[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. 10
 ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
 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
                            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                            October 15, 2003

HIGH ABOVE THE ROCK RIVER---------------------------------------------[OPN]
     Day Trip
     Field of Dreams
     Syndicomm Online

A2 FORUM AT Syndicomm Online (A2Central.com) DISTILLATIONS------------[DAS]
     VHS Tape in Carry-on Luggage-------------------------------------[COL]
     Spam Has Slowed Down on Syndicomm Online-------------------------[SSD]
     Moving Data - Apple IIe to Mac Via IIgs--------------------------[MDM]
     Silvern Castle v8.0 in A2 Library--------------------------------[SC8]
     PPPoE------------------------------------------------------------[POE]
     Orca/Pascal Bug Found--------------------------------------------[OPB]
     How to Reach My eSource?-----------------------------------------[MES]
     Revision Control in IIgs Programming-----------------------------[RCP]
     Compiling Pascal Programs Under GNO/ME---------------------------[CPP]

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

ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM SYNDICOMM------------------------------------------[ANS]
     To Sign up for Syndicomm Online----------------------------------[TSU]
     SyndiChat 1.1----------------------------------------------------[SCO]
     Announcing the Opening of Showbits-------------------------------[AOS]
     October 2003 Issue of Syndicommotion Available-------------------[OSA]

THE TINKERER'S CORNER-------------------------------------------------[TTC]
     The Slotbuster II Card
     You are Invited

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

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>

                                 Day Trip
                                 ~~~~~~~~
     It was one of those mornings when you close the window, pull up the
covers, roll over, and catch a little extra sleep.

     A visit to the patio High Above The Rock River was a bit chilly.  But
your sunny side was comfy warm.  Add the beautiful trees against the deep
blue sky and a good measure of wanderlust and you had -Day Trip- !

                              Field of Dreams
                              ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     The movie, a fantasy, is about this farmer, hearing voices out in the
fields, determines that he needs to plow up part of his corn field and
build a baseball field.  "Build it and They Will Come".

     And, yes indeed, ghosts of great ball players of the past come out of
the corn field and use the ball field.

     Turning off the highway near Dyersville, Iowa, the narrow road led to
the movie set for Field of Dreams.  There it is... a Baseball field with a
corn field right next to the outfield.

     Sales are brisk at the two souvenir shops which raise the funds
necessary to preserve and maintain the ball field.

     Out on the field there are many individuals who do not know each
other, fulfilling their fantasy of being part of the movie... taking turns
pitching, batting, running the bases, catching, fielding balls, etc.  There
is this feeling of kinship among these people brought on by their common
interest.

                             Syndicomm Online
                             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     Here is a Field of Dreams for you... and it is not a fantasy.
Membership in Syndicomm Online includes bulletin boards, chat rooms, file
library, email address, personal web site, and Lynx browser.  Access is via
telnet or WWW.  The Apple II library contains most of the A2 files from
GEnie and Delphi.  All this for a very modest subscription fee.  Go to
http://www.syndicomm.com for more information and to join.

[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>

[COL]
VHS TAPE IN CARRY-ON LUGGAGE
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
I'm planning an airplane trip on which I'd like to carry a VHS tape in my
carry-on baggage.  Will such media be destroyed by the x-ray?  How can
I carry and protect it?

Thanks,

-Ken

(KGAGNE, Cat 2, Top 8, Msg 440)

>>>>>
"""""
I don't think an xray machine would be bad for a VHS tape.  Camera film and
hard drives aren't affected.

I brought back a VHS tape from my last vacation.  I haven't watched it yet,
so I don't know for sure if my theory holds :)

Kelvin

(KWS, Cat 2, Top 8, Msg 441)

>>>>>
"""""
The new security for checked luggage is bad for camera film! They suggest
that you carry film with you rather than having it in your luggage.

Cindy

(CINDYADAMS, Cat 2, Top 8, Msg 443)
[EOA]


[SSD]
SPAM HAS SLOWED DOWN ON Syndicomm Online
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
I'm not sure what happened, but (knock on wood) the spam that comes to my
@syndicomm.com address has slowed down. I used to get at least 20+ every
night, and that doesn't count what comes in during the day, but for the
past week I've only been getting 2.

I like this!

Cindy

(CINDYADAMS, Cat 2, Top 9, Msg 55)

>>>>>
"""""
We upgraded our spam filtering software a few days ago to a new version.
You should notice less spam for a while, until the spammers find ways
around the new version.  It's a constant back-and-forth battle of wits.

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

(SYNDICOMM, Cat 2, Top 9, Msg 56)
[EOA]


[MDM]
MOVING DATA - Apple IIe to Mac VIA IIgs
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
I have a database on an Apple IIe and am trying to bridge the gap to the
Macintosh.  I got an Apple IIGS hoping that would be the solution. But
I can't get the GS to read a disk in the 3.5" drive.  When I power up, the
machine checks the drive, the light goes on and then it ejects the disk.
Any ideas about why this might be happening and how I could overcome it?
Thanks.

(SQUIRE, Cat 2, Top 19, Msg 6)

>>>>>
"""""
Hi Squire,

While I'm assuming this is a classic Appleworks database, that is, of
course, an assumption.  What type of database is this?

Are you saying that the GS can't read -any- disks, or just this disk in
particular?

Ryan

(A2.RYAN, Cat 2, Top 19, Msg 7)
Hi Ryan.

The database is in DBMaster. But I can export the data to a .dif or .txt
file which I should be able to import to my new database. Unfortunately,
the GS won't read any 3.5"disks.  It appears to check them and eject them
immediately. Not sure how to proceed. Any ideas.

Thanks,
Sue

(SQUIRE, Cat 2, Top 19, Msg 8)

>>>>>
"""""
Sue,

How are you booting the GS?  It won't boot from a disk that contains just a
text or .dif file.  Do you have a system disk that you are booting?

-Ken

(KGAGNE, Cat 2, Top 19, Msg 9)

>>>>>
"""""
Yes, I have tried booting on the Apple IIgs system disk and the Apple IIgs
tour disk. I also have a number of disks with games and programs but they
wont boot either. I have been able to boot on a 5.25 copy of appleworks.

(SQUIRE, Cat 2, Top 19, Msg 10)

>>>>>
"""""
Do you just have the one 3.5 drive? Do you have it connected directly to
the GS, with the 5.25 drive(s) daisy chained after it? The 3.5 drives MUST
come first in the chain.

 Carl Knoblock - Telephone Tech - Tue  15 Jul 03  11:33:25 pm
 cknoblo@cox.com - Via Spectrum v2.5.2 & SOAR v1.0b10
 KFest 2003, July 22-27, 2003 - 7 days till KFest
 On cable via LANceGS & Marinetti 2.0.1 - Thank you, Richard.
 A2 RTC Staff - Sunday Night House Party - carlk@syndicomm.com

(CARLK, Cat 2, Top 19, Msg 11)

>>>>>
"""""
Carl,

I disconnected the 5.25" when I realized the problem with the 3.5" drive.
So at the moment it is the only one connected.

Sue

(SQUIRE, Cat 2, Top 19, Msg 12)

>>>>>
"""""
In about 95% or more of these cases, the drives heads just needs to be
cleaned. The best way to clean the heads is to pick up a head cleaning
disk. They can be picked up at just about any computer store.

Wayne

(WAYNES, Cat 2, Top 19, Msg 13)

>>>>>
"""""
Wayne,

Thanks, I just cleaned the heads but it is still ejecting the disks.
I thought it would at least give a message that said that it didn't
recognize the disk. but it seems to read for a few seconds and then eject.
Any ideas.

Sue

(SQUIRE, Cat 2, Top 19)

>>>>>
"""""
Okay, so the IIgs isn't booting -any- disks at all?  Just rejects them
period?

Weird.

You'll need some startup disks for sure to go any further.  If you have no
way to make sure you have good originals, you may want to order them from
store.syndicomm.com.

Ryan

(A2.RYAN, Cat 2, Top 19, Msg 15)

>>>>>
"""""
Do the disks work in a Mac?

Dain

(A2.DAIN, Cat 2, Top 19, Msg 16)

>>>>>
"""""
If you have a suitable Mac available, try the drive on it. If you can
borrow another drive, try that on the GS. One way or another, you need to
find out if the problem is the GS or the drive.

 Carl Knoblock - Telephone Tech - Thu  17 Jul 03  8:39:43 pm
 cknoblo@cox.com - Via Spectrum v2.5.2 & SOAR v1.0b10
 KFest 2003, July 22-27, 2003 - 5 days till KFest
 On cable via LANceGS & Marinetti 2.0.1 - Thank you, Richard.
 A2 RTC Staff - Sunday Night House Party - carlk@syndicomm.com

(CARLK, Cat 2, Top 19, Msg 17)

>>>>>
"""""
Carl

I now have access to a Mac SE and a Power Mac 6100.  I plugged the 3.5"
drive into the Mac SE. It appears to be the drive that is the problem.
When I insert the disk the drive reads but then it asks me if I would like
to initialize the disk.  I check the disk in the Power Mac so it is good.
When I ask it to initialize it asks me to 1-sided or 2-sided and then it
ask me what to call the disk and then it asks me if it is okay to erase the
disk.  Then the initialization fails. Is it possible to fix these drives or
do I need to find a new one? Thanks,

Susan

(SQUIRE, Cat 2, Top 19, Msg 18)

>>>>>
"""""
If indeed the drive is the problem, the simplest solution would be to
acquire another drive, but sometimes it is difficult to find the drives.
Sometimes it is easier to find older Macs with superdrives and remove the
mech from the drive case and replace it with the drive from a known working
drive in a Mac. I've done this before a long time ago.  I don't remember it
being overly difficult.  I think there might be other on here that remember
it better than I.  It will have the added benefit of being usable (with a
Superdrive card) as a 1.44MB floppy drive.

Does anyone know of any detailed instructions for doing this?

Thanks,
Dain

(A2.DAIN, Cat 2, Top 19, Msg 19)

>>>>>
"""""
I agree with Dain. It's probably cheaper to replace it. I haven't been
reading messages here since last week, before I left for KFest.

 Carl Knoblock - Telephone Tech - Wed  30 Jul 03  6:45:28 pm
 cknoblo@cox.com - Via Spectrum v2.5.2 & SOAR v1.0b10
 On cable via LANceGS & Marinetti 2.0.1 - Thank you, Richard.
 A2 RTC Staff - Sunday Night House Party - carlk@syndicomm.com

(CARLK, Cat 2, Top 19, Msg 20)
The GS is up and running. I got a new drive on ebay and it works fine.
Thanks for all your help.

Susan

(SQUIRE, Cat 2, Top 19, Msg 21)

>>>>>
"""""
Back again.  I have my Apple II GS up and working.  I can export data to
.txt or .dif files on 3.5" disks.  Does anyone know how I can get Macintosh
to read these disks.  I tried the disk in a Mac SE and a Power Mac
6100/60AV.  Neither of these machines recognized the 800k ProDos disks from
the Apple II GS. Thanks for any help.

Susan

(SQUIRE, Cat 2, Top 19, Msg 24)

>>>>>
"""""
What you need to do is, on the Apple IIgs, format the disk using HFS
format.  This is only an option if you're using System 6.0 or later on the
IIgs.

If you're using an older version of the IIgs system software, you can try
this: Turn on PC Exchange (called File Exchange on some versions of Mac
OS), turn off File Sharing, and then put the ProDOS disk in.  See if that
works.

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

(SYNDICOMM, Cat 2, Top 19, Msg 25)

>>>>>
"""""
If you are using System 6 or System 7 on a Mac you can install the "ProDOS
File System" extension on the Mac.

This extension is part of the IIe Card software package available from
Apple at:

ftp://ftp.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/English-
North_American/Apple_II/For_Macintosh/Apple_IIe_Card_2.2.1.sea.bin

Lyle Syverson <lyle@FoxValley.net>   Editor, _The Lamp!_
published monthly at:   http://lamp.a2central.com/

(LYLE, Cat 2, Top 19, Msg 26)

>>>>>
"""""
As an alternative to getting the files exchanged on floppies, LocalTalk is
always an option for machines of that genre.

Ryan

(A2.RYAN, Cat 2, Top 19, Msg 27)
[EOA]


[SC8]
SILVERN CASTLE v8.0 IN A2 LIBRARY
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
There is a new upload in the games/adventure/prodos8 directory:

File: scupdv80.bxy
Size: 339456
Date: Sep 24

Silvern Castle v8.0 Update

Major New Features:
-Character transfer utility between Silvern Castle rosters
-Character undelete utility
-New SYSTEM startup; BASIC.SYSTEM not required!
-Tome viewer online reference available; DOGPAW not required!

Bug Fixes:
-Combat action sort routine fixed

Plus more!

Tony Ward, A2 Librarian

(A2.TONY, Cat 2, Top 37, Msg 22)
[EOA]


[POE]
PPPoE
"""""
After more than a week of really good performance on my cable modem, I can
gladly say I'm back online. :)

If the cable had continued to give me problems, I was seriously going to
look into Verizon DSL; while it uses PPPoE (which I hate) and I'm not much
of a Verizon fan, it is about $9 cheaper a month than cable here.

In other areas of the country, SBC DSL is cheaper still.

Ryan

(A2.RYAN, Cat 11, Top 20, Msg 22)

>>>>>
"""""
I am using DSL and PPPoE via Earthlink/Verizon. What's so bad about PPPoE?

(LUMITECH, Cat 11, Top 20, Msg 23)

>>>>>
"""""
PPPoE adds the overheard of PPP, so your real upload/download rates are xx%
lower than they would be with plain ethernet.  Also, it's not as well
supported (Marinetti doesn't support it).

Kelvin

(KWS, Cat 11, Top 20, Msg 24)

>>>>>
"""""
So, does that mean that when I'm running GS/OS inside a window on my Mac
that the PPPoE negotiation is done by my Mac/Router combo and not
Marientti?

Jeff

(LUMITECH, Cat 11, Top 20, Msg 25)

>>>>>
"""""
I'm unaware of any way to access a Mac's TCP/IP connection via a IIgs
emulator, so I'm not really sure how to answer that question. . .

Ryan

(A2.RYAN, Cat 11, Top 20, Msg 27)

>>>>>
"""""
PPPoE is a really strange thing that combines two almost totally unrelated
technologies (Point to Point Protocol and Ethernet).  I've never really
seen the point of it when DHCP could be used instead to assign a dynamic
address to an Ethernet connection.

Mac support for PPPoE was really poor pre-OS X (remember MacPoet fondly?
I don't :) but better now, and now that more routers support PPPoE, I think
that the only real issue is the overhead imposed on the connection.

Ryan

(A2.RYAN, Cat 11, Top 20, Msg 26)

>>>>>
"""""
From what I understand, the main point to PPPoE is that it can actually
terminate the Ethernet link when it's not in use, and instantly reactivate
it when it's needed.  Personally, I don't think that's a very good reason
to kill bandwidth. :)

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

(SYNDICOMM, Cat 11, Top 20, Msg 28)
[EOA]


[OPB]
Orca/Pascal BUG FOUND
"""""""""""""""""""""
I've found a bug with Orca/Pascal.  If you define an object without any
data fields (i.e. only procedures), a flag isn't being initialized and you
can wind up with compile time errors (unable to assign file) or bad code.

The good news is, I've found the problem and it's a simple fix :)

file Pascal.2.2.1.b1/parser.pas

lines 997 - 1008 currently look like this:
-- snip --
  {set up the type}
  lsp := pointer(Malloc(sizeof(structure)));
  with lsp^ do begin
    form := objects;
    objname := nil;
    objsize := 6;
    objlevel := 1;
    objparent := nil;
    size := ptrsize;
  end; {with}

  {handle inheritance}
-- snip --

add this line after 1005 (size := ptrsize;):

    hasSFile := false;

This problem is present in the non-beta compiler as well. I haven't checked
to see if the line numbers changed, but the fix should be the same.

Kelvin

(KWS, Cat 22, Top 6, Msg 12)

>>>>>
"""""
Thanks, Kelvin.  I'll look into getting that into a build for people to
use.

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

(SYNDICOMM, Cat 22, Top 6, Msg 13)
[EOA]


[MES]
HOW TO REACH My eSource?
""""""""""""""""""""""""
Anyone have a clue how to reach My eSource these days?  We really need to
get all their software released from their death grip. :)

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

(SYNDICOMM, Cat 25, Top 2, Msg 2)

>>>>>
"""""
I sent a letter to them about a year ago (a real physical letter, not
email) asking about it and got no reply.

Even when they were in business at the end there were strange things that
went on with them.  I once faxed them an order three times that I got
successful fax receipts for and they claimed each time they never got the
order.  I had to eventually snail them the order with payment.

One day I'll try again.  When I will get to that, I'm not sure.

Ryan

(A2.RYAN, Cat 25, Top 2, Msg 3)
[EOA]


[RCP]
REVISION CONTROL IN IIgs PROGRAMMING
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
What do other people use for revision control for IIgs programming?  If
you're cross-compiling with MPW, you probably could use RCS, CVS, etc.

Is there any native solution other than making backups?

Kelvin

(KWS, Cat 58, Top 2, Msg 1)

>>>>>
"""""
I wrote a little set of utilities for ORCA shell that I never completed,
but did use for Wolf 3D and a couple of other projects, called QRCS.  It
doesn't have any whiz-bang features, but did let you check in and out files
and it would keep old versions, with history.  It didn't keep diffs or
anything like that, but it would let you revert to old versions and look at
old code.

One of these days I should finish it. :)

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

(SYNDICOMM, Cat 58, Top 2, Msg 2)
[EOA]


[CPP]
COMPILING PASCAL PROGRAMS UNDER GNO/ME
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
I just noticed a peculiarity with compiling pascal programs under gno/me...

{$append 'filename'} doesn't seem to work, at least not if you're switching
languages.

/act thinks back fondly to the days when the source wasn't available, and
submitting a bug report was sufficient to get things fixed...

Kelvin

(KWS, Cat 58, Top 15, Msg 1)

>>>>>
"""""
Only under GNO/ME?  Sounds like a GNO bug to me.

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

(SYNDICOMM, Cat 58, Top 15, Msg 2)
[EOA]



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

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

By Steven Weyhrich


CAUSE I TRY AND I TRY AND I TRY AND I TRY

     When last we talked, I was in the process of recovering from various
data losses of my mainline tools. In the interim, I've had two other
unfortunate events happen.

     The screen on my Palm Tungsten C developed a crack, which rendered it
unusable. Although Palm agreed to replace it for free, it appears that
their supplies are short, just as Apple's supplies for PowerBook logic
boards were short. The result was about three weeks without a tool that I
use daily at work, let alone using it to work on the Lamp Index.

     So THAT slowed me down. And just as I thought I was ready to get going
again, I opened up the PowerBook, with its newly replaced innards, and
found a black screen. No picture. Not even a pulsing light when it was
"sleeping". Interestingly, everything else was still working; I was able to
restart and hear the usual tone. After it had completed the process I used
a keyboard utility to start iTunes, and pressing the space bar started a
song in the play list. I simply could not see what I was doing. A call to
Apple Technical Support could provide no other solution than to send it
back in. There it is, even as I type these words on the Windows computer I
previously used at work. I'm trying not to complain to that computer about
how it works differently; at the rate things are going, I don't need the
"blue screen of death" coming up repeatedly, necessitating a reinstall of
Windows!


(I CAN'T GET NO) SATISFACTION

     Well, enough whining. Let's get back to the Lamp, the reason that
we've been having this little get together each month. In the last (real)
installment of this column, we covered 1995 and the difficulties and
challenges that occurred during that year. Moving into 1996 finds our
intrepid band of Apple II enthusiasts dealing with damage to their home on
GEnie, and the consequences of that damage.

     Let's synchronize with the historical context: In 1996, the O.J.
Simpson murder trial begins. Princess Diana and Prince Charles are
divorced. The school board of Oakland, California elects to recognize Black
English, termed "Ebonics", as a separate language. British citizens are
alarmed by the outbreak of "mad cow" disease.

     Intel continues the processor arms race by releasing the 200 MHz P6
(Pentium). IBM and Sears sell Prodigy to Internet Wireless, which then
re-launched it as an Internet-based service. CD-RW (read/write) technology
becomes available. In August, Microsoft introduces its Internet Explorer
web browser, challenging Netscape's Navigator browser. U.S. Robotics
launches the Palm Pilot, its own version of a Personal Digital Assistant
(PDA). MSNBC (sponsored by Microsoft and NBC) debuts on cable TV channels.

     Following low Christmas sales that resulted in a loss of $61 million,
Apple CEO Michael Spindler lost his position as Apple's third CEO, and was
replaced by Gil Amelio. Amelio tried to help improve Apple's bottom line by
reducing Macintosh motherboard designs to only two, and the hardware
architectures into a single system, as well as streamlining the corporate
structure. On April 1st, Apple celebrated its 20th birthday, and released
the 20th Anniversary Macintosh to commemorate the occasion. IBM releases
the 603e and 604e PowerPC chips, first clocking at 166 MHz, and going up to
200 MHz by mid year. At that time they also made the first announcement of
the G3, the third generation PowerPC processor. Apple also continued to
flounder with its efforts to update its Macintosh operating system, and the
Copland Project was discontinued. During the year, much speculation was
made about whether Apple would base it's next operating system on former
executive Jeane Louis-Gasse's BeOS, or exiled CEO Steve Job's NeXTStep. The
final decision was made at the end of the year with Apple's purchase of
NeXT, Inc. for $430 million. Amidst all of these struggles, the company's
stock price dropped to a 10-year low of $18 per share.


GENIELAMP INFO

     GEnieLamp A2 editor Doug Cuff began the year by giving his own
assessment of the ups and downs that occurred in 1995. He did a much better
job summarizing what happened than I did; so much so that I'd like to
reproduce it here:
 ________________________________________________________________________
|                                                                        |
|     In fact, we made out like bandits in 1995.  We got new hardware:   |
|the SecondSight card and, along with the rest of the micro world,       |
|IOmega ZIP drives.  We got new software: Quick Click Morph, TimeOut     |
|Statistics, Convert 3200, Quick Click TIFF Reader, Deja II (AppleWorks  |
|5.1 for the Mac), Opening Line, TouchTwo AppleWorks macros, Print 3200, |
|and PMPFax, not to mention shareware/freeware efforts such as II Not    |
|Disturb, Blockade (game from Brutal Deluxe), and Pix Whiz (New Print    |
|Shop color pix editor).                                                 |
|                                                                        |
|     We also got significant updates and upgrades for some of our       |
|software:  Spectrum v2.0, Balloon v2.0, AppleWorks v5.1, rSounder v3.0, |
|AutoArk v1.1, TimeOut ShrinkIt v5, One Touch Commands 5, GEnie Master 5,|
|CoPilot for GEnie v2.5.5, The Tinies (with a new construction set), an  |
|improved variable-time SHR screen saver, and a patch for the HFS FST.   |
|                                                                        |
|     Sure, it wasn't all good news.  There were some new products we    |
|haven't gotten yet--the TurboRez card, Wolfenstein 3-D, SimCity, Tracer |
|Sanction, Mind Shadow--and some updates that still haven't arrived:     |
|GraphicWriter III v2.0, Kangaroo, TransProg III, SuperConvert, and a    |
|decidedly unofficial System 6.0.2 from Brutal Deluxe.  We even suffered |
|a few losses in 1995:  Your Money Matters and free Apple IIc            |
|motherboard/ROM upgrades, to name just two.                             |
|                                                                        |
|     Our biggest losses in 1995 were our magazines and newsletters:     |
|A2-Central, TimeOut-Central, Script-Central, Studio City, GS+ Magazine, |
|Softdisk (but not Softdisk G-S), and AppleWorks Forum all ceased        |
|publication. In March/April 1995, we were told that II Alive "is not    |
|going quarterly any time soon". As of December, it seems that this is   |
|exactly what's going to happen. There are about four more issues to     |
|come, so II Alive will probably finish in late 1996 or early 1997.      |
|                                                                        |
|     So we lost ICON (International Computer Owners Network) and NAUG   |
|(National AppleWorks Users Group)... Softdisk Publishing and EGO        |
|Systems are still with us, not to mention Shareware Solutions II and    |
|PAUG (Planetary Apple User Group). Two replacement newsletters have     |
|come along: Apple Blossom by Steve Cavanaugh and II Something by Clark  |
|Stiles, both of which are distributed freely.  Thanks to the efforts    |
|of Joe Kohn and Will Nelken, Script-Central back issues and             |
|TimeOut-Central back issues are again available.                        |
|________________________________________________________________________|

     In March, Cuff discussed the new change in ownership of GEnie, which
General Electric had sold to Yovelle Renaissance Corp. The new name for the
service was "Genie", without the uppercase "E" that had always been used.
The most obvious change that came about because of this sale was a
substantial increase in the cost of an account, from $8.95 per month to
$18.95 per month. A new customer was treated to the bargain rate of $23.95
per month. This change had resulted in the loss of many members, of the A2
RT as well as from other RT's. This had a particular impact on Genie's
European customers, whose rates became VERY high.
 
     Cuff also had to rescind his previous offer to pay potential GenieLamp
writers with credits for online time; the new management had also taken
away that privilege.

     In March, GenieLamp A2 was also released as HyperCard and HyperCard
and HyperStudio stacks, to a very favorable response. The HyperCard stack
(and conversion stack) was written by Joshua Calvin. Although the HyperCard
edition did not vary much from the text version, the HyperStudio version
added a unique feature - a comic strip called "Hog Heaven".

     April's editorial saw Cuff announcing an attempt by the new Genie
management to retain subscribers. "Genie Lite" offered five free hours of
e-mail use per month, but no free access to the Roundtables, and charged
only $7.95 for month (compared to the much higher rate for the normal type
of access). However, Yovelle decided that this was not a financially
attractive proposal, as many users flocked from the higher cost
subscriptions to the Genie Lite version, and on May 9, 1996 this option was
withdrawn.

     July's issue found GenieLamp A2 as the one remaining GenieLamp
publication and that due to the dedication of Doug Cuff in taking the time
to write and edit nearly all of the material in each issue. During that
month, Genie management closed down the DigiPub Roundtable. This had been a
gathering place for writers of the various Genie publications, and without
that convenience GenieLamp A2 emerged from the fallout as the last
remaining Lamp digital publication. The strain of doing all of that work
each month, with the additional costs involved in connecting to Genie under
its new rates, began to increase his difficulties in continuing in the job.

     In October, Cuff discussed his efforts at preserving GEnieLamp A2 by
moving the issues from the DigiPub library before it closed down) and
uploading them to the A2 library.

     Finally, the GenieLamp A2 masthead exactly the same at the end of
Cuff's run as editor as it was at the start of 1996:
 ________________________________________________________________________
|                                                                        |
|\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\////////////////////////////////////|
| GenieLamp Apple II     ~ A T/TalkNET Publication ~      Vol.5, Issue 57|
|""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""|
|Publisher................................................John F. Peters |
| Editor...................................................Douglas Cuff  |
|\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\////////////////////////////////////|
|\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\////////////////////////////////////|
|          ~ GenieLamp IBM ~ GenieLamp ST ~ GenieLamp PowerPC ~          |
|       ~ GenieLamp A2Pro ~ GenieLamp Macintosh ~ GenieLamp TX2 ~        |
|         ~ GenieLamp Windows ~ GenieLamp A2 ~ LiveWire (ASCII) ~        |
|            ~ Member Of The Digital Publishing Association ~            |
| Genie Mail:  GENIELAMP                  Internet: genielamp@genie.com  |
|////////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\|
|________________________________________________________________________|

     Although the other digital publications had disappeared, their memory
lived on at least in this location.


ROUNDTABLE NEWS

     With the changes in Genie management to Yovelle, it began to look a
little more uncertain as to where text-based Apple II's could communicate
online. Syndicomm owners Gary Utter and Dean Esmay began to make plans on
what to do if Genie suddenly disappeared, and in May there appeared the
very first announcement of a new web site, "www.syndicomm.com".

     Also related to the change from GEnie to Genie were some A2 RT members
who said their good-byes, as they moved on to CompuServe or Delphi, where
the online rates were more reasonable. In July, Delphi was for the first
time mentioned as a potential alternative to Genie, as Ken Gagne pointed
out that it was STILL a text-only service.


HARDWARE NEWS

     Early in the year, Mike Hackett was working on QuickDraw II support
for the SecondSight VGA card, in order to make it possible to have the IIGS
Finder display correctly on the card. He was somewhat limited by the amount
of programming information that Sequential Systems was willing to release,
and the apparent unwillingness of the company to do necessary firmware
updates to improve performance.

     Sequential Systems introduced a version of the RamFAST SCSI card
specifically for use on the Apple IIe with ZipChip. However, it appeared
from later posts that although it worked fine on a IIGS and on a IIe
WITHOUT a ZipChip, it still didn't work reliably WITH a ZipChip.

     Alltech released the Sirius 8 meg RAM board.

     Mike Westerfield gave a little more information about the Mark Twain
("ROM 04") IIGS prototype that had been discovered in Albuquerque. Later in
the year, Joe Kohn made available videotapes of his Gravenstein Apple User
Group demo of the Mark Twain he had discovered.

     Various RT members discussed ways to build a tower version of the
Apple IIGS (that is, putting the guts of the computer into a tower case),
with proposals of various improvements to make it work better.

     Resident solder slinger Harold Hislop offered technical information
about how to repair AppleColor RGB monitors, and how to (temporarily) help
with "sticktion" problems on aging Quantum hard drives.

     Ken Gagne reported on the Tiger Learning Computer, an Apple-approved
Apple IIe clone that was to be introduced at the Electronic Entertainment
Expo (E3) in Los Angeles. His brief description was to be followed by a
more detailed article in Volume 2, Issue 2 of The Apple Blossom newsletter.

     September's issue included information by Doug Pendleton about how to
build a reliable faster Zip GS card. Also that month, Peter Brickell began
a series in which he described ways in which to interface an Apple II with
"real world" devices.


SOFTWARE NEWS

:: PRODUCTIVITY SOFTWARE ::

     PMPFax was released late 1995. February discussions revolved around
ways in which to deal with some early bugs in the program.

     Brutal Deluxe introduced Convert 3200, a graphics conversion utility.
Sales for the product were handled by Shareware Solutions II. SSII also had
been granted permission to release disks from NAUG (the disbanded National
AppleWorks User Group).

     Apple II emulation software for the Macintosh began to appear during
1996. Steve Cavanaugh commented on his experience with one program called
"Squirt", and another called "IIe 1.0". More significantly, Andre Horstmann
and Henrik Gudat made an announcement mid-year about an Apple IIGS emulator
that they were working on. Their software had previously been released
under the name "Bright Software", but for this major project they had
changed the name to "Fast Eddie Labs", since the code-name for the product
was "Fast Eddie". Fast Eddie would require a PowerMac, and although they
were initially asking for alpha testers to assist them, by the end of the
year the emulator was nearing the beta testing stage.

     EGO Systems announced an update to Addressed For Success, a label
printing database program, to v1.1. The company also began to carry the
Office Productivity Systems AppleWorks utilities, including TimeOut
ShrinkIt-Plus, Statistics, and Disk Tools. Steve Disbrow also began work on
a RTF (Rich Text Format) translator for GraphicWriter III. Soon afterwards,
an AppleWorks GS translator module was released for GW III.

     Other software that became available during 1996 included
TimeOut.Statistics by Office Productivity Software; TouchTwo AppleWorks
macros by Marin MacroWorks; an update of Quick Click Calc to v1.3 by Mike
Westerfield and The Byte Works; Music Composer 4.00 by Clayton Juniel; and
GraphicWriter III v2.0 by Seven Hills Software.


:: TELECOMMUNICATIONS SOFTWARE ::

     Rumors began to appear about one or more programmers who were working
on attempts to design a graphic-based web browser for the Apple IIGS. The
main limitation then (as now) was the processing power needed to display
both web page textual information AND the graphics for those pages in GIF
or JPG format. Also limiting the development of such a product was the lack
of basic utilities to directly connect a IIGS to the Internet. GNO/ME 2.0.6
was planned to include TCP/IP access, and was expected to be a prerequisite
to IIGS web browsing.

     In March, a post was reproduced in which Derek Taubert discussed his
efforts at creating what he called "GS/TCP", an Apple IIGS TCP/IP handler,
which was intended to interface with GNO/ME 2.0.6. He had successfully been
able to connect to the Internet with this utility, and was making
improvements to it, to the great excitement of many Apple II users on
Genie. Max Jones of Juiced.GS visited Taubert in May, and also saw "GS Web"
demonstrated, Taubert's efforts at a graphic web browser.  Jones planned an
article all about GS/TCP in the Spring issue of Juiced.GS.


:: SYSTEM SOFTWARE ::

     Jawaid Bazyar & Dave Lyons released a significant patch for the HFS
FST from System 6.0.1. A mysterious data-trashing bug had been plaguing
those trying to use large HFS volumes on the IIGS. The bug had caused a
delay in the release of Jim Maricondo's Golden Orchard CD-ROM collection in
1995. This single-byte fix resolved this major problem. Dave Lyons, who was
employed at Apple, had searched out the problem on his own time, and shared
the info with Jawaid Bazyar, who wrote the patch program to correct it.
Although it was distributed as a Procyon product, it was made available as
freeware.

     Later in the year, a different HFS problem was in discussion,
regarding a problem that would occur if files dragged to an HFS volume
exceeded the available space on that volume. If this happened, a "disk
full" error occurred, and the folder into which the files were being
dragged was corrupted to the extent that it could not be deleted from the
Finder.

     Back in 1995, Brutal Deluxe had announced their efforts at creating
source code for GS/OS System 6.0.1, with the goal of applying patches and
bug fixes. This "System 6.0.2" was available on a trial basis to a limited
audience; Joe Kohn was one who had a copy of it, installed on his Mark
Twain IIGS. Brutal Deluxe, however, did not take sufficient care to have
extra copies of this effort; it was all lost when a hard drive crashed, and
they apparently felt the task was too much work to reproduce.


:: UTILITY SOFTWARE ::

     The hack to Print Shop IIGS sought by Joe Kohn that would allow better
printing was again mentioned in July. The reason that the patch never
appeared was that the graphics in the program were hard-coded to 72 dots
per inch, and increasing the print quality simply was not possible.

     A September article by Doug Cuff described how to start fresh with an
Apple IIGS system, and what programs and utilities to add to a newly
created system disk to make it most workable and productive. This was
followed up in the following month by reader comments about other utilities
that they considered indispensable.


:: GAMES ::

     In January, Vitesse was still promising Wolfenstein 3D to be available
soon. However, this promise was complicated by the need to get programming
help from someone other than Bill Heineman (who had started but not
completed the conversion), and by the demands of id Software for a new
contract. The gradual disappearance of Vitesse from the Apple II world
during this year also contributed to the problem. The project eventually
fell to Logicware programmers, specifically Eric Shepherd, and by late in
the year he had a package ready for beta testers.

     Other games that appeared in this year were Operation Lambda by Bret
Victor, and LemminGS by Brutal Deluxe.


PUBLICATIONS

     Despite the losses of Apple II publications in 1995, other individuals
stepped up and did their best to fill the gaps left behind. January saw the
announcement of three new publications: The AppleWorks Gazette, The Apple
Blossom, and Juiced.GS.

     Howard Katz and Chris Serreau created The AppleWorks Gazette. Released
as a disk publication with articles and sample files, the first issue was
mailed out in January 1996, and was reviewed by Doug Cuff in the February
issue of GenieLamp A2. Their intent was to send out a new issue bi-monthly,
but soon fell behind in this goal, distributing only three issues during
the year.

     Steve Cavanaugh had started The Apple Blossom as a freely downloadable
product for its first four issues in 1995. With the start of 1996 he
changed it to a subscription-based print publication, to be released on a
bimonthly basis. During 1996 he kept this promise, and produced six issues.
(Samples of articles from these issues and other issues are still available
at this web address:
http://homepage.mac.com/appleblossom/tab/blossomonline.html) By the end of
the year Cavanaugh had to abandon his Genie account, though he had plans to
continue his newsletter.

     Newspaper veteran Max Jones also joined the field of new Apple II
publishers during 1996. Juiced.GS was started as a quarterly printed
publication dedicated to coverage of the Apple IIGS. Initial subscriptions
were priced at $14 per year, and the promised four issues were distributed
during the year.

     Joe Kohn's Shareware Solutions II continued to publish. He was also
able to make available for sale much of the inventory of the defunct Big
Red Computer Club, as well as other products.

     II Alive, the last remaining glossy print Apple II publication,
announced that it was planning about five more issues, after the release of
the Nov-Dec 1995 issue. The Spring 1996 issue arrived in early summer, and
was reported to be thinner than previous issues. Less money was spent on it
than previously, and after the first quarter of 1996 its former art
director, Carl Sperber, was acting as editor, with articles being collected
by former reviews editor Jeff Hurlburt.

     Another disk magazine, Dark Castle Magazine, was briefly mentioned in
March, and then never again appeared in GenieLamp. (Being available only in
Dutch may have had something to do with this.)


COMPANIES

     Greg Templeman announced the addition of Michael Lutynski (of
Animasia) to the Logicware programming team, which also included Eric
Shepherd, James Smith, "Burger" Bill Heineman, and Steve Parsons.

     ///SHH Systeme, makers of the TurboIDE and BlueDisk cards, was also
affected by the change in Genie rates. Being based in Munich, Germany made
them subject to the costs of European access, which had undergone a
considerable increase. Consequently, they moved their online support to the
Internet and to CompuServe.

     During the latter half of the year, an increased numbers of posts
appeared in the A2 Roundtable complaining about Sequential Systems, due to
a lack of response to customer requests (or complaints) regarding the
Second Sight card.

     EGO Systems and Steve Disbrow had to announce the cessation of its
toll-free order line and a reduction of hours, primarily because of his
real employment interfering with what had been forced to become a
side-business.


KANSASFEST

     Doug Cuff's article, "The Accidental Tourist At KansasFest", appeared
in the July issue, providing the first official FAQ about the event.

     Attendance at the event that year was over two hundred. Gary Utter
gave a stirring and memorable keynote speech, and the subject of the annual
roast was Joe Kohn. Roger Wagner (even though he was unable to attend) and
Mike Westerfield sponsored pizza. Attendees Carl Knoblock and "Big Cheese"
Cindy Adams were among those whose posted comments about the event appeared
in GenieLamp in the August issue.

     Among the presenters were Andy Nicholas of Apple Computer, who
demonstrated "Gus", an Apple IIGS emulator for the Power Macintosh. Eric
Shepherd announced the coming beta test of Wolfenstein 3D, and that the
final product would be released as freeware, rather than as the commercial
product that Vitesse had originally intended it to be.

     Seven Hills Software announced the Spectrum 2.1 update, which was
available to ship by September.


REVIEWS

     Despite a dearth of contributing writers, there were quite a few
product reviews that appeared in GenieLamp A2 during the year:

o Jay Curtis reviewed "Deja II", JEM Software's newly released AppleWorks
5.0 emulator.
o James Keim, Ed Lundberg, and Douglas Cuff all reviewed the teaching
program "Where In Hell Is Carmen Santiago?", which had been designed to
teach about Dante's "Inferno". This unusual method of having three people
review the same program resulted in a very interesting look at the product
from more than a single point of view.
o Charlie Hartley reviewed PostScript fonts available in the Apple II
Library, along with an interview of Margot Taylor, who had uploaded many of
the fonts.

     Cuff was the source of most of the rest of the reviews that were
printed:

o The AppleWorks Gazette, issue #1
o The Apple Blossom
o Juiced.GS
o "In The Breach Of Centuries" and "Sounds Of History" (HyperStudio stacks)
o GraphicWriter III v2.0, (rewritten) by Richard Bennett
o LoadPall XCMD for HyperCard IIGS by Steve Cavanaugh
o Convert 3200, from Brutal Deluxe
o Beagle Basic
o Sorry (game)
o Lordlings Of Yore
o Wolfenstein 3D

     Cuff also started a new column in February, a Top Ten list of the most
popular files in the GEnie A2 library. The list was based on the number of
downloads of a file, after it had been in the library for about a month.
Thus, the February list dealt with December's uploads, and so on. Beginning
with the March issue, he also began offering brief reviews of new uploads
to the A2 library.


WRITERS

     Phil Shapiro concluded his "Thinking About" series with a discussion
of the use of mailing lists to share common interests, including nursing
homes in the national information infrastructure, and the convenience of
automated e-mail responders.

     In additional to his other responsibilities, Doug Cuff presented the
Delta manual for the AppleWorks 5.1 update in the July issue.

     David Marriott wrote about "The Disposable Computer", referring to the
tendency for computers to be in need of replacement every several years.


INTERVIEWS

     Fewer of these appeared during 1996, but included the following:

o Max Jones, of Juiced.GS
o Steve Cavanaugh, of The Apple Blossom
o Christian Serreau and Howard Katz, of The AppleWorks Gazette


MISCELLANEOUS FEATURES

     In April, a number of messages were reprinted about the use of Apple
II's in businesses.

     Editor Cuff wrote an interesting article in the August. "File
Mechanic" took the approach of explaining how to modify an old BASIC
program in the A2 library so it was functional on the Apple IIGS and under
ProDOS, taking the reader step by step through the process.

     Cuff also wrote in October about the Apple II BBS that he ran for four
years in the 1980's. In November he presented his own history of
GenieLamp's first five years.

     David Kerwood described his plans to create a web site that would be a
central repository of information about the Apple II and support for it.

     Marc Wolfgram reported in December that former A2Pro sysop Mark
Collins had passed away from a massive stroke. The two had collaborated on
several Apple IIGS projects, including "Lithium Grease" (which could save
and restore IIGS battery RAM settings from a disk) and the GS/OS resource
editor, "Foundation".


HUMOR ONLINE

     Ryan Suenaga listed his Top Ten things to do when GEnie was down. Tim
Kellers gave his own top ten list of why to attend KansasFest.

     In March, the "Apple II Brainwash Test" was printed. Gary Utter and
Mike Westerfield teamed up to create "You Know You've Been On Genie Too
Long When..."

     Several more song parodies that I wrote appeared during the year
(which are now reproduced on the Apple II History website at
http://apple2history.org/parodies/parodies.html).

     Jerry Cline pointed out a way of getting free 3.5 floppy disks simply
by NOT signing up for America Online (i.e., you continue to receive in the
mail those disks encouraging you to sign up).

     Alan Meiss' "Some Famous Last Words" appeared in December (his humor
is still available at this web site: http://www.aaaugh.com/meiss/humor.html


STATS

     Here are statistics for the first five years of GEnieLamp. 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


19TH NERVOUS BREAKDOWN

     As I write these concluding words, my lovely PowerBook G4 remains in
the hands of the competent physicians at the Apple Service Center, awaiting
its next logic board transplant. I'm quite hopeful that THIS time it will
not be rejected. In the meantime, I think I'm getting the hang of this
historical writing stuff again, and so I'll do my best to get the next
chapter in the Lamp review ready for you. Even if I'm to do it with a
second-best choice.


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


References for 1996 historical info:

Apple Computer, Inc.: A History
     http://www.geocities.com/Athens/3682/applehistory.html

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/timeline/1996.htm

Information Please: 1996
     http://infoplease.lycos.com/year/1996.html

Timeline of the 90s, 1996
     http://www.inthe90s.com/generated/time1996.shtml


[EOA]



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

by Lyle Syverson <lyle@foxvalley.net>

[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]


[SCO]
SyndiChat 1.1
"""""""""""""
Announcing - SyndiChat 1.1

What is it?
SyndiChat is a RTC chat program for Syndicomm Syndicated Communities that
requires a PC running Window 95 or better.

Features
- Selectable font size from 6 to 15 points. <-- NEW FEATURE
- Simple installation and configuration.
- Basic telnet client with separate chat window.
- Resizable window with auto line length adjustment.
- 30,000 character scrollback buffer.
- Scrollback search.

SyndiChat is freeware.

Where do you get it?
http://www.syndicomm.com/~mark/SyndiChat/

Enjoy!

(MARK, HelpDesk, Cat 3, Top 4, Msg 16)
[EOA]


[AOS]
Announcing the Opening of Showbits
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Announcing the opening of Showbits!  Syndicomm's newest community caters to
the showbiz crowd, covering the many aspects of Hollywood's exciting
industry. All members of Syndicomm Online are invited to discuss their
favorite films, both current and past, as well as television shows, actors
and actresses, movie memorabilia, news, rumors, and more.

Showbits can be accessed at Page 840, by typing the keyword SHOWBITS at any
Syndicomm prompt, or surfing to the Showbits web site:

http://www.syndicomm.com/communities/showbits/

(KGAGNE, HelpDesk, Cat 3, Top 11, Msg 16)
[EOA]


[OSA]
October 2003 Issue of Syndicommotion Available
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
The October 2003 (Volume 2, Number 10) issue of Syndicommotion has been
emailed to subscribers.  The HTML edition can be found online at the
following URL:

http://www.syndicomm.com/syndicommotion/v2n10.html

(KGAGNE, HelpDesk, Cat 5, Top 4, Msg 14)
[EOA]



[TTC]-------------------------------
             THE TINKERER'S CORNER |
------------------------------------

By Lyle Syverson <lyle@foxvalley.net>

The Slotbuster II Card
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Many different cards were manufactured for use with the Apple II computers.
Many people find all of the slots of their favorite Apple II filled and a
desire to add more cards so as to make the computer even more versatile.

What if you could find a card that would use only one slot but provide
several functions?

Slotbuster II to the rescue.  Modules are available for these functions:
Buffered serial printer port, buffered parallel printer port, speech
synthesis, clock, modem port, and BSR control (remote control of lights and
appliances, etc.)

This card and the modules are available from the manufacturer, RC Systems.

Go to:  http://www.rcsys.com/apple2.htm

for more information and an email address to check on availability and
prices.
[EOA]


YOU ARE INVITED
"""""""""""""""
You are invited to submit your favorite Tinkerer's Project for the Apple II
computers.

Send your write up or idea 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]



[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]



[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]
