[HEA]
    _____________________   ___                                   _
    |___   ______________| |   |                                 | |
        |  | _             |   |                                 | |
        |  || |            |   |                                 | |
        |  || |            |   |                                 | |
        |  || |            |   |   ____ _   _ _   _   ______     | |
        |  || |            |   |  / __ \ | | / \_/ \  | ___ \    | |
        |  || |__   ____   |   | / /  \  | |  /\ /\ \ | |  \ \   | |
        |  ||  _ \ |  _ \  |   | \ \__/  | | | |_|| | | |__/ /   | |
        |  || | | || |_||  |   |  \___/|_| |_|    |_| | ____/    |_|
        |  || | | || |__   |   |____________________  | |         _
        |__||_| |_|\____/  |________________________| | |        |_|
                                                      | |
         Lighting Your Apple II Path                  | |
                                                      |_|

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


                       >>> WELCOME TO THE LAMP! <<<
                       ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


           THE BEST OF THE A2 BULLETIN BOARD ON Syndicomm Online
          AND THE BEST OF THE DELPHI A2 AND A2PRO MESSAGE BOARDS
           "Teaching the Apple II user how to fish since 1998"


 ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
 The Lamp!            An Onipa'a Software Production       Vol. 6, No. 12
 ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
 Publisher................................Ryan M. Suenaga, M.S.W., L.S.W.
 Editor.....................................................Lyle Syverson
 Internet Email, Publisher.........................thelamp@sheppyware.net
 Internet Email, Editor................................lyle@FoxValley.net
 ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

                            TABLE OF CONTENTS
                            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                            December 15, 2003

HIGH ABOVE THE ROCK RIVER---------------------------------------------[OPN]
     The Big One
     Fulfilling the Challenge

A2 FORUM AT Syndicomm Online (A2Central.com) DISTILLATIONS------------[DAS]
     New Uploads to the A2 Library------------------------------------[NUL]
     A Better Apple IIgs Native Word Processor?-----------------------[BWP]
     Moving AppleWorks 5.1 Database to Mac OS X-----------------------[ADX]
     Deja ][ Will Print Fine to USB Printer---------------------------[DPU]
     New WebSite------------------------------------------------------[NWS]
     Check the Security of Your Online Computer-----------------------[SOC]
     SpamCop Changes Hands--------------------------------------------[SCH]
     SIS on Browser ID Page-------------------------------------------[SBI]
     Juiced.GS V8I4 in the Mail---------------------------------------[JIM]
     Juiced.GS Renewals-----------------------------------------------[JGR]
     Easter Egg Found on KansasFest 2003 Keynote DVD------------------[EEF]
     Up to 14 Megs of RAM for IIgs Under KEGS 0.84 Emulator-----------[FMR]
     What Does This Basic Program Do?---------------------------------[BPD]

ILLUMINATING THE LAMP-------------------------------------------------[ITL]
     An overview of GEnieLamp A2 and The Lamp!

ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM SYNDICOMM------------------------------------------[ANS]
     Syndicomm Online Price Slashed-----------------------------------[SPS]
     To Sign up for Syndicomm Online----------------------------------[TSU]
     Syndicomm Online Upgrades----------------------------------------[SOU]
     December 2003 issue of Syndicommotion Available------------------[DSA]

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR-------------------------------------------------[LTE]
     No Letters to the Editor This Month
     An Invitation

KFEST 2003------------------------------------------------------------[KFT]
     Enjoyed KFest 2003-----------------------------------------------[EKF]

KFEST 2004------------------------------------------------------------[KFF]
     KansasFest 2004--------------------------------------------------[KF4]
     Watch for More Information at the KFest Home Page----------------[VKF]

EXTRA INNINGS
     About The Lamp! ------------------------------------------------ [INN]


                                [*] [*] [*]

READING THE LAMP!   The index system used by The Lamp! is designed to make
"""""""""""""""""   your reading easier.  To use this system, load this
issue into any word processor or text editor.  In the index you will find
something like:

EXTRA INNINGS
     About The Lamp! ------------------------------------------------ [INN]

To read this article, simply use your search or find command to locate
[INN].  There is a similar tag at the end of each article: [EOA].



[OPN]-------------------------------
         HIGH ABOVE THE ROCK RIVER |
------------------------------------
From The Editor
"""""""""""""""
by Lyle Syverson <lyle@FoxValley.net>

                                The Big One
                                ~~~~~~~~~~~
     Looking down from High Above The Rock River, the sticky, freshly
fallen snow brings back the memory of an engineering feat accomplished by
some fifteen individuals ranging in age from six to fourteen.

     The students of that one room rural school were always watching for
sticky snow.  This snow, the construction material for snowmen and other
structures, would remain sticky for only a short time.  Recess and part of
the dinner hour would provide blocks of time when this special snow could
be used.  (Yes, the noon meal was called dinner).

     The children had conspired for some time to come up with a plan to
build a special snowman... " The Big One".  Broom handles, sticks, and
lumps of coal had been set aside for use in adding arms, eyes, nose, mouth,
buttons, and other features to this special man.

     Then one morning the sky opened up and a thick blanket of sticky snow
accumulated on the ground.  Those dinners were almost swallowed whole as
the students rushed to face the challenge.  Teams went to work rolling
balls of snow of various sizes.  One team built a ramp of snow... to be
used to roll the second ball of snow into place and to serve as a platform
for lifting others into place.

     Everyone was so engrossed with the construction process that they
didn't realize until they were called back to class that the play time had
been extended by almost an hour... the teacher noticed that a special
activity was in progress... and called them in when "The Big One" was
complete!

                         Fulfilling the Challenge
                         ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     The children had given themselves a challenge... and succeeded in
fulfilling the challenge.

     Over the years many people challenged themselves to be creative in
extending the usefulness of the Apple II computers by creating software and
hardware... often for profit... often for the satisfaction of fulfilling a
challenge.

     So use your imagination.  Come up with a project to expand your
experience with your Apple II's.  Share with us what you have accomplished.

[EOA]



ASCII ART BEGINS
_________  _                     _                                      _
|__   __| | |                   | |                                    | |
   | |    | |                   | |                                    | |
   | |    | |___     ____       | |       _____   __ ___ _   _ _____   | |
   | |    | ___ \   / __ \      | |      /____ \  | v   v | | v ___ \  | |
   | |    | |  | | | /__\ \     | |       ____| | | /\ /\ | |  /   \ \ | |
   | |    | |  | | | _____|     | |      / ___  | | || || | | |    | | |_|
   | |    | |  | | | |_____     | |____  | |__| | | || || | |  \___/ /  _
   |_|    |_|  |_| \______|     |______| \____^_| |_||_||_| | |\____/  |_|
                                                            | |
                                                            | |
                                                            |_|

ASCII ART ENDS
[EOA]



[DAS]----------------------------------------------
DISTILLATIONS FROM The A2 FORUM at Syndicomm.com  |
                                  (A2Central.com) |
---------------------------------------------------

by Lyle Syverson <lyle@foxvalley.net>

[NUL]
NEW UPLOADS TO THE A2 LIBRARY
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
There is a new upload in the publications/genielamp_the.lamp directory:

File: index031116.txt
Size: 596726
Date: Dec 7

The LAMP INDEX file is a topical index of nearly every individual article
that was posted in the digital magazines GEnieLamp A2 from April 1992
through October 1997, GEnieLamp A2Pro February 1993 through January 1996,
and The Lamp! from January 1998 through the present.

Uploaded by the author, Steven Weyhrich.

Tony Ward, A2 Librarian

(A2.TONY, Cat 2, Top 37, Msg 23)

>>>>>
"""""
Here are some more new uploads. These are in the
system_software/misc_16-bit/desk_accessories/nda directory:
 ---
File: telnetnda.bxy
Size: 21120
Date: Dec 8

This is version 1.10 of TelnetNDA. In addition to having my email address
updated, it has a couple of bug fixes and a couple of new features,
including the ability to select a port to connect to.
 ---
File: yahtzeenda.bxy
Size: 90880
Date: Dec 8

This is version 1.02 of YahtzeeNDA. It has a bug fix and my new email
address details.
 ---
Uploaded by the author, Kim Howe.

Tony Ward, A2 Librarian

(A2.TONY, Cat 2, Top 37, Msg 24)

>>>>>
"""""
And a couple more uploads from Kim Howe. The first one is in the
telecommunications/applications/16-bit directory:
 ---
File: arachnidpr3.bxy
Size: 96768
Date: Dec 8

This is the Arachnid browser with an updated read me file with my new email
details.
 ---
And this file is in the multimedia/hypercard_iigs/stacks/games directory:

File: shipwrecked.bxy
Size: 1404928
Date: Dec 8

Shipwrecked.SHK is a HypercardGS based graphics adventure game. It was
formerly hosted on my own isp, but I think it would be better if it was
here with the others.
 ---

Tony Ward, A2 Librarian

(A2.TONY, Cat 2, Top 37, Msg 25)
[EOA]


[BWP]
A BETTER Apple IIgs NATIVE WORD PROCESSOR?
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Anyone know of an Apple II word processor that does footnotes, endnotes and
table of contents? (Or any of the above.) I usually use Appleworks GS, and
find it adequate for most purposes, but occasionally I like to write things
that require these additional features. Does something exist, or should I
add "New GS Word Processor" to my programming list?  :)

Kim Howe
From my real IIGS via SOAR, Marinetti, LANceGS and ADSL

(KIMHOWE, Cat 8, Top 22, Msg 9)

>>>>>
"""""
Kim,

For table of contents, Appleworks Classic has an inbuilt outliner mode
(press OA-+).  Here is a screen capture of its command list:

   OA-A    Add son                     OA-T    Collapse/expand topic
   OA-B    Add brother                 OA-U    New uncle
   OA-C    Copy topics                 OA-V    View expanded topic
   OA-D    Delete topic                OA-W    Split window
   OA-F    Find text                   OA-Z    Zoom to desired level
   OA-G    Go to previous topic        OA-.    Go to next topic
   OA-I    Insert body text            OA-[    Go to father
   OA-J    Jump to full display        OA-]    Go to next brother
   OA-K    Collapse outline            OA-{    Shift topic left (to uncle)
   OA-L    Label options               OA-}    Shift topic right (to son)
   OA-M    Move topics                 OA-\    Options
   OA-N    New line (Return)           OA-`    Collapse/expand body text
   OA-O    Order (sort) topics         ^-R    Hide all body text
   OA-P    Print outline               ^-T    Toggle MouseText
   OA-R    Reveal all body text        OA-+    Review/Add/Change mode

That should work for a table of contents.  I believe AW5 can also do
headers and footers, but I'm unsure about footnotes and endnotes.

-Ken

(KGAGNE, Cat 8, Top 22, Msg 10)

>>>>>
"""""
But feel free to add "new IIgs word processor" to the list though. :)

Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd                                sheppy@syndicomm.com
Owner, Syndicomm                                  http://www.syndicomm.com
                     Building communities, bit by bit.

(SYNDICOMM, Cat 8, Top 22, Msg 11)

>>>>>
"""""
It has been added... :)

Kim

(KIMHOWE, Cat 8, Top 22, Msg 12)

>>>>>
"""""
A better Apple IIgs native word processor would certainly be welcome,
indeed.  I tend to use AppleWorks 5.1 more than anything else, although the
fast speed of ShadowWrite (as well as its nice search facilities) make it a
very decent second choice.

Ryan

(A2.RYAN, Cat 8, Top 22, Msg 13)

>>>>>
"""""
The main reason I don't do a word processor (even though it was on my list
for years): I can't stand doing text processing code. :)

Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd                                sheppy@syndicomm.com
Owner, Syndicomm                                  http://www.syndicomm.com
                     Building communities, bit by bit.

(SYNDICOMM, Cat 8, Top 22, Msg 14)

>>>>>
"""""
Probably what would be even more useful than one word processor would be an
improved version of TextEdit that allowed things like multiple rulers.

I don't anticipate that happening, but it would make every single TextEdit
based program much more useful.

Ryan

(A2.RYAN, Cat 8, Top 22, Msg 15)

>>>>>
"""""
Aside from the features I've already mentioned, what would you like to see
in a new word processor for the GS?

May as well start working up a spec (in the hope that my health hangs
around for a while and I can get to it one day). :)

Kim

(KIMHOWE, Cat 8, Top 22, Msg 16)

>>>>>
"""""
I agree that the best solution would be a rewrite of TextEdit to fully
implement its features and eliminate the bugs.

Things that I most would like to see in an actual word processor, beyond
the obvious basics::

1. Configurable styles.  Like, style "Body" is 12-point Times plain, with
   1-inch left and right margins and 0.25-inch indent, with 1.5 line
   spacing and 2.0 paragraph spacing.  Including additive styles, like
   "Italicize", which adds italic to whatever the current style is.

2. Page breaks.

3. Table-of-contents and index generation.

4. Export to HTML.

5. Import of AppleWorks, AppleWorks GS, RTF, and ideally Microsoft Word.

6. Headers and footers, with page numbering.

Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd                                sheppy@syndicomm.com
Owner, Syndicomm                                  http://www.syndicomm.com
                     Building communities, bit by bit.

(SYNDICOMM, Cat 8, Top 22, Msg 17)
[EOA]


[ADX]
MOVING AppleWorks 5.1 DATABASE TO Mac OS X
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Mac OS X's Address Book utility can import files in LDIF format.  All my
contact information is currently in Appleworks Classic Database format.  Is
there a way to move this data from my Apple II to OS X?

-Ken

(KGAGNE, Cat 9, Top 22, Msg 9)

>>>>>
"""""
If your Mac has AppleWorks on it, it should be able to import an AppleWorks
Classic database.

Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd                                sheppy@syndicomm.com
Owner, Syndicomm                                  http://www.syndicomm.com
                     Building communities, bit by bit.

(SYNDICOMM, Cat 9, Top 22, Msg 10)

>>>>>
"""""
Reading up a little on the LDIF format. . . if Shep's suggestion doesn't do
it, it wouldn't be all that tough to whip up an AppleWorks macro to get the
data into LDIF format, probably by printing the info to a text file, then
adding the appropriate headers.

This would be an interesting little project, actually.

Ryan

(A2.RYAN, Cat 9, Top 22, Msg 11)

>>>>>
"""""
Ryan,

I agree - that would be a neat project.  Where were you reading up on the
LDIF project?  That information would be necessary to write such a macro.

-Ken

(KGAGNE, Cat 9, Top 22, Msg 12)

>>>>>
"""""
http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2849.html

It looks worse than it is.  It's actually relatively simple, at least for
the kind of data in an address book.

Ryan

(A2.RYAN, Cat 9, Top 22, Msg 13)

Message 13         Sat Dec 06, 2003
[Head Geek]          at 21:34 PDT
[EOA]


[DPU]
Deja ][ WILL PRINT FINE TO USB PRINTER
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
In regard to an earlier query, I can confirm that Deja ][ will print fine
to a USB printer.  I switched from a serial connection to my HP DeskJet 340
to a USB-enabled HP All-in-One 6110 (via PCI card on an older Mac), and the
"Inkmeister" printer setup I configured Deja ][ to use with the DeskJet
works.

-Ken

(KGAGNE, Cat 9, Top 40, Msg 4)
[EOA]


[NWS]
NEW WEBSITE
"""""""""""
New as of Nov. 2003

http://iigs.dreamhost.com

-Lucas

(LSCHAREN, Cat 11, Top 12, Msg 27)

>>>>>
"""""
Lucas,

Nice update to your site.  I think it's pretty cool that you can play Super
Mario on the IIgs:)

Nice work.  I was thinking it would be pretty neat to have a turn based
strategy game made using tiles:)  The IIgs would be perfect for it.

Dain

(A2.DAIN, Cat 11, Top 12, Msg 28)
[EOA]


[SOC]
CHECK THE SECURITY OF YOUR ONLINE COMPUTER
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
At the Gibson Research web site, you can run "ShieldsUP!", a free,
web-based program that tests the security of your online computer.

https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2

(KGAGNE, Cat 11, Top 24, Msg 1)
[EOA]


[SCH]
SpamCop CHANGES HANDS
"""""""""""""""""""""
Next week, SpamCop will confirm or deny that it is being purchased by email
security hardware maker IronPort Systems Inc.:

http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/11/19/HNironport_1.html

(KGAGNE, Cat 11, Top 26, Msg 88)

>>>>>
"""""
One way or another, we at least currently need services like SpamCop.

Ryan

(A2.RYAN, Cat 11, Top 26, Msg 89)

>>>>>
"""""
There is a press release on Ironport's web site announcing the acquisition:
http://www.ironport.com/pdf/ironport_2003-11-24.pdf

Geoff

(GEOFF, Cat 11, Top 26, Msg 90)

>>>>>
"""""
A message from the former owner (and still current manager) of SpamCop can
also be found on the front page of http://www.spamcop.net .  Seems the
deal, announced Nov 21st, was actually signed in June.

-Ken

(KGAGNE, Cat 11, Top 26, Msg 91)
[EOA]


[SBI]
SIS ON BROWSER ID PAGE
""""""""""""""""""""""
While searching for something completely unrelated, I happened to find
zytrax.com's Browser ID page.  To my great surprise, Spectrum Internet
Suite has made the list: http://www.zytrax.com/tech/web/browser_ids.htm
This is actually a pretty useful page to correlate the Browser's user agent
string to the Browser that sent it.

It is cool to see that SIS 1.2 gets used enough for its fingerprints to be
picked up on that site and that it even got identified correctly.

Geoff

(GEOFF, Cat 11, Top 36, Msg 10)

>>>>>
"""""
Cool! :)

Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd                                sheppy@syndicomm.com
Owner, Syndicomm                                  http://www.syndicomm.com
                     Building communities, bit by bit.

(SYNDICOMM, Cat 11, Top 36, Msg 11)

>>>>>
"""""
Wow.

And I haven't even started on that review for Juiced.GS yet ;-)

Ryan

(A2.RYAN, Cat 11, Top 36, Msg 12)
[EOA]


[JIM]
Juiced.GS V8I4 IN THE MAIL
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
I've just moments ago ordered the print run of Juiced.GS V8I4.  It should
mail on Tuesday to US customers, and next week to international
subscribers.

Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd                                sheppy@syndicomm.com
Owner, Syndicomm                                  http://www.syndicomm.com
                     Building communities, bit by bit.

(SYNDICOMM, Cat 23, Top 2, Msg 491)

>>>>>
"""""
Juiced.GS arrived in Arizona today!

Excellent issue, as always!

Cindy

(CINDYADAMS, Cat 23, Top 2, Msg 492)

>>>>>
"""""
Thanks for your praise.  I'm hoping that it shows up here soon. :)

Ryan

(A2.RYAN, Cat 23, Top 2, Msg 493)
[EOA]


[JGR]
Juiced.GS RENEWALS
""""""""""""""""""
It's probably the proper time to remind everyone to get their Juiced.GS
renewals in early for 2004.  We're going to have a great year, and we
already have a brand new writer with some great stuff for Vol 9, Issue 1.

Ryan
Editor-in-chief and head snowman

(A2.RYAN, Cat 23, Top 2, Msg 501)
[EOA]


[EEF]
EASTER EGG FOUND ON KansasFest 2003 Keynote DVD
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
So, am I the first person to find the Easter Egg on the DVD?

Ryan

(A2.RYAN, Cat 24, Top 36, Msg 1)

>>>>>
"""""
Not unless there's a second Easter Egg.  :)

Of course, I did stumble on it quite by accident, and I'm not sure I could
get back to it now  :D
_________
  | homas

(TCOMPTER, Cat 24, Top 36, Msg 2)

>>>>>
"""""
Woohoo :)

Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd                                sheppy@syndicomm.com
Owner, Syndicomm                                  http://www.syndicomm.com
                     Building communities, bit by bit.

(SYNDICOMM, Cat 24, Topic 36, Msg 3)

>>>>>
"""""
I found it by accident the second time I ran it.  Didn't mention it as I
figured it was common knowledge.

Dave

(DAVEJ, Cat 24, Top 36, Msg 4)
[EOA]


[FMR]
UP TO 14 MEGS OF RAM FOR IIgs UNDER KEGS 0.84 EMULATOR
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
With the release of KEGS 0.84, up to 14 megs of RAM is available to use in
the IIgs emulator environment.  A usenet article written eleven years ago,

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=iigs+mmbootinit&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF
-8&selm=1992Nov3.142508.20195%40actrix.gen.nz&rnum=1 ,

provided the necessary information in how the IIgs determines how much RAM
it has.  Kudos to Dave Empson for doing the leg work which allowed the ROM
patches to let KEGS provide up to 14 megs of IIgs memory.

It should be noted that the 8-bit version of Appleworks was not designed to
support more than 8 megs of RAM and will fail miserably if KEGS is
configured with more than 8 megs of IIgs RAM.

Geoff

(GEOFF, Cat 29, Top 41, Msg 16)
[EOA]


[BPD]
WHAT DOES THIS BASIC PROGRAM DO?
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Remember when trying to figure out what a program did use to be fun? The
following is an old Integer Basic program.  Can anybody tell me what it
does?

40 REM WRITTEN BY ALOYSIS T. BURGERKING, C/O APPLE COMPUTER CONTRIBUTED
SOFTWARE BANK

50 POKE PEEK (-7782),47: POKE PEEK (-4710),183:J=4312: GOSUB RND (521):
PRINT : GOTO RND (1615)

60 DIM A$(126): IF J THEN DIM A$( RND (6449))

70 A$="BHRIAAAIADBGRJWCCBADJFSFJAAAABBIUIAHAJRGAAAABARCUIAHADUJLDRCXQPZABB
CBAAAJHEATKTHTOUEUHEBABAFCAAAIBAB": RETURN

80 FOR I= RND (11489) TO RND (97) STEP 2 ^ (4 ^ (Q))

82 GOSUB RND (1891): GOSUB RND (28181): POKE PEEK (-5607),148: POKE PEEK
(-7686),246: NEXT I: GOTO RND (3607): LIST

90 GOSUB RND (423): FOR I= RND (2167) TO RND (21227) STEP -12+(2 ^ 4-2):
GOSUB RND (436): GOSUB RND (467)

95 POKE PEEK (-7776),64: POKE PEEK (-7101),215: NEXT I: GOSUB RND
(2767): GOSUB RND (17417): END

100 RXQ=(( ASC( A$(I))-(10 ^ 2+3 ^ 4+(8-1) ^ 2-6 ^ 2-1))*100+( ASC(
A$(I+7 ^ Q))-(19 ^ 2-168))*10)/(2*(5 ^ (3 ^ ((RXY<Q)))))

110 RQX=(((I ^ 2+3*I)-2*((I ^ 2*3/21) ^ Q)+25/12-I ^ 2)*2/6)/2+Q ^
(Q*486): RETURN

200 XQR= RND (431)+RQX+QRX+XRQ* RND (9011): POKE RND (141),XQR MOD RND
(877): POKE RND (538),XQR/ RND (3410): RETURN

220 QRX= PEEK (224):XRQ= PEEK (225)-(QRX>243): POKE
81+RQX+QRX-256*(XRQ>127)+(XRQ-255*(XRQ>127))*256,RXQ: RETURN

1500 POKE 33,30: PRINT : LIST : RETURN

 Mark Percival - Apprentice
 Delivered by Spectrum v2.5.3 & SOAR v1.0b10
 The Apple ][ Fanatic and Wednesday Night RTC Host
 "Midweek Madness!" from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM Pacific Time

(MARK, Cat 51, Top 29, Msg 1)

>>>>>
"""""
Here are the original docs that came with this program.

Good luck!

=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
Even though it may seem improbable, every single line in this program is
executed at least once during its RUNning, and every line is necessary to
its proper operation.

INSTRUCTIONS
============
Type the program into Integer Basic.  Then, SAVE the program onto cassette
(MP: What?!?) or Disk before RUNning, as the program will be changed
substantially during RUN time.  After SAVEing, type "RUN".  There will be
a pause for a few seconds, after which a single word will appear and the
cursor will return.  If this does not happen, type "NEW", reLOAD the
program and check it for accuracy.  A single digit off anywhere will bomb
the program entirely.  Once the program has properly executed, LIST it.
Surprise!  Now try to figure it out.

A few hints:

The first two statements in line 50 are the most critical to breaking the
code.  -7782 and -4710 are ROM addresses; they will always contain the same
numbers.  After you discover these numbers, PEEK the locations to which
they refer more than once.  Things are not always as they seem.  Use of the
TRACE mode during RUN time should bear out your suspicions.

After RUNning the program and pondering the results, POKE 202,112 and POKE
203,18.  This will restore what is left of the original program.

The code for the changes in the program are stored in A$ and transferred to
RXQ in line 100.  Simplify the formulas will aid in understanding what is
being accomplished.
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

Mark

(MARK, Cat 51, Top 29, Msg 3)

>>>>>
"""""
Here is what the program does.

]CATALOG

DISK VOLUME 254

 A 002 HELLO
 T 006 MYSTERY PROGRAM TEXT
 I 005 MYSTERY PROGRAM

]RUN MYSTERY PROGRAM
>

HELLO

>

How does that code manage to give you this result?

Mark

(MARK, Cat 51, Top 29, Msg 4)

>>>>>
"""""
Well, the program self-modifies; it basically peels data out of itself and
blasts overtop of its own code to turn it into a program that does that.

Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd                                sheppy@syndicomm.com
Owner, Syndicomm                                  http://www.syndicomm.com
                     Building communities, bit by bit.

(SYNDICOMM, Cat 51, Top 29, Msg 5)
[EOA]



[ITL]------------------------
      ILLUMINATING THE LAMP |
-----------------------------

An overview of GEnieLamp A2 and The Lamp!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By Steven Weyhrich


RIGHT BACK WHERE WE STARTED FROM

     I have a habit of accumulating clutter. Life keeps me busy enough that
a consistent picking-up and putting-away routine escapes me. But I have my
limits; every so often, the clutter reaches a critical mass and I HAVE to
do something about it. And even then, getting it ALL put in its own place
may still be difficult.

     The one measure that I have found will most consistently result in a
pristine clean room and living environment is to move the furniture into
new locations, which FORCES me to get all the clutter put away. The result
is a room that looks new, is neat, and again is comfortable.

     In the same vein, 1998 was a re-organization year for the Lamp
publications. Yes, I KNOW that GenieLamp is DIFFERENT from The Lamp!, but
in my mind the similarities outweigh the differences. And the first year of
the new version for the new A2 home on Delphi reminds me of my room
reorganization; it just cleaned up things that needed cleaning, rearranged
the furniture a bit, and the end result was better than it had been before.
In fact, if you'll look at the size statistics at the end of this article,
the average size of each edition of The Lamp! during 1998 was a bit greater
than the average for the final year of GenieLamp A2.

     Now, tune your Wayback Machines to 1998 and join me... (and if you
know the source of that reference, I'll take the fifth caller and give you
tickets to tonight's concert...)


BABY COME BACK

     The year 1998 saw President Clinton finally admit to his affair with
Monica Lewinsky, after nearly a year of denying that it happened. The
United States House of Representatives impeached him because of perjury and
obstruction of justice, but the effort did not get past the Senate. El Nino
was felt to be responsible for hurricanes Mitch and Georges (which caused
severe damage to the Florida coastline and to the Caribbean region), and
also a severe heat wave and tornadoes. Two students, aged 13 and 14, shot
and killed five people at an Arkansas school. Baseball players Mark McGwire
and Sammy Sosa both broke long-standing homerun records. And Viagra first
appeared on the market as a treatment for male impotence.

     Byte Magazine ceased publication after 22 years, after having been
purchased by CMP Media, which published a competing magazine. The auction
web site "eBay" made its initial stock offering as a publicly traded
company. The United States Justice Department began proceedings against
Microsoft, alleging antitrust violations. Designed to make illegal the act
of breaking copyright protection on any product, the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act was signed into law. The web site "Google" started as a new
search engine, using the theory that web pages with the most links from
other sites were the most important and should appear first in a list of
search results. Microsoft Windows 98 was finally released in June.

     At Apple Computer, Steve Jobs announced in January a profit of $47
million for the company, its first in several quarters. The following
month, Jobs terminated technologies at Apple that were felt to be
unprofitable, including the Newton and eMate line of PDAs. The CompUSA
"store within a store" concept was inaugurated in March. In May the company
made its first announcements of new designs for its consumer computers, and
in August the first iMacs were ready for sale. These new Macs, based on the
G3 PowerPC processor and designed to be Internet ready, became the
second-best selling computer in the country by the end of the month. Its
new translucent styling and shape was totally different from any other
computer that had yet appeared, and ultimately destroyed the old "beige
box" mentality of computers that had typically been sold before that time.
In fact, many unrelated products rode the wave of Apple's design concept,
and translucent colored plastics were popular during the next several
years. The Claris Corporation was reabsorbed into Apple, leaving only the
database FileMaker to fend for itself as a separate product in a separate
company. To further the confusion Apple renamed ClarisWorks, the Macintosh
multi-function program, as AppleWorks, completely unrelated to the Apple II
version released fifteen years earlier.


THE LAMP! INFO

     Editor Ryan Suenaga had promised a redesigned online newsletter to
take the place of the late great GenieLamp A2. He had considered several
possible names, including "Delphi Oracle" (which was already in use), but
with the help of Tim Kellers (of the IIScribe Forum), Cindy Adams
(KansasFest "Big Cheese") and Max Jones (of Juiced.GS), he finally settled
on "The Lamp!" This maintained a connection to the older GenieLamp name,
but had the added advantage of not linking itself specifically to Delphi.
(This was ultimately a Good Thing, as events later turned out).

     The masthead on the new newsletter looked like this for its first
issue:

 ________________________________________________________________________
|                                                                        |
|    ____________________   ___                                   _      |
|   |___   ______________| |   |                                 | |     |
|       |  | _             |   |                                 | |     |
|       |  || |            |   |                                 | |     |
|       |  || |            |   |                                 | |     |
|       |  || |            |   |   ____ _   _ _   _   ______     | |     |
|       |  || |            |   |  / __ \ | | / \_/ \  | ___ \    | |     |
|       |  || |__   ____   |   | / /  \  | |  /\ /\ \ | |  \ \   | |     |
|       |  ||  _ \ |  _ \  |   | \ \__/  | | | |_|| | | |__/ /   | |     |
|       |  || | | || |_||  |   |  \___/|_| |_|    |_| | ____/    |_|     |
|       |  || | | || |__   |   |____________________  | |         _      |
|       |__||_| |_|\____/  |________________________| | |        |_|     |
|                                                     | |                |
|        Lighting Your Apple II Path On Delphi        | |                |
|                                                     |_|                |
|                                                                        |
|                    >>> WELCOME TO THE LAMP! <<<                        |
|                    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~                       |
|                    SIZZLING SHAREWARE: MUG! 1.01                       |
|          WEB SLINGING 101: Delphi Forums and the Apple II              |
|           AND THE BEST OF THE A2 AND A2PRO MESSAGE BOARDS              |
|                                                                        |
| :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::  |
| The Lamp!          An Onipa'a Software Production       Vol. 1, No. 1  |
| :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::  |
| Publisher & Editor....................Ryan M. Suenaga, M.S.W., L.S.W.  |
| Internet Email.....................................thelamp@delphi.com  |
| :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::  |
|                                                                        |
|                           TABLE OF CONTENTS                            |
|                           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~                            |
|                            January 1, 1998                             |
|                                                                        |
|                                                                        |
|OPENING PITCH                                                           |
|     Welcome Back My Friends ][ The Show That Never Ends --------- [OPN]|
|                                                                        |
|A FUNNY THING HAPPENED                                             [FOR]|
|     The Heat Is On ---------------------------------------------- [HET]|
|     Miscellanea                                                   [MSC]|
|     Rumor Mill -------------------------------------------------- [RMR]|
|     Public Postings                                               [PUB]|
|     Best Of The Best -------------------------------------------- [BOB]|
|                                                                        |
|SIZZLING SHAREWARE                                                      |
|     MSDOS Utilities Graphic Interface v1.01 by Peter Watson ----- [SIZ]|
|                                                                        |
|WEB SLINGING 101                                                        |
|     Delphi Forums and the Apple II  ----------------------------- [WEB]|
|                                                                        |
|EXTRA INNINGS                                                           |
|     About The Lamp! --------------------------------------------- [INN]|
|________________________________________________________________________|


     With a musical reference to Emerson, Lake & Palmer, editor Suenaga
began his first editorial for The Lamp! by giving a brief story of the path
from Genie to Delphi, and ending with the statements, "Apple ][ Forever.
And forever on Delphi."

     In creating the new newsletter, he did not take a radical departure
from the format that had been established five years earlier by John Peters
when he created the first series of GEnieLamp newsletters. He still had a
place for information gleaned from online postings, a place for product
reviews, an editorial, and extra articles as they became available. It was
mostly a matter of finding new titles for the different parts. Using a
baseball motif, the editorial "From My Desktop" became "Opening Pitch", the
"Log Off" credits sections became "Extra Innings", and just to be
different, "Hey Mister Postman" became "A Funny Thing Happened". He also
made some small changes in the layout and appearance of the table of
contents, but did retain the bracketed three-letter indexing system that
Peters had originated (but which had not yet been put to use by anybody).

     The unauthorized reproduction of Lamp articles continued to be a
problem. These articles still appeared in user group newsletters, sometimes
being printed in such a way as to not even identify the author or source.
This was as frustrating for Suenaga as it was for programmers whose works
were being pirated. He made it clear in the inaugural issue of The Lamp!
that all material that appeared within each issue was copyrighted, and was
NOT to be reproduced elsewhere without written permission. He also stated
that it was not to be distributed outside of Delphi for thirty days after
its appearance in the IIScribe Forum. He made it clear that his goal was
not to hoard the material to himself; it was not even to make a buck (The
Lamp!, as GenieLamp before it did not cost anything to obtain and read).
The issue was fairness to those doing the hard work of creating articles,
and that they be properly cited as the source of an article when it DID
appear elsewhere.

     February's editorial discussed Suenaga's visit to San Francisco, where
he was able to participate in PizzaFest 1998, a gathering of current and
former Apple II programmers, and also a chance to see the MacWorld Expo
being held that year. Starting with the March issue, programming
information was added to The Lamp! with the start of the A2_ProDUCTIVITY
column.


FORUM NEWS

     Although much Apple II online activity had transitioned from Genie to
Delphi, Doug Cuff pointed out in the February issue that traffic on
Delphi's A2 Forum and Genie's A2 Roundtable were actually quite similar
during the first two weeks of January (23.5K per day on Delphi, and 20K per
day on Genie).

     Web page access to Delphi content was available to those with web
browsers, and the Delphi A2 page was updated regularly with features to
attract potential participants. While easily viewable with graphic
browsers, the page was also designed to have a Lynx-friendly appearance for
those using text-only web surfers.

     Messages appeared early in the year expressing concern about whether
or not Delphi would continue to be a text-friendly service, in the face of
the massive onslaught of the graphical Internet via the World Wide Web.
Although Delphi had upgraded itself to put its Forum postings on the Web,
the standard text access via telnet continued to be available, and
reassurances were given that those running the service appeared to be
committed to maintain its legacy access.

     CompuServe Apple II users faced a crisis late in the year. America
Online had purchased CompuServe in February of 1998, as it was steadily
losing members either to America Online or to the Internet itself. AOL
planned to update CompuServe, rather than simply absorbing it into itself.
The Lamp! in its December issue saw the announcement that CompuServe was
discontinuing its text-only access, and would soon require a computer
running a special front-end program in order to get onto that service. Some
discussion ensued as to how to encourage those Apple II users to make the
transition over to Delphi, which would enable them to continue to use their
Apple II computers for online activities. One solution that was discussed
involved connecting to Delphi FROM CompuServe (using it simply as an
Internet Service Provider); other solutions included identifying other ISPs
that were accessible by an Apple II.

     A unique event began to be held during 1998. Shareware Solutions II
sponsored a special online chat on Monday nights. What made this chat
different from all other previous online chats was the fact that it
connected users from Delphi AND Genie (and eventually CompuServe). It was
designed to work in such a way that it seemed to be one single large
system. Tony Diaz and Dave Miller put together the hardware and software
that made it happen. Utilizing some special scripts for use with ProTERM
Mac, a message center core directed traffic between various script modules,
one for each online service to which it was connected. The message center
kept track of the last fifty lines of text submitted to it, and each script
would send out to its respective online service any messages that hadn't
yet appeared on that service. With this managing everything, a message
typed by someone on Genie appeared also on Delphi and CompuServe. This
unique trick created a connection between these diverse online providers
that had likely never been done before, and has never been done since.

     Tony Diaz also stayed busy working with Tony Ward, who managed the
Delphi A2 file library. During this year they announced some naming
standards for uploaded files, to keep compatibility with ProDOS file naming
rules, and to simplify automation of file downloads for offline reader
software such as OLRight! and Crock 'O Gold.

     One goal Syndicomm also had was to transfer the large collection of
files from the Genie Apple II library archives over to the Delphi A2 Forum
library. Although the process was begun during this year, it was slow. Two
things contributed to this slowness; one was the TIME involved in uploading
as many as twelve thousand files via modem, and another involved
permissions in some cases as to whether or not a file COULD be uploaded to
Delphi (due to copyright questions, requests by the file uploaders that
they be ONLY placed on Genie, etc.) Furthermore, it was not simply a matter
of just uploading the files, but also creating the file descriptions,
keywords, and so on.

     A2 University began operations again, this time from its new home on
Delphi, and kicked things off with a course about HyperCard IIGS, taught by
Gareth Jones and HangTime.


HARDWARE NEWS

     With the availability of larger and larger capacity hard drives,
July's issue saw the appearance of yet another discussion on the A2 Forums
regarding how large a drive the RamFAST card could handle (starting with
the newly affordable 1 gigabyte drives). The RamFAST also generated some
digital ink with questions about how to upgrade from a Revision B card to a
C or D card, and how to make hardware changes on it to improve performance.

     For those who had lost the instructions for their Zip GS accelerator
card, the meanings of the DIP switch settings were reproduced in the
September issue. Also posted were suggestions on getting a Mockingboard
sound card to work on a IIGS.

     The No Slot Clock again made some news during 1998. This clever device
was first available in the late 1980's, and was designed to be installed
beneath a compatible ROM or RAM chip on the motherboard of an Apple II,
IIe, or IIc. With appropriate software, it was possible to have date and
time stamping on files in ProDOS without the need to use up a valuable
slot. Many people had never obtained this product when it was new, and some
who DID own it had found that the non-replaceable battery within it had
died. It was found that it could still be purchased from Dallas
Semiconductor under the name "SmartWatch", and software suitable for the
Apple was available to set and control the clock. (A PDF file displaying
technical information about the NSC can currently be downloaded at:
http://pdfserv.maxim-ic.com/en/ds/DS1216-DS1216D.pdf)

     FaceLift, a development kit to support the SecondSight VGA card,
showed up in beta form (v0.6b1) this year.


EMULATOR NEWS

     Clancy Paul Computers of Princeton, NJ announced its own Apple IIe
emulator, "Et ][, PC?", to run on 386 and 486 based PC computers. This
would allow school districts who were purchasing less expensive PC's to
still make use of their library of Apple II software. Comments in the
Delphi A2 Forum viewed this as yet another failure for Apple, who could
have promoted an emulator of their own, Gus, to accomplish the same purpose
on a Macintosh.

     Although not specifically an emulator issue, comments were posted on
how to transfer files from an Apple II over to an IBM PC. Even for those
who continued to use their Apple II computers, it was sometimes necessary
to move something from one computer to the other.

     Bernie ][ The Rescue, though still not felt to be as fast as Gus,
continued to make improvements, and had the advantage of active support and
development (including changes to support Wolfenstein 3D). There were
ongoing discussions regarding what minimum model of Macintosh (desktop and
portable) was needed to run Bernie and get adequate performance.

     F.E. Systems started an e-mail list for news about Bernie. Discussion
during the year included finding ways to get files from a IIGS over to a
Mac for use with Bernie. Henrik Gudat, one of F.E. Systems' programmers,
also added his thoughts about the usefulness of a well performing emulator,
as opposed to spending money on creating a new Apple IIGS from hardware
parts, or trying to upgrade the machine in other hardware hacking ways. He
stated that emulation, whether with Bernie or with Gus, was the only
cost-effective way to "push the Apple II platform ahead", with suggestions
that adding features to the computer was much simpler with an emulator than
with a physical computer. Although this was also a hotly debated topic (how
do you make use of an enhanced IIGS when there is no software that knows
such a computer exists?), one enhancement that did eventually appear in the
product was the ability to address more memory than was ever possible in a
real IIGS. In the December issue, the pending release of v2.0 of Bernie was
announced. Also in that issue was an article by editor Suenaga promoting
the use of Zip disk cartridges to transfer data from a IIGS to a Mac
running Bernie. Suenaga also wrote an article (more of an FAQ) about how to
make use of Bernie on a PowerBook, creating (in essence) the long-desired
portable Apple IIGS.

     Adding to emulator choices, "Sweet 16" became available (in beta form)
during 1998. This was an authorized port of Bernie ][ The Rescue designed
to run under BeOS, on either Intel or PowerPC hardware. Although started by
F.E. Systems, Eric Shepherd took the project forward and brought it to
completion.


SOFTWARE NEWS

:: PRODUCTIVITY SOFTWARE ::

     The Byte Works was finishing up work on GSoft BASIC, the GS/OS BASIC
interpreter that had been announced the prior year, and in July put out a
call for beta testers for the product. At KansasFest 1998 its final release
was announced. Juiced.GS had plans for a series of columns to be written by
Eric Shepherd dealing with GSoft BASIC and its use. Some Delphi A2 Forum
messages dealing with this BASIC appeared in the October issue.

     Shareware Solutions II released Nifty Spell, a spell checker in an NDA
for the IIGS. The original product announcement was made at KansasFest (see
below).


:: TELECOMMUNICATIONS SOFTWARE ::

     Spectrum Internet Suite (SIS) and Spectrum continued to brave the new
frontiers of the Internet for Apple IIGS users, and Sevens Hills Software
continued to produce updates to the product as author Ewen Wannop made them
available. Discussions in January included offering help in identifying
SIS-friendly ISPs. It was still necessary to have an ISP that provided
"shell" access, as this was a requirement of the original version of
Marinetti.
 
     Richard Bennett continued to work on improvements to Marinetti. In
March he posted that he had successfully connected to the Internet using
PPP, rather than requiring a SLIP connection as was previously necessary.
By KansasFest, he was ready to announce version 2.0 of this product. It.was
TCP/IP capable, and it was available for download by late September.
Because of the improvements in Marinetti, Spectrum and SIS were also
updated.

     Automated access to Delphi's Forums was still encouraged with offline
readers. Ewen Wannop's Crock O' Gold 2.0 improved the function over COG
1.x. By April, this had been updated to v2.3, and to v2.6 by November.

     OLRight! 3.0 was released as a major revision, with many speed
improvements, and by mid-year was again updated to v3.1.

     Jeff Blakeney began work on a POP3/SMTP e-mail client for the IIGS,
which he planned to call "The Mailbox".


:: UTILITY SOFTWARE ::

     SheppyWare continued production of Apple IIGS utilities, with the
release of KeyNotifier 1.4. Sheppy also announced in September that all of
his old Softdisk G-S software had been updated and released as freeware or
shareware. WebWorks GS, an HTML editor, was announced at KansasFest and
later updated to version 1.1, and to v1.2 by the end of the year.
ShiftyList 2.0.1 fixed some bugs in the original 2.0 release. ProBOOT was
updated to v5.3, LotsaTools to v1.1.1, and Cleaner Clean Up to v1.0.6.

     Twilight II, released back in 1993 by Jim Maricondo of Digisoft
Innovations, was in the process of an update written by Nathan Mates. He
began to make mention of it in messages reproduced in the April issue of
The Lamp!, and by May it was reported to be quite close to release.
Furthermore, it had been decided to make the update available as
copyrighted freeware. All who commented on it were pleased with its
stability and features.

     HardPressed, a disk compression utility written by Andy McFadden, was
released to freeware status in mid 1998. (Note: McFadden has a current web
site, http://www.fadden.com, with this and other software he has written.
It also includes many interesting features, including an elaborate
practical joke played on an co-worker).

     Babelfish, newly released by Seven Hills Software, allowed an
application to export or import data to and from other programs, using
Babelfish as an intermediary (with the installation of appropriate
translators). The September issue reprinted messages about difficulties in
getting it to work with older software.


:: GAMES ::

     Some programmers made comments about designing an 8-bit Apple II
version of Snood (a Mac game) to run on the Apple II. However, nothing
further developed on this, much to Big Cheese Cindy Adams' disappointment.

     Wolfenstein 3D was finally released for the Apple IIGS on Valentine's
Day 1998, after (literally) years of development. Programmer Eric Shepherd
registered over two thousand downloads of the game during the first two
weeks that it was available, indicating the great anticipation for the game
that Apple IIGS users had -- especially interesting when it is taken into
account that it required a IIGS with an accelerator in order for the game
to be even playable. It also required at least 4 MB of RAM and a hard disk.

     With the popularity of Wolfenstein 3D, much discussion ensued on how
best to run the game, A hint was included in the April issue by Don
Zahniser describing how to start the game from the UtilityLaunch program
selector. Also, a bug that would cause problems with memory and cause
random crashes or glitches in the display of graphics was corrected, and
version 1.1 of the game was released. Even the emulator Bernie ][ The
Rescue was updated to be able to run Wolfenstein 3D.

     Sheppy also wrote Wolfenstein 3D Scenario Converter, to allow
custom-made maps made for the game on the Macintosh to be useable on the
IIGS. A later update fixed a bug that caused crashing on quit.

     Another popular PC and Mac game, the original Sim City, was
potentially a candidate for porting to the IIGS. However, Maxis (who owned
the rights to the game) wanted a very large sum of money for the rights to
release the game, so the conversion (which Bill Heineman had started) was
canceled immediately.

     Shisen-sho is the name for a variation of the game MahJongg. Kelvin
Sherlock released his version of this game for the Apple IIGS in September
1998, and named it GShisen. It was immediately hailed as an addictive,
well-done game, and has since been featured prominently at KansasFest.


HACKING

     In the July issue, A2 Forum denizens were trying to create the
penultimate list of System 6.0.1 patches, including those published by
Softdisk G-S and GS+ Magazine. There was some discussion (and disagreement)
as to what constituted a patch (to correct a bug), and what was an
enhancement (to add a feature that was never in the software).


INTERNET NEWS

     David Kerwood (who had started the "A2-Web!" web site) also created
"The Apple II Web Ring", a list for Apple II-related web sites to use in
linking to each other. Suenaga started a web page that was included in the
web ring list (sub-hosted on the SheppyWare web site) on which he had
started putting back issues of The Lamp! By mid year, the A2 Web Ring had
grown to twenty-six members.

     In August, the Trenco FTP site came online as a file repository on the
Internet for Apple II files. (Note that this is still available today, and
can be accessed via a web browser at http://www.gno.org/pub/apple2).

     Tony Diaz expanded his Apple II Information Resource web site, with
images of many peripheral cards (both common and obscure) for the Apple II
and IIGS.


PUBLICATIONS

     Hyper Quarterly appeared again early in the year, shipping its
November 1997 issue. No further issues appeared during this year, as Apple
Blossom Publishing had chose to discontinue The Apple Blossom newsletter
due to financial constraints. The AppleWorks Gazette did not publish any
new issues or get mentioned in The Lamp! this year.

     Juiced.GS continued to be published regularly, and Shareware Solutions
II released Vol 3 Issue 6 and Vol 4 Issue 1 during 1998. With the help of
Alltech Electronics, Shareware Solutions II also awarded a randomly drawn
subscriber an 8 meg Sirius II RAM card.


COMPANIES

     Eric Shepherd's SheppyWare also began to make use of available online
technology, and started an e-mail announcement list ("SheppyWare-Talk") to
keep interested customers notified of news and new releases. Sheppy had
also created his own web site, providing Internet access and news about his
software creations. Originally "www.sheppyware.ml.org", he later got his
own domain name and re-launched the site this year as "www.sheppyware.net"
(which is still active). During the year he reclassified some of his
products as freeware, due to decreased demand (and decreased willingness of
users to pay shareware fees). To simplify shareware payments on products
that still required them, he arranged for payment via Kagi (a service
started back in 1994 to make it easier for small software houses to receive
credit-card payments and online transactions). Because of the decline in
Apple II sales via shareware, Sheppy announced that he would be reducing
the number of Apple II titles that he would produce, due to the time he
would need to spend producing a livable income on Macintosh and BeOS
development.

     Shareware Solutions II continued to make shareware and older
commercial Apple II products available for sale, as well as some production
of newsletters. Kohn arranged with Eric Shepherd to distribute his
SheppyWare programs and utilities through the SSII distribution network.

     Scantron Quality Computers had not made any news in 1997 that appeared
in GenieLamp, and their only appearance in 1998 in The Lamp! was for Gina
Saikin (former GEnie RTC host and then an employee of Scantron) to produce
a list of Apple II software that they were selling out (not necessarily at
bargain prices).

     Seven Hills Software had a summer sale, as well as announcing upgrades
to several of their products, including GraphicWriter III v2.1, SIS 1.1,
Spectrum 2.2, Disk Access II v2.0, and Babelfish (see more discussion on
these below).


KANSASFEST

     KFest was planned again this year for the last week of July. By the
release of the April issue of The Lamp!, there were enough participants to
be able to hold the event for this year. InTrec Software sponsored the
event.

     Several months prior to KFest 1998, Pat Kern released a product that
was not a software package or a hardware add-on for the Apple II, but a
picture album covering KansasFest 1995, 1996, and 1997, and was offering
this for sale to previous conference-goers.

     In anticipation of the event, Ryan Suenaga began a series called
"Thinking KFest", and wrote on various topics pertinent to the event. One
such topic was how to put a IIGS motherboard, connectors and power supply
within a space small enough to make it easier to travel to Kansas City from
his home in Hawaii. Another had to do with handling the coordination of the
event with Internet e-mail, since it was not primarily a Genie-related
event any longer. He also discussed the efforts made to put information
about KFest on the Internet, including a list of various web sites where
pictures and information about KFests in the past had been posted.

     Doug Cuff's "Accidental Tourist At KansasFest" article was again
updated for this year's event. One of the modifications to the article was
to add information on how to access Delphi from Avila College (prior
versions of this had only mentioned Genie).

     One of the first announcements at the conference was the new KFest web
page, http://www.kfest.org. Mike Westerfield gave the keynote address, and
the annual roast, hosted by Joe Kohn, featured hardware expert Tony Diaz.

     Richard Bennett announced Marinetti 2.0 (mentioned previously).
Concurrent with this was Spectrum 2.2, which Ewen Wannop had updated to be
make use of the new features offered by Marinetti. Additionally, Spectrum
could also now open connections to several sites simultaneously. And, to
make the trio complete, Geoff Weiss announced an update to Spectrum
Internet Suite (SIS) to take advantage of the other two product's
enhancements. SIS was expected to be ready to release by late September.
Weiss also demonstrated an FTP client that he was working on.

     Product announcements also included:
 
* Shareware Solutions II: Nifty Spell by Chris Vavruska, a universal spell
checker for the IIGS (this was available by October); and the TABBS CD-ROM
collection of the software libraries of three Apple II groups in Great
Britain.

* Seven Hills Software: Babelfish, Spectrum 2.2 (released in October), SIS
1.1, and Disk Access II v2.0
 
* SheppyWare: WebWorks GS, an HTML creation tool (also mentioned above)

     Hackfest was held for the first year, a competition between
programmers trying to create something useful within the short space of
time afforded by KFest. The winning entry was Michael Hackett's patch to
WordWorks Pro, which eliminated the advertising window that came up each
time the program was quit.

     After the event, Suenaga wrote an article that detailed his
experiences on the trip to, from, and during KanasFest.


REVIEWS

The reviews that appeared in The Lamp! during its first year of publication
were all written by the editor. Of these reviews, all but two dealt with
software, and only two software products were new (MUG! and Disk Access
II). The older products that were reviewed were, however, classics that
every Apple II (especially IIGS) user should be aware of:

o Apple II 3.5 SuperDrive controller card
o Focus Drive 520, from Alltech Electronics

o File-A-Trix, by Karl Bunker
o Disk Access II, by Steven Stephenson & Ewen Wannop
o Hermes, by Andre Horstmann
o Hierarchic 1.6.3, by Etienne Petitjean & Richard Bennett
o Init Restarter 2.0.2, by Matt Deatherage
o MUG! NDA v1.01, by Peter Watson
o Quit-To, by Karl Bunker
o Unzip IIe, by Russ Woodroofe


WRITERS

     Although he did not write this specifically for The Lamp!, Ken Gagne
posted on Delphi an article he had written for his local newspaper,
"KansasFest '98 and the Apple II", and this posting appeared in the
September issue of The Lamp!


INTERVIEWS

     No interviews appeared in The Lamp! during 1998.


MISCELLANEOUS FEATURES

     Suenaga wrote several columns entitled "Web Slinging 101" about use of
the Internet from a text-based computer user's point of view. Topics
included the use of Lynx to access Delphi A2 and A2Pro, telnet to access
Delphi through a shell account, Apple II websites and also how to use the
web space made available with a Delphi account, and use of FTP to upload
files to Delphi.

     Although this had once been managed by Apple Computer, the
responsibility for registration of Apple II ProDOS filetypes had for
several years been handled by Resource Central, and then by Syndicomm. In
1998 it was still possible to do this, now through the programmers running
Delphi A2Pro.

STATS

     Here are statistics for the first seven years of GEnieLamp and The
Lamp! The numbers refer to the size of each issue in "K" (kilobytes):

Year    Min     Max     Avg
----    ----    ----    ----
1992    116K    212K    156K
1993     80K    256K    172K
1994    124K    216K    165K
1995     92K    176K    125K
1996     80K    192K    116K
1997     44K    124K     85K
1998     68K    156K    102K


TOO LATE TO TURN BACK NOW

     Since we've gone this far, it would be unfair to leave the rest of the
story untold. So, join me here again next month as The Lamp! sails into its
second year of publication, and the spector of global disaster from the
dreaded Y2K bug rears its head. Are our heroes headed for that great
Batcave in the sky? In scant weeks, the answer will be yours!


Steven Weyhrich
a2history@syndicomm.com
http://apple2history.org


References:

Apple History Timeline
http://applemuseum.bott.org/sections/history.html

The Apple Museum
http://applemuseum.bott.org/

Computer History For 1990-2000
http://www.computerhope.com/history/19902000.htm

History of Computing Industrial Era 1994-2000
http://www.thocp.net

Information Please: 1998
http://infoplease.lycos.com/year/1998.html

Prima Games Interview with John Romero
http://www.primagames.com/news/interview/921/

Timeline of the 90s, 1998
http://www.inthe90s.com/generated/time1998.shtml

Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Id_Software


[EOA]



[ANS]-------------------------------
      ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM SYNDICOMM |
------------------------------------

by Lyle Syverson <lyle@foxvalley.net>

[SPS]
Syndicomm Online PRICE SLASHED
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Effective January 1, we're making some changes to our pricing model.

We're slashing the annual rate from $75/year to $35/year, and we're
eliminating the monthly and quarterly plans.

You will receive your next bill at the appropriate time, and will
automatically be migrated to the new $35/year plan.

We hope that the less-frequent billing will be more convenient, and we're
sure you'll appreciate the reduced price!

Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd                                sheppy@syndicomm.com
Owner, Syndicomm                                  http://www.syndicomm.com
                     Building communities, bit by bit.

(SYNDICOMM, HelpDesk, Cat 5, Top 5, Msg 18)
[EOA]


[TSU]
TO SIGN UP FOR SYNDICOMM ONLINE
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Please visit our web site at http://www.syndicomm.com for information or to
sign up!

(Logon message)
[EOA]


[SOU]
Syndicomm Online UPGRADES
"""""""""""""""""""""""""
We're going to be working the next few weeks on some server upgrades that
should provide some new features, but in the interim may result in
occasional outages.  We'll do our best to keep them to a minimum, but I
apologize in advance for any inconvenience.

Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd                                sheppy@syndicomm.com
Owner, Syndicomm                                  http://www.syndicomm.com
                     Building communities, bit by bit.

(SYNDICOMM, HelpDesk, Cat 5, Top 5, Msg 17)
[EOA]


[DSA]
December 2003 issue of Syndicommotion Available
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
The December 2003 (Volume 2, Number 12) issue of Syndicommotion has been
emailed to subscribers.  The HTML edition can be found online at the
following URL:

http://www.syndicomm.com/syndicommotion/v2n12.html

(KGAGNE, HelpDesk, Cat 5, Top 4, Msg 16)
[EOA]



[LTE]-------------------------------
             LETTERS TO THE EDITOR |
------------------------------------

NO LETTERS TO THE EDITOR THIS MONTH
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
The mail box for Letters to the Editor remained empty this month.
[EOA]


AN INVITATION
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Express your opinions about the comings and goings in the world of the
Apple II computers.

Send your comments to Lyle Syverson, Editor <lyle@FoxValley.net>

The Editor reserves the right to edit any material submitted.

The Editor reserves the right to reject any material he considers
unsuitable for publication in _The Lamp!_.
[EOA]



[KFT]------------------------------
                       KFest 2003 |
-----------------------------------

[EKF]
ENJOYED KFest 2003
""""""""""""""""""
This is a much later post than I had intended to make, but...

I want to comment on how enjoyable it was to be able to come to KFest 2003,
and to get to meet everyone (some for the first time, some I had only met
once before) and be part of it all. Even if this had not been the "Woz"
Kfest, it would have been worth it to attend.

I still think Tony's A2 Jeopardy questions were too hard, but that is only
because I didn't know them (and I _should_ know it all, right??? :-)
I thought _I_ knew trivia, but Tony Diaz has got me beat sevens ways to
Sunday (whatever that means). But it was enjoyable nonetheless.

The Roast was quite well done, and learning new things in the sessions
I attended was great. I think I tried to squeeze too many personalities in
my "Old Timer's" session, but perhaps that can be done better in the
future.

The only sad thing was the large group of us sitting in the lounge in the
dorm, all in the same room but most of us on our laptops. Now THAT is a
geeky thing to do! :-)

And someday I just may get the rest of my pictures put up somewhere...

Steven Weyhrich <IX0YE>--<
Apple II History
http://apple2history.org

(A2HISTORY, Cat 5, Top 5, Msg 107)
[EOA]



[KFF]------------------------------
                       KFest 2004 |
-----------------------------------

[KF4]
KansasFest 2004
"""""""""""""""
KansasFest 2004 is planned for July 20-25, 2004 at Avila University in
Kansas City, Missouri.

(Heading: Cat 5, Top 22)
[EOA]


[VKF]
WATCH FOR MORE INFORMATION AT THE KFest HOME PAGE
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
KFest Home Page
http://www.kfest.org/
[EOA]



[INN]------------------------------
                    EXTRA INNINGS |
-----------------------------------
About The Lamp!   The Lamp! is published on the fifteenth of every month on
"""""""""""""""   the WEB at:   http://lamp.a2central.com/

This publication produced entirely with real or emulated Apple II computers
using Appleworks 5.1 and Hermes.  Apple II Forever!

     * The Lamp! is (c) copyright 2003 by Ryan M. Suenaga, M.S.W.  All
       rights reserved.

     * To reach The Lamp! on Internet email send mail to
       thelamp@sheppyware.net

     * All issues of The Lamp! are available at The Lamp! Home Page,
       http://lamp.a2central.com/

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors, and do not
necessarily represent the opinions of A2Central.com, Delphi Online
Services, Syndicomm, Ryan M. Suenaga, or Lyle Syverson.  Forum messages are
reprinted verbatim and are included in this publication with permission
from the individual authors.  A2Central.com, Delphi Online Services,
Syndicomm, Ryan M. Suenaga, and Lyle Syverson do not guarantee the accuracy
or suitability of any information included herein.  We reserve the right to
edit all letters and copy.

Material published in this edition may not be reprinted without the
expressed written consent of the  publisher.   Registered computer user
groups, not for profit publications , and other interested parties may
write the publisher to apply for permission to reprint any or all material.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<



[EOF]
