, pp. 25-28.

     <4> Kohn, Joseph.  (personal mail), GEnie, E-MAIL, Feb 1992.

     <5> Utter, Gary.  GEnie, A2 ROUNDTABLE, Feb 1992, Category 2, Topic 16.

     <6> Gerber, Carole Houze.  "Online Yesterday Today And Tomorrow", ONLINE 
         TODAY, Jul 1989, pp. 12-19.

     <7> Apfelstadt, Marc.  "All About CompuServe", CALL-A.P.P.L.E., Nov 
         1988, pp. 44-47.

     <8> E'Sex, Lunatic.  GEnie, A2 ROUNDTABLE, Feb 1992, Category 2, Topic 
         16.

     <9> Fillmore, Kent.  GEnie, A2 ROUNDTABLE, Sep 1991, Category 2, Topic 
         16.

     <10> Weishaar, Tom.  "All About GEnie: General Electric's Online 
         Information Service", CALL-A.P.P.L.E., Sep 1988, pp. 46-50.

     <11> Cooper, Vince.  "AppleLink-Personal Edition", CALL-A.P.P.L.E., 
         Jul-Aug 1988, pp. 8-13.







           //////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE ////
          /                                                            /
         /  Today, I called Shreve Systems to order a tape drive.  I  /
        /  made the mistake of asking if they had any SCSI tape      /
       /  backup drives for the GS.  The salesperson said: "Uh,     /
      /  no."  Realizing my mistake, I asked if he had any for     /
     /  the Mac.  "Oh, sure."  When I told him that SCSI drives   /
    /  work on the GS, he sounded amazed.                        /
   /                                                            /
  /////////////////////////////////////////////  RON.ROYER  ////



[EOA]
[LOG]//////////////////////////////
                         LOG OFF /
/////////////////////////////////
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