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

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


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


             THE BEST OF THE A2 BULLETIN BOARD ON A2Central
           "Teaching the Apple II user how to fish since 1998"


 ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
 The Lamp!            An Onipa'a Software Production       Vol. 10, No. 8
 ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
 Publisher................................Ryan M. Suenaga, M.S.W., L.S.W.
 Editor.....................................................Lyle Syverson
 Internet Email, Publisher.........................thelamp@sheppyware.net
 Internet Email, Editor...............lutefisk at grex.cyberspace dot org
 ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

                            TABLE OF CONTENTS
                            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                             August 15, 2007

HIGH ABOVE THE ROCK RIVER---------------------------------------------[OPN]
     The Life of a Hobo

A2 BULLETIN BOARD at A2Central.com DISTILLATIONS----------------------[DAA]
     //c IDE/ram card?------------------------------------------------[IRC]
     Experimental Apple II Music--------------------------------------[EAM]
     Upgrade a Franklin Ace 100 to a Real ][?-------------------------[UFA]
     What Clone Did You Have?-----------------------------------------[CYH]

SPECIAL---------------------------------------------------------------[SPC]
     Why a IIgs Really Flies with an Ethernet Card--------------------[RFE]

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR-------------------------------------------------[LTE]
     The Apple II and Time
     Radio Clock Thoughts (Again)
     An Invitation

KFEST 2007------------------------------------------------------------[KF7]
     KansasFest 2007--------------------------------------------------[KFS]
     An Open Letter to KFest 2007 Attendees---------------------------[LKA]
     KFest 07 Day 1 by Kirk Mitchell----------------------------------[K71]
     KFest 07 Day 2 by Kirk Mitchell----------------------------------[K72]
     KFest 07 Day 2 by Bruce Baker------------------------------------[K7B]
     KFest 07 Day 3 by Kirk Mitchell----------------------------------[K73]
     KFest 07 Day 4 by Kirk Mitchell----------------------------------[K74]
     KFest 07 Day 5 by Kirk Mitchell----------------------------------[K75]
     KFest 07 Day 6 by Kirk Mitchell----------------------------------[K76]
     GShisen Final Rounds---------------------------------------------[GSH]
     Return of the Geoff-i--------------------------------------------[RTG]

KFEST 2008------------------------------------------------------------[KF8]
     KansasFest 2008--------------------------------------------------[KFE]

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  email: lutefisk at grex.cyberspace dot org

                            The Life of a Hobo
                            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     Years ago, while growing up on the farm, we had regular visits from
Hobos.  These people traveled from one part of the country to another by
catching rides in open railroad box cars... not very elegant... but very
inexpensive.

     They would drop by the farm individually and ask for a meal,
permission to stay overnight in the hay mow, old clothes, old shoes and so
on.  They would offer to do some work to pay for their request.  There were
always various tasks waiting to be done on the farm so we could set them up
splitting wood, pulling weeds, removing manure from the hog house, etc.

     They had a series of symbols they would carve on a tree or fence post
indicating a farm that had good meals, a dog to watch out for, reasonable
or unreasonable requests for work, etc.

     Every so often one would balk at the suggested work and head down the
road.  A quick call to the next farm indicated a Hobo was on the way, what
he asked for, and the work he refused... if he was hungry enough by the
time he reached the next farm he might accept the same terms he had just
refused.

     These people would be out of touch with family for months at a time.
Quite a contrast to those who have to be in constant contact with others
via cell phones or instant messaging.

[EOA]



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

ASCII ART ENDS
[EOA]



[DAA]-------------------------------------------------------
DISTILLATIONS FROM The A2 Bulletin Board at A2Central.com  |
------------------------------------------------------------

by Lyle Syverson  email: lutefisk at grex.cyberspace dot org

[IRC]
//c IDE/ram card?
"""""""""""""""""
Hello all,

I read over on the other side of a2central that someone was working on a
ram and IDE card for the //c and //c+. Is there any more info out there
about this project?

I would love to have a flash based setup for the ][ but I need to keep the
portability of the //c. /l

Thanks!

(CrAlt, a2c.general_chat, Jul 22 2007)

>>>>>
"""""
No info except what has been disclosed is available at this time. As soon
as the card goes into testing or is released, we will be sure to post it.

Sean Fahey
SysOp

(sfahey, a2c.general_chat, Jul 23 2007)
[EOA]


[EAM]
Experimental Apple II Music
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Here's my latest Apple II noise project:

http://www.archive.org/details/MICRO.MUSIC

I had the idea to put an LP's worth of music on a single 5.25" floppy. The
music is sequenced from sets of 16 samples which are mixed two at a time
"on the fly". At some point in the project I got a bit loopy and decided
not to compose music in any traditional manner, but rather to use arbitrary
sections of data as the score. This came about after I was viewing audio
sample data in the monitor and noticed the byte sequences of the waveforms
contained regular patterns with small variations which I thought would
translate well into music. Personally, I find the results rather
interesting, but as always YMMV.

-s
._____.
|[LD8]! ====== 8-BIT SOUND & FURY ======
|  o. | APPLE ][ AUDIO & MUSIC RESOURCES
!__!__! http://8bitsoundandfury.ld8.org/

(Luddite, a2c.music_multimedia, Jul 18 2007)
[EOA]


[UFA]
Upgrade a Franklin Ace 100 to a Real ][?
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Hello,

I have a Franklin Ace 100 (not 1000) computer.  Can I upgrade this system
to a normal ][ by taking the rom chips from a REAL apple2 and putting them
in the franklin board? My little Ace has 6 rom chips.  If I am able to swap
chips then do I need them from a ][ or from a ][plus?

Thanks!
-chris

(CrAlt, a2c.hardware, Jul 13 2007)

>>>>>
"""""
Moved the message to a2c.hardware

iirc, no - you can't.  The 100 is one of the hardest to find Franklin
models, btw - wouldn't you want to keep it original?

Maybe Tony Diaz will add to this thread.

Sean Fahey
SysOp

(sfahey, a2c.hardware, Jul 13 2007)

>>>>>
"""""
Ok,

There are 6 rom chips on the main board just like a real ][. They are on
sockets so the upgrade could be undone with no problem.

PS: Thanks for running this bbs system. I am typing this on my old //c that
is hooked to my OSX machine.... I just wish I could find a term app that
let me do color ansi :-/

PPS: To "The Lamp" dude that emailed me. You have my permission to use any
of my posts you want.  I lost the email somehow and don't know your email
address.

thanks!

(CrAlt, a2c.hardware, Jul 15 2007)

>>>>>
"""""
The //c doesn't have the hardware capable of doing 80x24 text with 16
colors.  The only option I am aware of is Spectrum with the Second Sight
Card on a IIgs (or was Ms. Scarlet with the revolver in the Kitchen :).

Geoff

(geoff, a2c.hardware, Jul 15 2007)
[EOA]


[CYH]
What Clone Did You Have?
""""""""""""""""""""""""
A Triton (I think. The label fell off long ago). It seems to be a ][+
clone. I say this because it has upper and lowercase characters in ROM.  It
had a Videx 80 column clone, a Microsoft Z80 softcard, an Epson APL
parallel card, a RAM expansion by Australian Video Productions, and a great
floppy controller card that supported and auto detected both numbers of
disk sectors.  Unfortunately a dodgy power supply ravaged it.  When some
cards arrive in the mail I'm going to restart its repair/restoration. I
love its gargantuan case!  It's just begging for extra hardware.

(Tristan, a2c.apple_clones, Jul 23 2007)
[EOA]



[SPC]-------------------------------
                           SPECIAL |
------------------------------------

[RFE]
Why a IIgs Really Flies with an Ethernet Card
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
I have heard of all kinds of ways people have managed to get their IIgs
connected to the outside world, but if you have an Ethernet LAN, then a NAT
router will allow you to share as many computers as you like on that LAN,
and a IIgs really flies with an Ethernet card such as the Uthernet card. If
anyone wants them, I can explain the technical reasons why this is so.

(Ewen Wannop, KFest-Talk mailing list)

>>>>>
"""""
(Yes, please do.)

>>>>>
"""""
OK, here goes...

With the traditional interfaces to the IIgs, based on the serial port, you
are at the mercy of the Interrupt system when capturing incoming data. It
is up to the efficiency of the software routines of an application to
handle and store that data, so there is no corruption of the data flow. If
the incoming data cannot be handled as it arrives, it will be lost forever.
Depending on the speed of your IIgs, which in turn depends on the speed of
any accelerator you may have installed, you may well get data loss or
corruption at speeds in excess of 9600 baud. Each persons experience will
be slightly different.

I can only speak for the Uthernet card and the Marinetti interface, but the
way this works is quite different, as the card has its own onboard data
buffer, and does not use the interrupt system of the IIgs at all. Marinetti
is polled frequently by the calling application, and will retrieve any
waiting data from the card storing it in its own buffer. The application
then calls Marinetti for data whenever it is expecting it, and as Marinetti
handles the integrity of packets of data, only clean data will be returned
to the calling application, with bad packets being re-requested
automatically. This saves on application code, as the application does not
have to check the data integrity itself.

The process of retrieving incoming data with an Ethernet card is more or
less a lossless system, and on my own 12.49Mhz IIgs, when transferring
files with FTP from a computer on the LAN, I am receiving data at the full
speed of the 10-Base Ethernet connection.

As others will attest, an Uthernet card and Marinetti, transforms a IIgs
into a very fast machine indeed. For instance, I can't remember the exact
time it took, but using SNAP, I was able to retrieve, process and store,
the list of 106,000 news groups from Giganews in under 7 minutes. The
resulting text file is 2.3Mb in size. File transfers with FTP go even
faster.

Cheers - Ewen

(Ewen Wannop, KFest-Talk mailing list, Jul 17 2007)
[EOA]



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

The Apple II and Time
"""""""""""""""""""""
I liked your mini-editorial piece in a recent "The Lamp!" issue about using
the II in a time-related way. I think that something that listened to one
of the RF clocks and then rebroadcast (or just displayed) the time would be
pretty cool. I have seen plenty of clock tools for MS-Windows and Linux
that take time from a NIST server via the internet and (re)display it;
something that runs on the IIGS, but uses RF-based time would be really
unique.

(Steve, via email, Jul 16 2007)

>>>>>
"""""
Radio Clock Thoughts (Again)
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
I have thought about this some more, and there are GPS receivers with
serial-port connectors that a II might be able to read and therefore
display accurate time. I'm looking around for something that just feeds
ASCII....

(Steve, via email, Jul 19 2007)
[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, lutefisk at grex.cyberspace dot org

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]



[KF7]------------------------------
                       KFest 2007 |
-----------------------------------

[KFU]
KansasFest 2007
"""""""""""""""
was held July 17-22, 2007 at Rockhurst University in Kansas City.
[EOA]


[LKA]
An Open Letter to KFest 2007 Attendees
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
An open letter to KFest 2007 attendees.

In 1992 I was fortunate enough to attend KFest in its heyday when it was
still run by Tom Weishaar at Avila College, with Apple people such as Dave
Lyons, Tim Swihart, etc. still attending, not to mention so many of the
"ordinary" people who made - and still make - the Apple II so
"extraordinary".

Unfortunately I haven't been able to make it back since, what with the
airfares from Australia, a wife and family and job and ... well, I think
you get the idea. But every year I read all the plans and wish I could win
a lottery so I could attend, and then I read people's reports and look at
the online snapshots, and I remember back to the fun and camaraderie and
lack of sleep, and in some small way I feel like I share the experience
again.

Today that vicarious KFest experience came a little closer and a little
less "imaginary" when a postcard from Kansas City arrived in the mail. My
first thought was that it was from Ken Gagne (who I keep in contact with)
as it is the sort of thing I could picture him doing. Then I read the
greetings from many of the other attendees at KFest as well, and I can
honestly say I was touched. Heck, "blown away" might be a better
description!

I'd just like to say "Thank you!" to the people who took the time to sign
the card. It would have taken seconds of your time, but it's created a
memory for me that will last much, much longer!

The Apple II was and is a special computer partly because of the people
that were attracted to it, and who stayed. I've seen another example of
those people today.

Apple II Forever!

Peter Watson
-- Write to MS-DOS disks on the Apple IIgs?
-- Impossible!  ;-)

(peterw, a2c.general_chat, Jul 25 2007)
[EOA]


[K71]
KFest 07 Day 1 by Kirk Mitchell
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Hey, all...

Your intrepid reporter here with yet another running commentary on the
current KFest.

I'll try not to talk about food so much this year.  B-{)

I left the small town of Moscow, KS to drive to KFest and 7 hours later,
pulled into the parking lot of XL, the dorm we're at.  I really need to
take more pit stops on trips like this.  I'm old enough that my joint's
lock up.  Duh!

Registration was fast, and I had lots of help from folks already here to
help me unload my treasures.  Ryan Suenaga needed my GS for his session, so
it got out of the house for the first time in a few years.

Got here around 2:00 pm, and by 3:00 pm, a bunch of us decided to go out
for lunch.  Geoff Weiss suggested Sonic.  I'm never going to listen to
Geoff's suggestions again.  Waiting for food in a hot car is just no fun.
That and they shorted us an order of fries. The B@stards..

Shortly afterwards, more folks started arriving, and we met folks we
haven't seen in 5-12 years, like Max Jones, Cindy Adam, and Tim Kellers...
Also, KFest newbies, Jamie, Anthony, and Henry.  All much younger looking
than I'd anticipated.  Sweet!  The Apple II kept alive by the younger
generation.  B-{)

Dinner time finally came around, and we raced to Sweet Tomatoes, a soup and
salad joint that's become a tradition. I won.  I don't think the others
were aware that we were racing, or that'd the excuse they're using.   I ate
plenty of rabbit food, but made sure to finish off with lots of soft serve
ice cream on hot fudge brownies.  My Dr. would be so proud.  B-{)

Oh.  Food.  Sorry.  Sheesh, I'm obsessed!

After Dinner, Ryan and I drove to Costco to buy supplies for the KookOut
tomorrow.  It's a lot for 40+ folks.  Since I have to bake outside grilling
this stuff, I made sure to get a case of my favorite barley beverage.  B-{)

You can't buy small quantities of anything at Costco though, so we had to
search for a Price Choppers to get the rest of the stuff we needed.
Sheesh...  I live in the boonies.  I have to drive 35 miles to get to a
WalMart...  One way.  Seems like you have to do the same in a big city, but
you have to do it at 35 mph, and mess with stoplights.  We got everything,
and.... had absolutely no help hauling it to our room.  I'm a bit miffed at
that.

Now we have folks settling into their rooms, playing a Wii on the big
screen TV in the lobby, coding, visiting, and generally introducing
themselves to each other.  Matt Jenkins was in here earlier, and we had a
nice relaxed conversation about Australia, and IT, and a range of other
stuff.  Meeting new cool people is what this is all about.  B-{)

I brought an external USB Hard drive with all 11 seasons of MST3K to share
with Ken and any other Misties here.  Since it takes 3 hours to copy over,
it could keep him busy.  B-{)

Oh, it took a while before Rockhurst IT got their act together, and
activated the account we were to use.  They gave us the username and
password, but the service wasn't activated.  We've working on getting
certain ports opened now.

I'm going to do a walkabout to see if anything else is happening...

Talked to Andrew Roughan a bit...  The lobby full of folks playing Wii
Bowling...  Or just sitting there with laptops on laps engrossed in geeky
stuff.  This is truly a summer camp for geeks.  B-{)

I got a few folks to sample my homemade wine, but they must be frightened
of Jesuits, since this is supposed to be a dry school.  I haven't seen
security yet, and I'm discrete.  B-{)

I'm sure more will happen, but I'm off to visit some more.  I hope other
participants feel free to add to the thread with their takes on what
happens here.   We have a lot of new folks, and their viewpoints can always
open fossilized eyes.  B-{)

Kirk

(Kirk Mitchell, comp.sys.apple2, July 18 2007)
[EOA]


[K72]
KFest 07 Day 2 by Kirk Mitchell
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Day 2, first official day of KFest...

We stayed up to a little after 3 AM, and woke up at 7:30 AM to shower and
get ready for breakfast.  Same fare as last year.

Nothing much happened until I started the charcoal at 11:15 AM to start the
KFest Kookout.  The Rockhurst staff had even brought the grill over to the
dorm, and set up tables and chairs, but most folks decided to eat with air
conditioning.

Everything went well, and I only suffered a few 1st degree burns, and the
loss of some hair on my fingers.  B-{)  No one has reported to the nurse
for food poisoning either, so it was a success!

Dave Szetela gave a great Keynote address where he regaled us with his
Apple II experiences, including stories from inside Apple Inc.  Also his
experienced while with Nibble and many other stories that are familiar to
anyone else who's ever fallen in love with the Apple II.  Good times!

Ed Eastman gave a session on Soldering 101, but I was already nursing minor
burns and didn't want to press my luck.  B-{)

Instead, Ryan Suenaga, my roomie, needed a ride to Radio Shack, so off we
went.  The first one we went to didn't have his item in stock, so they
called another store that did have it, so off we went to explore North
Kansas City.

I hadn't been to that area, so it was an adventure.  The prostitutes
weren't that bad looking, and the gang colors appeared to be mostly yellow,
but we were on a mission and didn't stop until we'd got his frigging mixer.
Only took us an hour and a half.  B-{P

We got back with 15 mins to spare for dinner.  Food was good, but I'll
spare you the menu.

After dinner, Ken Gagne showed some of the "BBS: The Documentary".  I'd
already seen this so I didn't go to it, but I do recommend this to anyone
who remembers the squawk of a modem, and the thrill of accessing your first
BBS.

Instead, I hung out in a2central's chat room, where you'll find many
current KFesters saying absolutely nothing because they're busy running
around.  Still, you can also find them chatting away during sessions, since
nearly everyone is taking advantage of the college wifi, and chatting with
someone across the room from them, or even across the table.  B-{)

If you're using Firefox or a Mozilla browser, get Chatzilla.  Then by
clicking on:
irc://a2central.com/a2c.chat

you can join us vicariously while things are happening.  You'll probably
end up bored though, because we're running around though.  B-{)

The last activity of the evening was the pizza party put on by the
publishers of Juiced.GS.  Thanks, Sheppy!

Wandering around the rooms lets you discover really neat things, too.
Across the hall in James Littlejohn and Matt Jenkin's room, Jamie Steffins
was demonstrating a VGA converter that does a great job of upscaling a GS's
video signal to VGA!  Sorta steep at $300 though.

The Wii continues to impress the geeks here, tying up the bigscreen TV most
of the time, so there's been no movies shown, or karaoke sung...  B-{(

Oh... Carrington Vanston finally puttered into town on his Vespa, but a bit
late for Kookout.  Fun guy!

Well, that's it for the official day.  I'll wait before posting this, at
least until it's a bit later.  Google Groups appears to be having problems.
I posted yesterdays report from there, and it never showed on Google, but
did on other news servers.  I'll paste this on to yesterdays news to see if
both show up on Google.

Still going strong, but I'm posting it anyway....

Kirk

(Kirk Mitchell, comp.sys.apple2, July 18 2007)
[EOA]


[K7B]
KFest 07 Day 2 by Bruce Baker
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Kfest is official this afternoon with the Keynote Address given by David
Szetela of Nibble Magazine fame.

We have quite a few people who have not been here in a while.  It is great
to see them back.

Perhaps the most startling thing so far, and it is not much, is that
someone (please identify yourself) is driving a full size school bus
repainted in an old dark green color.  Some have called it olive drab.  In
some places the paint has come off giving it a camouflage feel.

The bus made it easy to move people to Sweet Tomatoes last night for the
unofficial kick off of Kfest 2007.

Lots of other have different impressions I'm sure.

A few extras took the time to drive this year brings more gear.  Tony Diaz
drove from somewhere in sunny California. Eric and Sarah Shepherd came from
the other direction (Kentucky?).  We have drivers from Ohio, Chicago area,
and my wife and I from Houston.  This is why Kansas was picked in the first
place, it is so centrally located.

The game boxes have been used quite a bit on the big screen TV in the
central room.  I'm seen an xbox and a wii.  Michael Kent seems to be the
master at wii bowling.

(Bruce Baker, comp.sys.apple2, July 18 2007)
[EOA]


[K73]
KFest 07 Day 3 by Kirk Mitchell
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Day 3...

Only made it to 2:30 am last night.  Still got up at 7:30 am though.
Breakfast menu hasn't changed, but I doubled up on coffee.

First session was Andrew Roughan's on the Marinetti Open Source Project.
Andrew picked up the pieces when Richard abandoned efforts on bug hunting
and documentation corrections.  He deserved, and got a big hand.  Which
interrupted my fervent meditation of the insides of my eyelids.  Damn near
got whiplash!  B-{)

Austin Phelps (famous for being the only person struck by a flung floppy
disk during KFest 2005's Diskcathalon competition) gave a session on
Medical Images and OsiriX.  I wish I could tell you what it was about.  I
went back to my room to rest my eyes.

Tony Diaz presented a CBC documentary on Spam.  I missed that too.  I'm
pretty much an expert on Spam, after recieving hundreds of gigabytes of the
inedible stuff.

Lunch was good.  I didn't miss that, and it shows.  B--{)

Eric Shepherd did several nifty sessions on ORCA.  Big hint, use ORCA on a
fast emulator to speed development.  Word is that the folks in the back of
the room were so overwhelmed that they passed out.  B-{)

Ryan Suenaga gathered guests Carrington Vanston and Andrew Malloy for a
live session of A2 Unplugged - LIVE.  It was quite humorous as these guys
crossed wits and set off sparks.  You'll have an opportunity to hear me
giving a big "WhooHoo!" during the audience introduction.  B-{)

Michael Mahon gave a technical and interesting session on "Real Sound for 8
bit Apple II's".  Much of it went over my head, but I stayed awake...
focused the entire time!  It was great seeing what he could make an old //e
do soundwise! ...err.... hearing.

Dinner was fine.

Our last session of the day was from Rob Walsh, KC native and podcaster for
PodCast411 and Today in iPhone.  He focused on the strengths and weakness
of this interesting device, and pointed us to places where we could go to
hack the things.  B-{)

Shortly after that, we made a run to the Apple Store where I enriched the
stockholders of Apple Inc.  Most of the other folks were just Looky Loo's.

Finally, Ryan and I went in search of the great steaming Krispy Kreme donut
in an attempt to bring home dozens of the rascals to KFest participants.
Alas, Ryan had spent valuable time yapping with others and by the time we
got there, only the maddening odor of the damn things lingered in the
parking lot of the closed store.  Yet another hour and a half wasted
driving the streets of KC.  I'm a country boy, and driving in a "big city"
is beginning to wear on me.  Still, I do what I can to contribute.  So I
should shut up and think happy thoughts.  B-{) ....  still, we came back
without donuts.   sniff..

Wii is still big..  The crowds waiting their turns are engrossed.

And laughter is wafting down the hall, calling to me.  Gotta check this
out.  B-{)

Wish you were here!

(Kirk Mitchell, comp.sys.apple2, July 20 2007)
[EOA]


[K74]
KFest 07 Day 4 by Kirk Mitchell
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Day 4,

Well, I got involved on the Wii last night and didn't tear myself away
until 5 AM.  My roomie failed to wake me until it was 9 AM and too late for
breakfast.  The rat.  B-{)

First session was Michael Mahon's NadaNet session, where he gave a detailed
technical presentation on networking and how he built his NadaNet from
scratch.  It was very interesting, and the demonstration was intriguing.
And I didn't fall asleep!  His AppleCrate is something to see as well!

Bruce Baker gave the next session where he chose a number of games from the
Softdisk 8 bit collection (a real gold mine of neat programs...  Hundreds
of them!).  I bought the collection last KFest but haven't really sorted
through the 166 disk issues to find the real gems myself.  Bruce found some
neat ones.

Tony Diaz was supposed to give a session, but I don't know what happened to
it.

Lunch was especially fine since I'd missed breakfast.  B-{)

Ed Eastman had another soldering session which I missed.

Geoff Weiss's session was System 6.0.1 for Dummies, and he went through the
System Folder describing what almost each file did.

Tim Kellers gave a session on an Introduction to FreeBSD, which forms the
base of Mac OS X.  Interesting, but the Center was having network problems.

We had the fancy dinner next, then proceeded to reroast past roastees and
watch slide shows.  Lots of humor.  B-{)  Contest winners collected their
booty and a good time was had by all.

A small group took of this evening to a Celtic Folk music concert, another
group headed out for the movies, Ryan and I finally got the Krispy Kremes
back to the dorm and almost lost limbs as we were rushed by human donut
piranhas...  B-{)

So, it's been a slow night.  There have been quite a few new faces on
a2central's chat.  I hope they haven't been terribly disappointed by the
conversations.  When everyone gets back from movies and concert, we'll
probably get back to ignoring the chat.  B-{)

The night's still young, although I don't think I'll be staying up so late
this time.

I'll be finishing up my report tomorrow when KFest 2007 comes to a happy
conclusion.

Kirk

(Kirk Mitchell, comp.sys.apple2, July 21 2007)
[EOA]


[K75]
KFest 07 Day 5 by Kirk Mitchell
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Day 5,

I got to bed at a decent hour last night.  Of course, the half dozen folks
who went to Denny's didn't bet back until around 4 AM.  I'd already been
asleep for an hour.  B-{)

Got up at 7:30 am, and made it to breakfast and coffee.  Lots of coffee.  I
helped Ryan haul my GS to the Student Center where he prepared for his
session "Suck Free Zone".  If a GS programmer doesn't have a program for
KFest, tradition is that he/she sucks.  Ryan didn't suck.  His program
allowed you to send SMS text messages to cell phones.  Interesting!

Andrew Roughan did a quick demo of his HackFest program.  He'd finally got
it working last night.  Ryan and I thought he was moving in with us because
he wouldn't leave off debugging his work on my GS.  B-{)  It's called
ShareClip and allows you to share or receive the contents of the GS's
clipboard with Macs, Windows, or other GS's which are also running a
program called ShareClip.  That would be useful during my chat sessions on
a2central.com, since it's difficult to get folks posting long URL's to take
them to tinyurl.com first, since I chat on my GS, but surf on a G5 and hate
to have to retype those URL's on the G5 to see the sites.

Carrington Vanston gave an interesting session on recording audio for
podcasting or other purposes.  Ryan should take a hint, but he says his
standards aren't that high.  B-{)

Next came lunch, followed shortly by another A2unplugged LIVE session.  You
should find that distributed pretty shortly.  I whoohooed again, but I'm
getting weaker as KFest finishes up...  B-{(

HackFest awards were given, and Michael Mahon walked away with an Apple
//c+ in an Apple carrying case for his program demonstrating a bouncing
ball travelling between two computers running NadaNet.  Nifty!

We moved back to the dorm to have the swap meet/vendor fair, and I dropped
a few more bills on Apple II stuff.

Then it was off to KC Masterpiece for some excellent BBQ.  I'm glad I
decided to get the half slab of ribs rather than the full one.  I'm still
stuffed!

Back at the dorm, we held the finals of the GShisen contest, where Geoff
Weiss claimed the prize.  $50 off of anything in Syndicomm's library of
goods.

The Wii got packed away, so now folks are playing other board games and
cards...  How refreshing!

As for me, I'll be up a little longer, but since I have a long drive
tomorrow, I won't be staying up too late.  It'll be breakfast tomorrow,
then packing to leave yet another great KFest!  It was great meeting old
friends and new faces of folks who share an interest in the Apple II!

Hope to see you here in 2008!

Kirk

(Kirk Mitchell, comp.sys.apple2, July 21 2007)
[EOA]


[K76]
KFest 07 Day 6 by Kirk Mitchell
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Day 6,

Usually I stop reporting on Saturday.  But even Sunday was exceptional.

I went to bed at 1 am, to be fresh for the drive home.  Up at 7:30 to
shower and shave (the wife doesn't like me scruffy....  She may not like me
unscruffy too, but she hides that well.  B-{)  )

I stoked up on coffee none the less, and loaded the van all jittery and
sweaty.  phew..

Michael Mahon asked for a ride to Wichita earlier on the kfest mailing
list, but I wasn't planning to go that route.  Until my wife called and
said I may have to pick up my bother-in-law there on the way back.  I
remembered Michael, and brought him on board.  Of course, my BIL would
change plans afterwards, but he did me a favor.  B-{)

That three hour drive was one of the quickest I've ever experienced, we
chatted so much, and I was totally engrossed the entire time... (when I
wasn't checking the map to make sure I wasn't effing up...).  At KFest,
you'll meet folks way smarter than you, but they'll be kind and good folks.
Generous with their knowledge, and the stuff they bring to the vendor fair
but don't want to take back too.  You may pay a bunch to get here, but the
giveaway treasures earned through contests or chance are worth taking home.
Unless you wouldn't like an Apple //c+...  I scored one last year.  Michael
got one this year.  Lots of //e's changed hands.. Monitors.  Software...

I'm not religious, but I can see why some folks value a Hajj.  Get at least
one KFest under your belt, and you'll be a better person, and you'll make
some damned fine friends, and your acne will finally clear.  B-{)

Kirk

(Kirk Mitchell, comp.sys.apple2, July 23, 2007)
[EOA]


[GSH]
GShisen Final Rounds
""""""""""""""""""""
Geoff Weiss set the world on fire in the championship round of the GShisen
Contest with a blistering time of 2:53 to claim the 2007 title. He needed
that kind of performance to defeat Margaret Anderson, who also turned in an
impressive time of 3:26. (The GShisen game number played in the
championship round was 9197.)

Geoff's victory earned him a $50 product discount on any title in the
Syndicomm software arsenal. The second-place prize for Margaret was a 2008
subscription to Juiced.GS.

Earlier in the day, Margaret had won the second round of the contest,
followed by Geoff. Placing third in the second round was Sarah Shepherd,
followed by Bruce Baker and Carl Knoblock (a former champion).

Congrats to the winners and all the participants in this year's contest.

-- Max

(Max Jones, KFest Mailing List, July 21, 2007)
[EOA]


[RTG]
Return of the Geoff-i
"""""""""""""""""""""
I got home safely after KansasFest.  Dain was really worried that he was
going to make a wrong turn and end up in Kansas before getting me to the
airport.  I told him that the only way I was to end up in Kansas is if the
plane I was one would fly over that state.  And sure enough, the plane took
off over Kansas before turning southeast.

Geoff

(geoff, a2c.general_chat, Jul 22 2007)
[EOA]



[KF8]------------------------------
                       KFest 2008 |
-----------------------------------

[KFE]
KansasFest 2008
"""""""""""""""
KansasFest 2008 is scheduled for July 22 through 27, 2008.

This will be the 20th anniversary KFest.

Go to <http://www.kfest.org> regularly to watch for details as they
develop.
[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 2007 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:
       ftp://www.a2central.com/the.lamp!/

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
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necessarily represent the opinions of A2Central.com, Ryan M. Suenaga, or
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this publication with permission from the individual authors.
A2Central.com, Ryan M. Suenaga, and Lyle Syverson do not guarantee the
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Material published in this edition may not be reprinted without the
expressed written consent of the  publisher.   Registered computer user
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write the publisher to apply for permission to reprint any or all material.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<



[EOF]
