Shareware Solutions II Volume 4 Issue 4 1999 01 Kohn Joe US

Shareware Solutions II An Exciting Apple II Journey Into The Future Volume 4, Issue 4 Pre-KansasFest, 1999 Internet World 1999 Growth of the Net Through the beginning of 1994, the Internet was a US govern- ment subsidized, non-profit computer network whose prima- ry function was to link together US governmental agencies with their private sector high tech contractors and with colleges and universities which con- ducted research with grants from the US government. However in just five short years, the Internet has undergone a phenomenal transformation, exhibiting a rate-of-growth that is unlike anything we’ve ever seen or experienced before. The Internet has become all perva- sive, and has sparked the imag- ination of the entire world, growing and spreading like an unstoppable wildfire. As the 1990s decade began, no one could have possibly pre- dicted, as we get closer and closer to the new millennium, that public access Internet ter- minals could be found in li- braries and cafes, that our TVs would feature a steady stream of ads directing viewers to sites on the world wide web, or that our newspapers would be filled with daily stories about the Internet. Then again, as recently as two years ago, no one could have possibly predicted that Apple IGS owners would one day be able to access the Internet and partake in many of the wonders that it has to offer, using any- thing other than a dial up Shell account or a menu driven In- ternet access system such as Genie or Delphi. But then Marinetti was re- leased, and it provided IIGS programmers with the keys to the Internet kingdom that in turn permitted them to bestow upon IIGS users a wealth of elegant, sophisticated and easy to use Internet applications, including such wondrous pro- grams as Spectrum v2.2, Spec- trum Internet Suite v1.1, and Crock 0’ Gold v3.1. The Way Things Were Long before the world wide web led to the mass popularization of the Internet, in fact, ever since the Internet was first opened up for public use, Apple II owners have had the ability to access it. Traditionally, only three things were required: a modem, software to drive the modem, and a dial up Shell ac- count. With an unlimited access Shell account available from many ISPs (Internet Service Pro- viders) for $15-$20 per month, Apple II owners can send and receive e-mail, download soft- ware, participate in Usenet dis- cussion groups, and navigate through the far reaches of the world wide web. Since the overwhelming major- ity of Apple II users have tra- ditionally accessed the Internet via a dial up Shell account, every single Internet related “how to” article that has ever appeared in Shareware Solu- tions II has been presented from the perspective of an Apple II user dialing into a Shell account. However, as more and more In- ternet access options have be- come available to IIGS users, that focus will expand in order to include the latest develop- ments available to Apple II modem owners. When dialing into a Shell ac- count, Apple II users are not actually connected to the In- ternet. Instead, we connect to an ISP which in turn is directly connected to the Internet. Once the dial up connection to an ISP is established, Apple II users then run either Unix based soft- ware, or custom software, which resides on the ISP’s computer system in order to send e-mail, read Usenet newsgroups or ac- cess the world wide web. Accessing the Internet from a Shell account is fast and effi- cient, easy and inexpensive. However, in the past few years, many ISPs have stopped of- fering Shell accounts. That is due in large part to the fact that the overwhelming majority of those accessing the Internet these days do so by using Macs and PCs, and the most prev- alent method those other com- puter platforms use to access the Internet is by making a TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) con- nection to the Internet from a PPP (Point to Point Protocol) or Shareware Solutions II 1 Shareware Solutions II Volume 4, Issue 4 Shareware Solutions II is pub- lished by Joe Kohn, 166 Alpine Street, San Rafael, CA 94901- 1008. Publisher/Writer: Joe Kohn Proofreader: Jane Kos Entire contents of Shareware Solutions II copyright (©) 1999 by Joe Kohn. All rights are reserved. Nothing may be re- printed or reproduced, in whole or in part, in any media without the prior written consent of Joe Kohn. Available by subscription only, several options are available: A) The first 24 issues: $75 for US/Canada; $100 elsewhere. B) The next 6 issues/Renewal: $25 for US/Canada; $40 else- where. Make all checks payable to Joe Kohn. US Funds Only. No charge cards, purchase orders or COD orders will be accepted. This newsletter was created entirely with an Apple IIGS. All articles written in AppleWorks Classic. Page Layout prepared in AppleWorks GS. Printing was done on a Hewlett-Packard LaserJet IIP Plus, connected to the IIGS courtesy of Harmonie. The use of TrueType fonts is courtesy of WestCode Soft- ware’s Pointless. E-mail Addresses: CIS: 76702,565 DELPHI: JOE_KOHN GENIE: JOE.KOHN INTERNET: joko@crl.com http://www.crl.com/~joko 2 Shareware Solutions IT SLIP (Serial Link Internet Protocol) dial-up account. Fortunately, Apple IIGS owners now have the ability to make these same types of connections, thanks to Richard Bennett’s Marinetti v2.0.1. Marinetti v2.0.1 At KansasFest 97, Australian programmer Richard Bennett unveiled Marinetti v1.0, and at KansasFest ’98 Richard intro- duced Marinetti v2.0. At the end of June, 1999, he released an updated Marinetti v2.0.1. Marinetti is a freeware utility which runs at the system level, and provides Apple IIGS users with the ability to connect to the Internet through a TCP/IP con- nection. Marinetti is configured by means of a Control Panel, which gives the option of various connection methods selected from the available plug-in link layer modules. The most com- mon method of connecting to an Internet Service Provider is to establish a PPP or SLIP con- nection. Marinetti can best be thought of as a “dialer” program that serves the exact same function as Open Transport does for the Mac, and Dialup Networking does for the IBM PC. Marinetti is quite simple to set up. One double-click on the mouse is all it takes to install all of Marinetti’s various compo- nent files. After installation, it is necessary to open up the TCP/IP Control Panel, and to configure Marinetti by clicking on the “Setup Connection” but- ton. The overwhelming majority of IIGS owners will choose the standard PPP connect option, and then fill in the proper user name and password that will be used to gain access to their ISP’s system. Also needed is the IP address for the ISP’s domain name server; that number can easily be obtained from an ISP’s tech support representative. Marinetti also needs to be told on which of the two IIGS serial ports the modem is connected, the modem’s speed, the proper Init String for the modem (Note: use the same Init String as you use in Spectrum) and finally, it needs to be told the ISP’s local phone number to dial. That is all that is required to configure Marinetti to make a PPP con- nection to the Internet! Some Marinetti users may need to use a scripted PPP connection if their ISP does not support the direct method of logging into PPP. SLIP users must also use a scripted login. CompuServe, for instance, needs a scripted login to use PPP. In addition to the widespread availability of PPP and SLIP ac- cess accounts, it’s important to realize that there are both advantages and disadvantages to connecting to the Internet via PPP as opposed to using a Shell account. With a shell account, and espe- cially with a Unix Shell account, you'll never be wanting for software, as you'll be using your ISP’s software for everything you do on the Internet. On the other hand, a PPP connection places your IIGS directly onto the Internet, and so you will need to run your own IIGS software for everything you will do on the Internet. And, therein lies the problem. There is not yet a full comple- Pre-KansasF est, 1999 ment of IIGS software available that permits IIGS owners to do all that there is to do on the Internet. So for the time being at least, IIGS owners are ad- vised to have an account with an ISP that permits both PPP and Shell access. That way, you'll have the best of both worlds! There are, on the other hand, at least two very significant ad- vantages to making a TCP/IP connection to the Internet via PPP dial up access. According to Spectrum author Ewen Wannop, “TCP over IP is an error corrected packet based protocol, just like X/Y/Zmodem is. So if you use Marinetti, then you have error-free connections by definition, regardless of what you then do with the data that Marinetti passes through. Line noise, and dropped characters caused by Init or Interrupt con- flicts do not affect the data flow through Marinetti. Marinetti just re-requests any bad pack- ets until it gets the data cleanly.” In addition to error correction, Marinetti can handle up to 64 simultaneous open connections, so that multi-tasking of sorts is permitted, in the sense that more than one operation can be performed at the same time. As an example, when using soft- ware that works in conjunction with Marinetti, it’s now possible to participate in two or more chats, in different chat rooms, on different systems, at the same time. Keep in mind that Marinetti v2.0.1 merely makes the con- nection to the Internet possible. Once that connection is made however, software that is com- patible with Marinetti needs to be run on the IIGS. Volume 4, Issue 4 Included with Marinetti is a “bare-bones” Telnet application that allows you to connect with and log onto remote computers that are also connected to the Internet. With that Telnet ap- plication, it’s possible, for exam- ple, to dial up the local phone number of your ISP, and to get connected via Telnet to the cen- ter of the Apple II online uni- verse: Delphi’s A2 forum. Marinetti’s Telnet application does work, and does get you con- nected to remote systems but by design, it features none of the “bells and whistles” that mod- ern day modem users have come to expect. Marinetti author Richard Bennett stated at Kfest ’97, and repeated again at Kfest 98, that due to time con- straints, he would be more than happy to provide technical sup- port so that other programmers could write IIGS software that worked with Marinetti. He stressed that he alone wouldn’t be writing that software but merely helping other program- mers to create additional appli- cations. Apple IIGS programmers with the ability to read Adobe Acro- bat (.pdf) files can freely down- load Richard’s helpful 158 page Marinetti Programmers’ Guide from the Marinetti web site which is located at the following URL: http:/ /www.apple2.org/ marinetti Since there is no software cur- rently available for the Apple IIGS which can read these Adobe Acrobat files, a 175 page printed version of the manual, along with a disk containing useful development tools, is also available from The Byte Works for $25. Richard has provided details in the Marinetti Programmers’ Guide that describe the IPC (Inter Program Communication) routines that control Marinetti. These routines can be called up and used from within other soft- ware programs. It is these IPC routines which have permitted programs like Sheppy’s gsAIM and Geoff Weiss’s gw-ftp to in- teract with Marinetti and to dial up and connect to the Internet using the information that each Marinetti user enters during the initial configuration of Marin- etti. Through these IPC routines, Spectrum author Ewen Wannop was able to build support for Marinetti directly into the Spec- trum telecommunications pro- gram, and in late 1998, Spec- trum v2.2 was released. Spectrum v2.2 Spectrum is a GS/OS based tele- communications program that has become, with each suc- cessive update, more powerful and more feature filled than even the most optimistic Apple TIGS user could have ever hoped for. When program author Ewen Wannop offered a sneak peek preview of Spectrum 2.2 at Kan- sasFest ’98, he talked about how his upcoming release would include full integrated support for Marinetti, and he described Spectrum’s multi-socket Telnet functions and demonstrated how Spectrum 2.2 could support up to 32 simultaneous TCP/IP con- nections. He also spoke about the 35 new commands available in Spectrum’s Scripting lan- guage that related directly to TCP/IP and to Marinetti. Despite Ewen’s advanced warn- Shareware Solutions IT 3 ings about how Spectrum 2.2 in association with Marinetti would change the way many of us used our modems, he didn’t quite prepare us for the thrill and the excitement we'd experi- ence when first seeing the new- est entry in Spectrum 2.2’s Phone Pull Down menu: Switch to TCP/IP. Spectrum 2.2 was released in September, 1998, and the ini- tial excitement soon gave way to excitement over Spectrum’s flawless performance after es- tablishing a TCP over IP con- nection to the Internet via PPP dial up access. Spectrum 2.2 has fully in- corporated Telnet functionality into the program. This makes it very easy and efficient to dial up your local ISP, establish a TCP/IP connection, and then have Spectrum itself open a Tel- net connection to your various online accounts. To have Spec- trum automatically initiate and complete the entire sequence, access the Phone menu, and click on Switch to TCP/IP. Then click on Services, and enter the name of the destination system, such as Delphi. Make sure that there’s an X in the Telnet box, and then just enter the domain name (such as delphi.com) as the address. As noted above, TCP over IP is an error correcting protocol. For that reason, Spectrum 2.2 own- ers who make their online con- nection via Marinetti no longer need to be as concerned or vigilant as they once had been. Most Spectrum owners are by now quite used to running Spec- trum only after a Shift-Boot, as Spectrum is extremely sensitive to Desk Accessories and Inits that generate Interrupts. Al- though those who continue to 4 Shareware Solutions IT use Spectrum 2.2 to dial directly into Genie, Delphi or to any ISP’s Shell still need to con- cern themselves with Interrupt generating add-ons, those who use Spectrum 2.2 to connect to the Internet via Marinetti don’t have to take as many special precautions, as it is impossible for there to be any dropped characters through a TCP over IP connection. Despite the fact that Spectrum 2.2 now offers 100% error-free TCP over IP connections, main- taining an “Interrupt clean envi- ronment” is still recommended. Although Interrupt generating Inits or DAs will not affect the error-free part of the process, their removal from your system may speed up the transfer of data by avoiding packet repeti- tion if the environment is de- graded. Although Spectrum 2.2 looks nearly indistinguishable from earlier versions, it is the in- clusion of 35 new TCP/IP and Marinetti related Script com- mands that has led to the cre- ation of two Spectrum add-on programs that are sheer works of programming art! Crock 0’ Gold v3.1 Crock O’ Gold, generally known by the acronym COG, is a free- ware off-line reader for use with the Delphi online network. In actuality, COG is a sophisti- cated set of Spectrum scripts that automates the use of the Delphi system. COG is run from within Spectrum, and it com- pletely insulates users from having to navigate through the system using Delphi’s online menus. Instead, COG users can read and write e-mail and/or forum messages from the comfort of their familiar GS/OS interface. COG users even have the ability to designate multiple software programs to download from Delphi online libraries, and whether there are one or 20 pro- grams on the download list, all will be transferred automati- cally. Delphi’s A2 Forums are man- aged by Syndicomm, the same dedicated group of people who managed the Apple II forums on Genie. The volunteer staff is extremely knowledgeable and friendly, but it is Delphi’s low cost that has permitted it to grow so fast, so quickly. After all, it costs only $35 for an entire year to access Delphi using an in-bound Telnet con- nection from the Internet. Due to Delphi’s ability to be reached by Telnet, the A2 forum has attracted a much more in- ternational audience than any previous online service ever has. After all, whether you live in Australia, Britain, Switzerland, Germany or New Jersey, it costs as little as $3 a month (over and above any fees paid directly to your local ISP) to access the Delphi system through the In- ternet. And COG makes it easy and efficient for all these people to participate in lively online discussions. Although Delphi subscribers have always had the ability to Telnet into the system from a Shell account or from Genie, as soon as Spectrum 2.2 was com- pleted and released, Ewen Wan- nop turned his attention back to COG. COG 3.0 and 3.1 have built in support for Marinetti, making it possible to Telnet into Delphi through an error cor- recting TCP over IP connection. Setting up COG 3.1 to operate with Marinetti couldn’t be eas- Pre-KansasF est, 1999 ier, as there are only two steps involved. The first step was already taken when you con- figured Marinetti. Marinetti only needs to be configured once, and through the wonders of IPC, Spectrum (or any other Marin- etti aware program) can use the same configuration information to establish a TCP/IP con- nection. The second and final step is taken in COG 3.1 itself. Located under COG’s Settings menu, you'll see Connect Method. Simply change that to TCP/IP, and you should be all set to do automated Delphi passes through an error correcting TCP over IP connection. Spectrum Internet Suite v1.1 Apple IIGS users have been happily “surfing the net” with Spectrum Internet Suite (SIS) since v1.0 of the web browser was introduced in 1997. Since early 1998, co-authors Geoff Weiss and Ewen Wannop have been working on an update, and that long awaited update to SIS v1.1 was eventually released in June, 1999. Just as with the initial SIS v1.0 release, there was a division of labor on the v1.1 update project. Geoff's work focused on the transfer of data from remote web sites to the IIGS, and Ewen focused on how that data would be displayed on the IIGS. Working together, this IIGS pro- gramming “dream team” once again accomplished what many had previously thought was im- possible! The update includes more than 100 bug fixes, offers some powerful new features and op- tions, and works splendidly from Delphi. Best of all, if SIS Volume 4, Issue 4 v1.1 is run from Spectrum 2.2 in association with Marinetti, all web connections will be 100% error-free; web surfers will never again see a page corrupted by a missing html tag or encounter a Synchronization error! Among the new features in- cluded in SIS v1.1 are a Book- mark Editor, limited down- loading abilities, the ability to spell check outgoing e-mail (if and only if NiftySpell is in- stalled), support for Netscape Cookies, speed optimization so that web pages are retrieved faster, and support for a Sig- nature file whose contents can be appended to all outgoing e- mail messages. Additionally, the program man- ual has been completely rewrit- ten and expanded, and for con- venience, it is now included on the SIS v1.1 disk. The expanded SIS v1.1 program manual includes detailed information about how to access all of the many features of SIS and how to use each feature. It offers detailed descriptions of all the error messages that can be encountered. It also includes a comprehensive trouble-shooting guide that provides instructions on how to customize SIS’s ad- vanced preference items so that problems can be overcome when encountered, and any potential problems can be avoided com- pletely. The initial release of SIS worked only from Genie or from a Unix Shell account. SIS v1.1 now works from Delphi, as well as from VAX systems, AIX Unix and equivalent environments, and from Debian LINUX and equivalent environments. Downloading of Text files has been added to SIS v1.1. Al- though that may initially sound quite limited, keep in mind that many files posted to Internet archives have been processed with BinScii, an Apple II en- coding method which can be used to convert ShrinkIt ar- chives into Text files; those BinScii encoded files can now be transferred by SIS. To initiate an http download, simply press down on your Control key as you double-click on a link, and an information window will be displayed. If the file is one that SIS is able to download, just click on the “Save Link Content” button and a GS/OS standard file dialog box will appear, waiting for you to tell SIS where to save the file. This download option can also be used to down- load entire web pages for faster, offline viewing. Since SIS v1.0 was released be- fore Marinetti, that initial re- lease could only be run from a Shell prompt or from Genie, and at the time, you could only con- nect to those systems by a direct dial up connection. The method that SIS uses to retrieve web pages does not employ error cor- rection, so sometimes the dis- play of some web pages on the TIGS just wasn’t an accurate representation of the way they had been intended to look. If SIS v1.1 is used by directly dialing into your Shell account, then it too may have occasional display problems. On the other hand, if you use Marinetti to make a TCP/IP con- nection to the Internet, then use Spectrum 2.2 to Telnet to your Shell account or to Delphi, and then run SIS v1.1, everything you see on screen will be ren- dered perfectly. You'll never again see Synchronization errors or screen displays that are amiss. Through the wonders of Shareware Solutions II 5 TCP over IP, SIS v1.1 will al- ways behave perfectly! What’s It All Mean? Because of his work with Marinetti, Richard Bennett has been nominated by both Eric Shepherd and Ewen Wannop as “the programmer of the decade.” After all, had it not been for Marinetti, Sheppy would not have been able to create his gsAIM chat program, and Ewen would not have been able to add TCP/IP support into such mas- terpieces as Spectrum 2.2, Crock O’ Gold 3.1 and Spectrum Internet Suite 1.1. Marinetti, in and of itself, mere- ly allows a TCP/IP connection to the Internet to be made. It is through the work of other pro- grammers that Marinetti will become even more useful over time. The programs released to date that work with Marinetti provide IIGS users with many more Internet options than ever before, but there are still sev- eral more Marinetti related pro- grams that need to be written before IIGS users can take full advantage of the benefits of TCP/IP connections to the In- ternet. There’s no doubt about it; Marinetti is the future of the IIGS online. But the future has already arrived, so please don’t wait for a complete suite of Marinetti-aware programs to be released before you experience the joys of 100% error-free TCP over IP connections. Although Spectrum v2.2, COG v3.1 and SIS v1.1 continue to work just fine through an old fashioned dial up Shell account, they work even more fantasti- cally through a TCP/IP con- nection. After you see with your 6 Shareware Solutions IT own eyes just how much more dependable it is to access the Internet through Marinetti, it will change the way you use your modem! Random Notes * Less than a week after SIS v1.1 started to ship, Geoff Weiss revealed during an online chat that he had tried and tried and tried, with limited success, to make SIS v1.1 work immedi- ately after a TCP/IP connection to the Internet had been es- tablished. Had Geoff been 100% successful, SIS v1.1 would have worked without the need for users to Telnet to a Shell or Delphi prompt. To that end, Geoff created a TCP/IP driver connection file for SIS v1.1 which he has released as freeware. However, he states in the documentation, “I take no responsibility if anything gets screwed up. You have been warned. This software comes with no support.” (Note: Shareware Solutions IT has installed and used the TCP/IP driver, with limited suc- cess. When it worked, it worked well; when it didn’t work, it crashed spectacularly.) The TCP/IP driver is supplied as a very small file that needs to be copied to the SIS.Data folder. Once it is installed in that folder, run SIS.SetPrefs from Spectrum 2.2 and set your Network Access option to the new item that will appear: Spectrum 2.2 TCP/IP. ¢ If you are upgrading from Marinetti 2.0 to 2.0.1, please be aware that the Marinetti 2.0.1 Installer will remove the Prefer- ence files that were created by you when you configured Marin- etti v2.0. So, before double-clicking on the Marinetti Installer, open up the Marinetti v2.0 Control Panel one last time, and make a note of all the settings, including the two DNS IP addresses. Write them down, as you will have to re-enter all the information into the v2.0.1 Control Panel. Also, those who use Scripted PPP or SLIP will need to save the connect and disconnect scripts used in v2.0 and restore them in v2.0.1. You can copy these scripts from the Marinetti Edit windows to the GS/OS Sys- tem Clipboard, paste them into any GS/OS text editor, and then save them to disk. To restore them, load them back into your GS/OS text editor, copy the scripts to the GS/OS System Clipboard, then open the Marin- etti Control Panel and paste them back into their respective Marinetti Edit windows. Requirements ¢ Marinetti v2.0.1 requires System 6.0.1, 140K of boot vol- ume disk space, and at least 190K of free RAM. * Spectrum v2.2 requires Sys- tem 6.0.1, a minimum of 1.25 megabytes of RAM (4 mega- bytes of RAM or more are recom- mended), a hard drive, and a modem. ¢ Spectrum Internet Suite v1.1 requires a IIGS with 4 mega- bytes of RAM, System 6.0.1, and Spectrum 2.1 or later. (Spect- rum 2.2 is required to use SIS v1.1 with Marinetti.) Also required is a modem, a hardware handshaking cable, and a Shell, Delphi or Genie ac- count. Pre-KansasF est, 1999 * Crock O’ Gold v3.1 requires Spectrum v2.2 and an account on Delphi. Ordering Information ¢ Marinetti v2.0.1 is freeware and can be downloaded from the Marinetti home page, located at the following URL: http:/ /www.apple2.org | marinetti ¢ The printed Marinetti Pro- grammers’ Guide (Product Number GS-26) is available ex- clusively from The Byte Works for $25, plus $5 for shipping to US or Canada. For orders sent elsewhere, the exact cost for shipping the manual will be added to your charge card. The Byte Works can accept checks drawn on a US bank, or payment can be made by VISA, MasterCard or American Ex- press credit cards. The Byte Works 8000 Wagon Mound Drive NW Albuquerque, NM 87120 505-898-8183 (Voice) 505-898-4092 (Fax) MikeW50@aol.com For additional information about the printed version of the Marinetti Programmers’ Guide, visit The Byte Works on the world wide web at the following URL: hitp:/ /www.hypermall.com / byteworks /AppleGS / gs-26.htm * Crock O’ Gold v3.1 is freeware and can be downloaded from Delphi’s A2 Library, or from Ewen Wannop’s home page, which is located at the following URL: Volume 4, Issue 4 hitp:/ /ourworld.compuserve.com / homepages /ewannop | * Spectrum v2.2 and Spectrum Internet Suite v1.1 are avail- able exclusively from My eSource (the new name for the company formerly known as Seven Hills Software). * Spectrum v2.2: The complete Spectrum v2.2 package is $85. (Note: A special offer bundle of Spectrum and SIS may be available; check with My eSource for details.) The cost to upgrade to v2.2 from any previous version of Spec- trum is $25. ¢ SIS v1.1: The cost to purchase SIS v1.1 is $30. The cost to update from SIS v1.0 to v1.1 is $15. My eSource can accept checks or money orders and Visa, Master- Card or Discover credit cards. Add $3.50 shipping per order (not per item). Add 7% tax if in Florida. My eSource 1254 Ocala Road Tallahassee, FL 32304 850-575-9445 (Fax) 850-575-0566 (Voice Mail) You can order online, by sending your credit card number via e- mail to: orders@myesource.com For additional information, visit the My eSource web site located at the following URL: hitp:/ /www.myesource.com | sevenhills /applesoftware/ Other Resources Shareware Solutions II has pre- pared a two 3.5" disk set that is filled with the latest versions of all Marinetti related freeware and shareware applications re- leased to date. Entitled “Inter- net World ’99,” the disks include Marinetti v2.0.1, the TCP/IP Drivers for SIS v1.1, Crock 0’ Gold v3.1, gsAIM v1.1, gw-ftp, and the Open Source version of Geoff Weiss’s TimeZone Toolset (Tool056). “Internet World ’99” is available from Shareware So- lutions II for $5. @ Online Networks 1999 State of the Network For more than 20 years, well connected Apple II users have had a wealth of valuable and in- formative resources available to them on the various commercial online computer networks which have hosted popular Apple II oriented forums and discussion groups. Since 1978, a thriving Apple II online community has existed on the online networks. This community consists of end users and developers, publishers and programmers, all openly sharing their collective knowledge about the Apple II computer. The on- line community actively teaches people how to get the most use from their computer. It encour- ages the sharing of hints and tips, and it often offers detailed step-by-step instructions on how to successfully deal with any computer problem that anyone Shareware Solutions IT 7 might be trying to overcome. Many current, and some now de- funct online networks, including AppleLink, America Online, CompuServe, Delphi, GEnie and The Source have, over the years, hosted popular Apple II areas which could be accessed by any Apple II owner with a modem and a membership subscription to the network. Quite often, the cost to access the first gen- eration of online networks was steep, often approaching $10 per hour. Starting in the late 1980s, a shakeout which affects Apple II owners has occurred in the on- line industry. CompuServe pur- chased The Source, and several years later, America Online purchased CompuServe. GEnie, which was owned by General Electric, was sold to a group of investors who changed the name to Genie. Delphi, which was originally run by Byte Maga- zine, was sold to a group who had managed GEnie for GE. When Apple Computer stopped manufacturing the Apple II, Apple’s own in-house AppleLink network stopped offering access to developers, programmers and user groups who had been using their Apple IIs to log onto the system. Soon afterwards, Amer- ica Online also stopped offering access options to those dialing into the system using an Apple I. By the mid 1990s, all that re- mained for those whose interest was the Apple II was Compu- Serve, Genie and Delphi. De- spite the fact that the consoli- dation process resulted in far fewer online alternatives, each of the remaining online Apple II forums continued to grow as they welcomed the refugees from the defunct online forums. 8 Shareware Solutions IT At that time, GEnie made a financially attractive offer to those digital refugees without an online home to call their own, and this quickly resulted in GEnie becoming the newest “center of the online Apple II universe.” As has been well documented in Shareware Solutions II, the Apple II forums on Genie re- mained at the center of the Apple II online universe until 1996, at which time a newly re- vitalized Delphi opened up new Apple II forums which remain to this day so active and so spirited that Delphi has earned the undisputed Number One position as the latest online network with the most to offer to Apple II users. Since its inception in 1993, Shareware Solutions II has pro- vided ongoing coverage of all of the commercial networks that offered something of interest to Apple II owners, and so it is with great sadness that Share- ware Solutions II offers the fol- lowing eulogies to two recently departed yet beloved Apple II online forums. CompuServe In 1978, just a mere year after the Apple II was first intro- duced, Neil Shapiro connected a modem to his Apple II computer and signed up for an account on the CompuServe online net- work. At that time, the com- puter industry was still in its infancy, and CompuServe was one of the first online networks that had been established for use by the growing legion of those who embraced the first generation of microcomputers. At the dawn of the computer age no one yet knew the impact that the computer would have on our lives, and even those who con- ceived of and funded the early online networks such as Compu- Serve had no road maps to follow. In other words, anything at all was possible. As one of the first brave pio- neers of cyberspace, Neil Sha- piro envisioned the concept of an “online community” as a virtual meeting place where those with similar interests could get to- gether on an online network to discuss their passion and to share their discoveries. In 1978, Neil submitted a proposal to the management of CompuServe, and that led to the formation of the very first online Apple II fo- rum, then named the Micronet- worked Apple User Group, or MAUG for short. MAUG attracted numerous Apple II modem owners from around the world, and it quickly became the initial center of the Apple II online universe. MAUG grew and flourished and was successful beyond anyone’s dreams. For many years, it wasn’t at all uncommon to witness employees of Apple providing technical information to independent programmers and engineers who in turn sup- ported and promoted their prod- ucts to the Apple II users on MAUG. When the Macintosh appeared in 1984, Neil Shapiro expanded the scope of MAUG to encom- pass separate Mac forums, and after a short time, Neil turned over much of the day-to-day operation of the Apple II forums to a growing number of enthusi- astic volunteer Sysops. For many years, chief Sysop Shawn Goodin oversaw MAUG’s Apple TI operations, Jason Harper pro- vided technical answers to any Pre-KansasF est, 1999 and all programming questions, and Joe Walters provided “local color” with his entertaining writing style and technical ex- pertise. Until the late 1980s, MAUG continued to expand, and opened up more and more fo- rums with a specific focus: Appuse was geared towards Apple II end users, Approg was geared towards Apple II pro- grammers, Appfun was geared towards gamers, and Appven was an area where hardware and software vendors provided support for their products. No matter what interests an Apple II user had, he or she was sure to find thousands of others who shared those same interests on one of MAUG’s many Apple II forums. In the late 1980s, CompuServe first started to face some stiff competition from the upstart GEnie online network, in large part because GEnie’s initial appeal was based on its ability to offer cut rate pricing for on- line access. With an hourly ac- cess charge that was half of what CompuServe charged, Apple II owners started a slow but steady migration to GEnie. Despite the fact that partici- pation on the MAUG forums started to decline, these forums remained online as an in- formative and fun gathering place for the Apple II faithful on the CompuServe online net- work, Change is inevitable and in late 1997 rumors started to surface that CompuServe was up for sale, and it was announced in early 1998 that CompuServe had been purchased by America Online (AOL). That news was greeted with concern, dismay Volume 4, Issue 4 and skepticism from the Apple II community, as only a few years earlier, AOL had started to deny Apple II users access to their system. Despite their con- cern, many Apple II users on MAUG adopted a wait and see attitude. Unfortunately, it didn’t take very long before the winds of change swept across Compu- Serve. In a surprise and some- what shocking announcement made in February, 1998, Neil Shapiro reported that MAUG and CompuServe had parted ways and that new manage- ment had taken over as the ad- ministrators of the Apple II fo- rums. When the new managers were asked online which com- puter systems they personally used, many of us were startled to learn that none of the new managers had ever owned or used an Apple II. Fortunately, those new manag- ers moved quickly to ease our concerns by appointing two long time Appuse participants, Ray Merlin and Loren Damewood, as the Sysops who would oversee the Apple II message base and download library. Despite all the changes, a steady but small loyal group of Apple II users continued to participate in the one remaining Apple II forum on CompuServe, and although the Appuse forum did suffer from declining partici- pation by members, it remained a fun forum where Apple II users could share information and help each other learn as much as they could about the computer that brought them all together. The peace and tranquility of Appuse was shattered in early 1999 when CompuServe an- nounced that due to anticipated Y2K problems with their soft- ware, the Appuse forum would no longer be accessible to those who dialed into CompuServe using their Apple II. Just as had happened with the America On- line parent company several years before, access to Compu- Serve would be limited to those who used CompuServe’s proprie- tary software; CompuServe pro- duces versions of this software only for the Mac and PC. In mid February, 1999, the Appuse forum on CompuServe ceased to exist. In its place, there is now an Apple II discussion area, still run by Ray Merlin and Loren Damewood that resides inside the Macintosh Hardware forum (GO MACHW). That area, sadly, can only be accessed by those who have a Mac or PC. The closing of MAUG’s Appuse forum marks the end of a long and prosperous era for Apple IL users on CompuServe. Shareware Solutions II would like to take this opportunity to salute Neil Shapiro for having the vision to create the first Apple II communities online. We'd also like to offer thanks to all those volunteers who, over the years, gave so much of their time in order to share their expertise. Thanks Joe Walters, Shawn Goodin and Jason Harper. Last, but not least, thanks to Ray and Loren for continuing to be involved and helping out the remaining Apple II users on CompuServe. It just won't be the same in the future, but we’ve sure had some great times online, and the fun that we had on CompuServe’s Appuse won't be forgotten any- Shareware Solutions IT 9 time soon. Genie The GEnie online network, origi- nally owned and operated by General Electric, was first opened up to the public in the mid 1980s and the membership ranks grew very quickly because GEnie was originally positioned as a much lower cost alternative to CompuServe. On GEnie, online discussion group forums are called Round Tables, and it was Kent Fill- more who set up and managed the original A2 Round Table on Genie. For many years Kent had run the San Francisco based Draco BBS, an electronic bul- letin board system run in assoc- iation with the San Francisco Apple Core user group. Under Kent’s tutelage, GEnie’s A2 Round Table flourished. Kent and Chet Day, the Sysop in charge of day-to-day activities, were able to convince many com- panies to offer Apple II tech- nical support online, and the list of those who did reads like a “Who's Who” of Apple II com- panies. All too quickly, Kent was lured away from GEnie by Apple Computer Inc, which at the time was involved with Quantum Computer in a joint venture to set up AppleLink — Personal Edition, an online network known today as America Online. Kent’s departure wasn’t mourned for very long, as Tom Weishaar, the editor and pub- lisher of the highly acclaimed A2-Central (known also as Open-Apple and Resource- Central) monthly newsletter, stepped in to fill Kent’s position as Forum Manager. Tom was beloved and respected by Apple 10 Shareware Solutions IT II users who joined GEnie in droves, and the A2 Round Table prospered. Before Tom’s reign ended, more than 10,000 pro- grams and files were uploaded to the A2 library. Although Tom Weishaar man- aged GEnie’s two Apple II forums — A2 for end users, and A2 Pro for programmers — most of his attention was directed to- wards his successful publishing business. Yet, as successful as that business was, after Apple ceased manufacturing the Apple II line, Tom tried to branch out. In the process, he attempted to publish a newsletter entitled “Fishhead’s Children” which was aimed at former Apple II users who'd made the switch to other computer platforms. That publication was a financial fail- ure, and it hastened the demise of Tom’s Apple II publishing empire. Under Tom’s management, much of the day-to-day activi- ties had been handled by volun- teer sysops, and two of them, Dean Esmay and Gary Utter, formed Syndicomm and it was this new company which in- herited the management of GEnie’s A2 and A2 Pro Round Tables from Tom Weishaar. It was under Syndicomm’s lead- ership that Genie’s A2 and A2 Pro forums reached their great- est heights, and sadly, also had their last hurrah. After new owners purchased the GEnie network in early 1996 and changed its name to Genie, it soon became apparent that something was horribly amiss. Many subscribers wondered if the new owners were merely in- competent, or whether they had purchased the network for a tax write-off. Whatever the reasons, the prices were raised and by late 1996, a mass exodus to Delphi started to take place. Despite periodic service outages and difficulties logging on, a loyal group of Apple II users re- mained on Genie, many of whom were determined to remain on Genie “until the lights went out.” In late April, 1999, the lights started to flicker. With no notice of any sort, the A2 Round Table simply became inaccessible. Members could ac- cess A2’s main menu, but none of the menu options worked any more. Calls to Genie’s technical support hotline yielded no in- formation. A week went by, and then another week went by, and access to A2 was still impos- sible. Genie members could still log onto the system and read their e-mail. Those who hadn’t yet cancelled their account, received the following e-mail message from a Syndicomm staffer: “We are sad to note that the A2 RT on Genie seems to have breathed its last. It’s been shut down for over a month and all the Genie people have to say is that they’re looking into it. We believe it’s gone for good, after more than ten years of great service to the Apple II com- munity.” That e-mail went on to state, “Apple II users are welcome to join the Mac RT and talk about the Apple II in several topics there.” On the Mac Round Table, a topic in the message base had been opened for Apple II users, and the few who remained on Genie got to read the following analysis of the situation, posted by Syndicomm owner Dean Es- Pre-KansasF est, 1999 may: “I really do not think Ge- nie’s A2 is going to come back. It’s been weeks and they don’t have anyone to fix it.” Unlike what had happened on CompuServe, the unexpected move to a Mac Round Table was sudden and totally unplanned. And to date, Genie’s owners have offered no explanation whatsoever. It was truly a sad end to what had once been the most wonder- ful Apple II online resource. Although the lights are still on and some of the most loyal members of Genie’s A2 Round Table remain on the system, the situation could best be summed up by a lyric from Bob Dylan: “It’s not dark yet, but it’s get- ting there.” Fortunately, Syndicomm man- ages the A2 and A2 Pro forums on Delphi, and many of those volunteer Sysops who worked so hard to make Genie’s Apple II areas “the center of the Apple II online universe” are now working their magic on Delphi. To all those who helped to make Genie’s A2 and A2 Pro, we offer up our gracious thanks for years of wonderful service. Special thanks to Kent Fillmore, Chet Day, Tom Weishaar, Dean Es- may and Gary Utter. And to those volunteer sysops who con- tinue to offer their time and energy, including Tony Ward, Bill Dooley, Gina Saikin, Dave Miller, and Stan Marks, you all deserve to feel proud of what you have accomplished on A2 and A2 Pro, and for enriching the lives of tens of thousands of Apple II owners! Delphi As the Internet has gained in Volume 4, Issue 4 popularity, successful online networks have had to change with the times. Those online networks which continue to grow and flourish have been forced to change their focus and/or the scope of what they offer to sub- scribers. Additionally, due pri- marily to the fact that so many Internet Service Providers offer unlimited access to the Internet for $15 or $20 per month, all of the remaining successful online networks have also been forced to significantly lower their rate structure. The Delphi online network has been in continuous operation since 1982, but in order for it to survive into the 21st century, it has successfully repositioned and reinvented itself. Although in reality Delphi continues to of- fer many of the exact same fea- tures and access options as it did in the past, Delphi pro- claims that it is now an “adver- tiser supported service” whose primary mission is to help “people build self-managed on- line communities.” Delphi must have realized that it couldn’t possibly compete against the Internet, so it branched out onto the Internet! In addition to providing access to a traditional online network, Delphi now provides its mem- bership with the ability to set up forums on the world wide web, complete with message areas and chat rooms. Since Delphi’s make over, mem- bership has grown 35% per month to over two million regis- tered members. The number of active forums has skyrocketed, from 3,000 in January, 1998, to over 80,000 one year later. Two of those many forums, A2 and A2 Pro, are managed by Syndicomm and are maintained by many of the same dedicated staff of volunteer Sysops who previously made Genie’s Apple II Round Tables such friendly, fun and informative online re- sources. These forums have be- come the latest “center of the Apple II online universe.” Every single active Apple II pro- grammer or developer can be found on these two Delphi fo- rums. It is on Delphi where Mike Westerfield answers questions about The Byte Works, where Ewen Wannop and Geoff Weiss support Spectrum Internet Suite, where Eric Shepherd of- fers support for his SheppyWare products, where Henrik Gudat talks about Bernie, where Rich- ard Bennett answers technical questions about Marinetti, where Tony Diaz answers ques- tions about Alltech Electronics, and where Max Jones and Joe Kohn promote their respective publications. So if you’ve ever had any questions about your Apple II computer, there’s no better place than Delphi’s A2 or A2 Pro forums to get fast and accurate answers. In order to access any of Delphi’s forums, it is necessary to first register with Delphi. There are currently four different methods available to access Delphi; the fees charged, if any, are deter- mined by which access method is used. ¢ Free Web Access: For those who already have an account with an Internet Service Pro- vider, you can access, via the world wide web, the message base and chat rooms in both A2 and A2 Pro, completely free of charge. To take advantage of this in- credibly generous offer, you'll Shareware Solutions IT i need a web browser which sup- ports Netscape cookies to gain access to Delphi’s forums via the web. However, since the web based message areas make extensive use of Javascript and frames, and the chat rooms are Java based, free access works best for those who use a web browser other than lynx. If you currently have access to the world wide web, you can sign up for a free Delphi account by pointing your web browser at the following URL: http:/ /www.delphi.com /apple2 ¢ Premium Plan: For those who already have an account with an Internet Service Provider, you can Telnet into the Delphi on- line network, and with this ac- cess option, you can participate in discussions on any forum’s message base, enter any chat room, and download files from any forum’s library. Addition- ally, with the Premium Plan, you will receive a Delphi e-mail address, and have 10 mega- bytes of disk space available on Delphi for your own web site or personal forum. The cost of the Premium Plan is $6.95 per month or $34.97 per year (if paid in advance). The Premium Plan is most rec- ommended for those who will use an Apple II computer to ac- cess Delphi! ¢ Text Access: For those who do not already have an account with an Internet Service Pro- vider, two more traditional dial up accounts are available. For “Lite Text Access,” the cost is $12.95 per month for six hours of access, with all subsequent hours billed at $2 per hour. For “Heavy Text Access,” the cost is 12 Shareware Solutions IT $23.95 per month for 25 hours of access, with all subsequent hours billed at $1.50 per hour. Those who avail themselves of the “Text Access” options are provided with a local SprintNet telephone number, and the fees to access this digital phone system are included in the cost. Subsequent hours for SprintNet access are billed at $2 per hour. Those who do sign up for a “Text Access” account receive all the benefits as the “Premium Plan” and in addition, they can ac- tually use Delphi as an Internet Service Provider and “surf the web” using Delphi’s lynx. If you are already online, you can receive additional information about Delphi’s access methods and costs by using Telnet to open a connection to delphi.com and at the Username prompt, enter JOINDELPHI and at the Password prompt, enter NEWPLANS If you're not currently online, or would prefer to speak to a Delphi representative, dial 617- 441-4801. @ Modem Woz Speaks Out Steve Wozniak, the inventor of the Apple II computer, has maintained a site on the world wide web for many years, but until quite recently, it hadn't been significantly updated in several years. However, in mid-June, the TNT cable TV network broadcast the “Pirates of Silicon Valley,” a made for TV movie that de- picted the early days of both Ap- ple Computer Inc and Microsoft. Although the movie focused pri- marily on Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak was bar- raged with e-mail questions af- ter the movie was broadcast. Some of the questions asked about the accuracy of the events that were dramatized in the movie, while many other e- mails asked about the early his- tory of Apple and the Apple II computer. As Woz states on his newly revamped web site, “It’s great to Madness get all these letters! I’m trying to answer all of them. But it’s getting kind of crazy. A lot of people are asking the same things. So maybe if you read through the comments online, you'll see what youre looking for.” You can read how Woz re- sponded to the numerous e-mail questions by pointing your favor- ite web browser at the following URL: http:/ /www.woz.com For those without the ability the access Woz’s site, he basically confirmed that the movie por- trayed the characters accurately. Woz did say that some minor facts were not correct but over- all, the movie accurately por- trayed the personalities of all the principal players and that all of the events portrayed in the movie actually happened. The movie portrayed Steve Jobs’ personality and personal life in Pre-KansasF est, 1999 a less than flattering manner. Woz stated however that he had never once been exposed to the odious personality traits at- tributed to Jobs in the movie. Woz, on the other hand, was portrayed as not only an engi- neering genius, but as a saintly person with a “heart of gold.” After reading Woz’s comments online, it’s apparent that he still is a loving and caring indi- vidual who still wants nothing less than to make the world a better, happier place. Going Home A lot of forethought and strate- gic planning took place before Shareware Solutions II an- nounced that it was moving its web site to a new Internet Ser- vice Provider. All aspects of the move were considered, or so we thought. Less than two months after Shareware Solutions I] made the move to Concentric, the new ISP suffered from what it de- scribed as a “major systems failure” and within 24 hours, made the hasty decision to stop offering access via dial up Shell accounts. For that reason, Shareware So- lutions II has been forced to move its base of Internet opera- tions back to crl.com. Only time will tell if that move is perma- nent or temporary. Fortunately, the crl account had never actually been canceled, so the move back to crl simply in- volved updating the crl web site with more current information. The Shareware Solutions II home page can now be found, once again, at the following URL: Volume 4, Issue 4 hitp:/ /www.crl.com | ~joko The current e-mail address for Shareware Solutions II is, once again: joko@crl.com Please note that e-mail should no longer be directed to Share- ware Solutions II at the inactive concentric.net address. Bernie ][ The Rescue The programmers from FE Sys- tems have updated the Bernie The Rescue website to include a newly expanded Support Center section which provides detailed solutions to many of the initial problems that new Bernie users sometimes encounter. The Support Center now pro- vides detailed instructions on how to download, install and register Bernie. It provides step-by-step instructions to as- sist those who have problems creating a workable IIGS ROM dump. It delineates the dif- ferences between using Bernie with MacOS 8.0 or 7.x. It ex- plains how to download and in- stall GS/OS. It clarifies how to create and mount disk images. It itemizes the various methods available for printing different types of documents. Tf you have any questions about setting up and using the Bernie TIGS emulator, point your web browser to the following URL: Attp:/ /www.magnet.ch /emutech / SupportCenter /menu.html GS Domain Names Just as every house and apart- ment on your street has a u- nique address and every tele- phone has a unique phone num- ber, all the computers that are connected to the Internet also have a unique number. Without a unique street ad- dress, your postal clerk wouldn’t know where to deliver your mail, and without a unique Internet address, your ISP’s e-mail ser- ver wouldn’t know where to transmit your outgoing e-mail. Although the computers con- nected to the Internet actually route data through numerical IP addresses, people find it much easier to remember words, and so long ago, a method to map a name to a number was insti- tuted. This led to the Domain Name System which can deter- mine an IP address for any In- ternet host and provide the Fully Qualified Domain Name for the numerical IP address. All domain names end with the top-level domain, the most common of which are .com, .edu, snet and .gov. But given the rapid growth of the Internet, it’s been antici- pated that in a few more years, we might actually run out of unique domain names. So a number of new top-level domain names have been proposed. In the meanwhile, to help ease the coming domain name crunch, each country has been assigned a two letter top-level domain name; for example, Canada’s top-level domain is .ca, Britain’s top-level domain is .uk, and Russia’s top-level domain is .ru. The British own several remote, sparsely populated islands lo- cated near Antarctica, and the top-level domain name for South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands is .gs! If you maintain a site on the Shareware Solutions IT 13 world wide web, it’s now pos- sible for your web site to have a URL with a .gs top-level domain name, as there are no residency requirements. All it takes to register a unique .gs domain name is to fill out a simple on- line form, and to pay a $50 per year registration fee. Names in the .gs top-level do- main are registered with, and administered by a British com- pany — Adams Names — who can be contacted online at the following URL: http:/ /www.adamsnames.te/ To date, several well known Apple II web sites have already registered with Adams Names. To visit the recently re-named sites, point your favorite web browser at the following URLs: hitp:/ /apple2.gs http:/ /emulate.gs The apple2.gs domain name has been registered to Tony Diaz, and it is at this new URL where you can find his informative technical articles and his vast photo collection of extremely rare Apple II hardware. The emulate.gs domain name has been registered to Eric Shepherd and Henrik Gudat, and it is at this new URL where you can find links to the two most powerful Apple IIGS emu- lators: Bernie ][ The Rescue and Sweet16. Bernie needs no introduction, but Sweet16 does. Sweet16 is the newest IIGS emulator to be released. The programming of Sweet16 was started by FE Systems, but in order to concentrate all of their 14 Shareware Solutions IT efforts on Bernie, FE Systems recently outsourced the project to Eric Shepherd. Sweet16 runs under BeOS, and since Sheppy works for the Be company which produces BeOS, it was a natural choice for him to be picked to complete the Sweet16 project. BeOS is a 3rd party operating system which can serve as an alternative to Windows 95/98 on Intel-based computers, or as an alternative for MacOS on some models of Macintosh computers. With Sweet16, an IBM clone that runs under BeOS (Release 4 or later), can now run Apple II and IIGS software! Sweet16 is a $15 shareware program, and Sheppy has just released Sweet16 v0.9.3, the first version which includes his code. Sweet16 is usable at this point, but there are still a num- ber of known bugs which need to be fixed before the conclusive v1.0 can be released. It is antici- pated that Sheppy will release incremental updates to Sweet16 in much the same manner as FE Systems released updates to Bernie; notably, when a useful new feature is added which gives added functionality to end users. Is is unknown, at this point, whether Sweet16 v1.0 will be completed in a month or in a year. So, it’s much too soon for owners of IBM PCs to retire their trusty IIGS computers, but it’s not too soon to install BeOS on your PC and to convert it into a speedy IIGS through the pow- ers of emulation. In the meanwhile, you can visit emulate.gs for additional infor- mation about BeOS and about Sweetl6. & Simple Solutions Keep It Clean Computer hardware problems come in all sizes and shapes, but perhaps the easiest ones to deal with are those caused by environmental factors such as dust, humidity, heat or cold. Quite often, problems caused by environmental factors can man- ifest themselves in what at first appear to be insurmountable or fatal; yet, some of these prob- lems can be cured in just a few minutes. One of the oldest bits of Apple TI advice is that at the first sign of trouble, you should turn off your computer, open the case, touch the power supply in order to discharge any electrical cur- rents flowing through your body, remove your interface cards, and then firmly press down on every socketed chip. All socketed chips have metal legs, and metal expands when it is hot and contracts when it is cold. As odd as it may sound, af- ter many years chips can actu- ally become slightly dislodged from their sockets, and if and when that does happen, the metal legs may not be making contact, and the electronic path- ways may be obstructed. So in some cases, merely pressing down on all the socketed chips will restore an Apple II to full function. Additionally, there are at least Pre-KansasF est, 1999 three very specific problems caused by environmental factors that can generally be cured by anyone. These problems concern undependable disk drives, unde- pendable IIGS keyboards, and erratic mouse movement. Of course, there is no guarantee that the following simple proce- dures will fix your computer problem, but you have nothing to lose by trying them out except for a little time and at most, a few dollars. A Dirty Disk Drive Disk drives, just like audio or video cassette decks, sometimes need a little cleaning. After all, with an opening in front, dust particles can easily enter into the internal mechanism of a disk drive, and when just one mote of dust lodges onto the magnetic media surface of a disk, that disk may appear to be damaged. Of course, because a disk drive has moving parts, it can suffer from mechanical fail- ure, but more often than not, a cleaning will restore a disk drive to 100% dependability. Radio Shack sells a disk drive cleaning kit that includes a small container of cleaning solu- tion as well as 3.5" and 5.25" disks that, instead of enclosing magnetic media, contains a cloth pad of slightly abrasive material onto which the solu- tion is applied. Insert one of these cleaning disks into the drive, and from the Applesoft Basic prompt, type PR#5 to clean your 3.5" disk drive, or PR#6 to clean your 5.25 disk drive (or use any copy program, any disk catalog program, or any other program that reads or writes data to disk) and within 15 seconds, the drive will be clean. And in probably 95% or Volume 4, Issue 4 more cases, this simple cleaning will restore the disk drive to 100% dependability. The cleaning fluid included in the disk drive cleaning kit is Isopropyl Alcohol (67-63-0), which just happens to be the ex- act same diluted Isopropyl Alco- hol solution that is found in all video and audio cassette cleaner kits. Don’t use the full strength Isopropyl Alcohol which is sold at drug stores, as that can leave a residue on a disk drive’s read/ write head which will make whatever problem you had even worse. So, when you run out of cleaning solution, you can use Radio Shack’s “Head Cleaner For Tape Recorders” solution, which costs less than $2 for a 2 ounce bottle! A Dirty Keyboard Computer keyboards, having small spaces between the keys, are notorious for attracting dust and other airborne particles, and if just one speck of dust gets lodged within the key- switch mechanism, pressing on the keycap may not always pro- duce the desired result. For that reason, it’s important to keep your keyboard clean. Using a slightly damp tooth- brush to clean the keyboard will, if nothing else, remove any grime from the keys and will restore the keyboard, at least cosmetically, to the same shape it was in when you first brought it home. To clean the inside of the Apple TIGS keyboard, detach the ADB connector from the keyboard af- ter you’ve turned off the electric- ity. Once it’s disconnected, turn it over, and you'll notice that only four Phillips head screws hold it together. Use a Phillips head screwdriver and remove the four screws. Be prepared to see an accumulation of dust un- like anything you've ever seen before. By gently tapping on the underside of the keyboard, lots of dust and other small particles will become dislodged. Then look to see if there are other clumps of dust, and if need be, remove them gently with a cotton swab. Blow gently to remove even more particles of dirt and grime. If after you try the above, the keyboard innards are still dusty and dirty, go out and buy a can of compressed air, and holding the can upright, blow several small bursts of air into the key- board. That ought to dislodge any lingering dirt; shake the keyboard vigorously to remove the last of the dust. Generally speaking, dirt inside the keyboard itself doesn’t usu- ally cause any problems when using the keyboard, but in some instances, a particle of dirt will lodge itself into the actual key- switch mechanism, and if that happens, when you hit that key, nothing happens because dirt is preventing contact from being made. If and when that happens, get a can of non-residue TV Tuner Cleaner from Radio Shack. In order to spray a minute quantity of TV Tuner Cleaner inside a keyswitch, you'll have to gently remove the keycap, the part which your fingers hit when you are typing. Please be very very careful, as you must lift the keycap straight up, or you could break off the stem of the keycap. You might need to fashion a tool to do this. Personally, I have found that two lengths of dental floss work great. Slip the dental floss (or bent paper clips or Shareware Solutions II 15 screwdrivers or spoon handles) under each side of the keycap and very gently lift up. Once the keycap is off, spray the smallest amount of Tuner Cleaner into and around the keyswitch, and then just keep pressing down the key. Quite often, that is all that is needed to restore a keyboard whose keys are sticky and/or not dependable any longer. And in case none of the above works, replacement ADB keyboards can often be found for sale for as little as $25. A Dirty Mouse The last homebrew fix concerns mouse movement. Quite often, a mouse can stop rolling smoothly when there’s a build up of dirt on the rollers which control hori- zontal and vertical tracking. If you have difficulty controlling your mouse’s movements, turn the mouse upside down, turn the movable retaining part counter clockwise, and remove the mouse ball. Look closely at the rollers, which depending on the mouse model, can be either metal or white plastic. If there is dirt on the rollers, you'll see it very eas- ily, and a fingernail can be used to remove it. Just make sure you shake out the dirt before putting the mouse back to- gether. If the rollers are visibly clean, then it’s possible that dirt on the mouse ball itself is im- peding movement. Sprinkle some diluted Isopropyl Alcohol solution on a clean cloth, place the mouse ball inside the cloth, and rub vigorously until the mouse ball feels smooth. As a disclaimer, the above information is not intended to mean that you can always re- 16 Shareware Solutions IT pair your Apple II in 15 min- utes, or that you can always perform the repairs yourself. But, the above procedures can generally cure most, if not all, of the simple problems that are caused by environmental fac- tors. @ Bernie Starter Kit CD ACD-ROM ][ The Rescue FE Systems’ Bernie ][ The Res- cue is Macintosh-based emu- lation software which permits owners of PowerMac systems to continue using all of their famil- iar and beloved Apple II and JIGS software on the Mac. And as PowerMac computers get faster and faster, Bernie be- comes even more attractive for TIGS owners whose IIGS sys- tems run at the stock 2.8 Mhz speed. The latest generation of Power- Macs are so fast that IIGS soft- ware running under Bernie can often run 20 or 25 times faster than on a real IIGS computer. Booting up into the IIGS Finder in 2 or 3 seconds is an incredibly attractive inducement to make the switch to Bernie, and more and more IIGS owners are doing just that. The vast majority of new Bernie users generally report having no problems getting Bernie instal- led, but a small number do report having minor difficulties setting it up to run all their Apple II and IIGS software. Three problem areas have been identified by Bernie newcomers: * Bernie is a $35 shareware pr- ogram, and if it has not been purchased pre-registered, it must be registered online through KAGI. Upon receipt of an online KAGI order, FE Sys- tems sends out a code via e- mail which, when typed in by the Bernie user, removes shareware notices and the built-in time limits. Since the FE Systems team is located in Switzerland, they require that all registration code correspondence be con- ducted through e-mail, making it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for those without e- mail capabilities to get Bernie registered. * Many longtime IIGS owners are purchasing new Mac sys- tems just to run Bernie, and these people have to learn not only how to set up and use Ber- nie, but also some basics about their new Macintosh. After all, since Bernie is Macintosh soft- ware, all the documentation and information includes Macintosh specific terminology and proce- dures which can sometimes con- fuse new Mac owners and pre- vent them from getting Bernie installed and working properly. * Once the PowerMac is con- verted into a fast virtual IIGS, System 6.0.1 and application software still has to be located, converted into disk image for- mat, and installed under Bernie. For those who are unfamiliar with creating and/or using disk images, this can be a very con- fusing and daunting task. Ewen Wannop, in association with FE Systems and Share- ware Solutions II, has decided that the time has come to put an abrupt end to the frustrations caused by the relatively minor Pre-KansasF est, 1999 problems that new Bernie users sometimes encounter. To accom- plish that goal, Ewen has, with the full permission and support from FE Systems, created “Ber- nie |[ The Rescue — Starter Kit,” a CD-ROM which is now avail- able exclusively from Shareware Solutions II. The main purpose served by “Bernie |[ The Rescue — Starter Kit,” is to assist new Bernie users by providing them with all that they need to install and run Bernie, in one handy pack- age, ready to go right out of the box. The completed Starter Kit CD- ROM was sent to Henrik Gudat of FE Systems for evaluation, and his response was quite en- couraging: “I am thoroughly im- pressed. I am very pleased that finally, there’s an attractive collection with everything in- cluded, enabling even novice emulation users to get started effortlessly. This CD-ROM was overdue; it’s a heaven sent gift for all Bernie users.” The “Bernie ][ The Rescue — Starter Kit” CD-ROM includes everything that a Bernie new- comer needs to quickly get Ber- nie up and running, and it is anticipated that new Bernie users can be playing the IIGS version of Wolfenstein 3D, on their PowerMac, mere minutes after receiving the CD-ROM. Bernie requires that all Apple II software be converted into disk images before those pro- grams can be run on the Power- Mac. So, Ewen has included a hard drive disk image that’s filled with IIGS software, all set up to run under Bernie. Ad- ditionally, the CD’s Boot par- tition already has System 6.0.1 pre-installed. Volume 4, Issue 4 Supplied on the Starter Kit as disk images are System 6.0.1, HyperCard IIGS, Diversi-Tune, Wolfenstein 3D, GS.Shrinklt, Hermes, GScii Plus, Hyper- Mover, HelpNDA, Crock.0.Gold 3.1, Babelfish, Marinetti 2.0.1, gsAIM, GUPP 1.0.6, Patch.HFS, Error.Strings, ShiftyList Demo, One.Arm.Battle, Turkey.Shoot, FlameStation, Wolfenstein 3D, Milestones 2000, Yahtzee GS, and ImageMaker. The “Bernie |[ The Rescue — Starter Kit” CD-ROM is avail- able exclusively from Shareware Solutions II for $25, which includes postage to the US and Canada. For mailing to other countries, please add $3. To assist those who are not yet online, or others who are unable to submit Bernie’s $35 regis- tration fee online, Shareware Solutions II has made arrange- ments with FE Systems to collect those fees and to provide you with the codes needed to remove Bernie’s time limits. If you would like to purchase “Bernie || The Rescue — Starter CD-ROM” and at the same time, pre-pay your registration fee, submit $60, or $63 for overseas delivery. @ Qlabs Freeware, Round 2 The Floodgates Open At the dawn of the decade, Quality Computers reigned su- preme as the undisputed cham- pion of Apple II mail order ven- dors. Started in a garage by a brash and clever 21 year old marketing expert, by the early 1990s Quality Computers had such an incredible array of prod- ucts available that they became the favorite one stop shopping mall for Apple II owners who wanted to purchase new hard- ware or software. Quality Computers earned their good reputation by stocking a massive warehouse filled with Apple II products, maintaining a toll-free technical support hotline that was staffed by friendly and knowledgeable Ap- ple II owners, and by providing an online presence to answer questions on all of the online services. Not content to be just another Apple II mail order vendor, Quality started an online service for educators, published the II Alive magazine, published how to books, and eventually became a software publisher whose Qlabs titles included such best sellers as AppleWorks, the TimeOut series of AppleWorks add-ons, AppleWorks GS, and Platinum Paint. At the height of their success, Quality did what so many other successful computer companies have done; they sold the com- pany to the highest bidder. When Quality became Scantron Quality Computers (SQC), a new management team took over, and with their corporate fo- cus on improving the “the bot- tom line,” SQC’s interest in the Apple II started to wane. At first, SQC’s change of focus to Mac and PC products was barely noticeable to Apple II owners. After all, SQC continued to pub- lish II Alive and they did release several ground breaking, feature laden updates to AppleWorks Classic. Shareware Solutions IT 7 But as time went by, it became impossible not to notice SQC’s change of focus. After all, the quarterly SQC Apple II catalogs stopped flooding our mailboxes, II Alive ceased publication, and new Apple II software releases from SQC ground to a halt. Then, in the Fall of 1998, Apple Computer Inc informed SQC that it was not going to renew SQC’s license to publish and distribute AppleWorks v5.1. Considering that, at the time, AppleWorks was SQC’s flagship Apple II product, it’s not all that surprising that Apple’s li- cense revocation would have devastating consequences. This final indignity led SQC to drop support for the Apple II line of computers. As reported in the last issue of Shareware Solutions II, Howard Katz, acting as a representative of The Lost Classic Project, con- tacted SQC and was able to se- cure from them permission to have several Qlabs titles for the Ile reclassified as freeware. It was also reported in that issue that two programmers whose work had been published by SQC - Randy Brandt and Doug Gum - had also agreed to re- classify some of their software as freeware. What was unknown at the time is that Howard Katz would eventually be able to success- fully convince SQC to reclassify the vast majority of the Qlabs software it published as free- ware. Thanks to the outstand- ing efforts of Howard Katz, the second round of SQC’s reclas- sified freeware is now available! AppleWorks Add-ons The first seven of SQC’s recently reclassified freeware add-on 18 Shareware Solutions IT products for use with Apple- Works Classic have been re- leased. ¢ About Time by Doug Gum performs many different types of calculations involving dates and times including: day-of- week, number of days or weeks or months or years between two dates, number of minutes/hours between two times, and unit conversions. It also converts be- tween the Gregorian and Julian Calendar systems, and can change the current system time for your computer to any date or time you choose. About Time can input data from Data Bases or Spreadsheets and can output the results to any type of desk- top file. ¢ AfterWorks by Randy Brandt is a series of screensavers for use with AppleWorks v4.02 and later. Since AfterWorks is built into AppleWorks v5.x, the in- cluded screensavers can be used in addition to those that came with AppleWorks v5.x. * AmperMacros by Doug Gum are an extended set of com- mands for developing Ultra- Macro macros and task files. It allows the developer to go beyond the command set built into UltraMacros, and gives the developer extended tools for control of operations, “house- keeping” functions, and Init files. * DiskTools by Doug Gum is a suite of TimeOut accessories for use within AppleWorks v3 through v5.1. Included are Vol- ume backup for backing up a disk or a hard drive, File Back- up for making incremental backups of new files, Compare for comparing two files to see if they’re the same, and Wherzit for finding a file anywhere on a disk or hard drive. * One Touch Commands by Will Nelken are TimeOut applica- tions for use from within Apple- Works v4.x and v5.x. Included are Boxdraw which lets you draw a box around a specified block in your word processing file, Speedmeter which deter- mines how fast you type, WP calculator which performs calcu- lations while in a word proces- sing file, and a great game of Hangman. Also included is Filefinder which finds files any- where on your hard disk, and IW and DeskJet TwoSided which let you print properly numbered front and back pages on a single piece of paper. * TimeOut ShrinkIt by Doug Gum allows you to work with and create Shrinklt files from within AppleWorks v3 through v5.1. A number of flexible op- tions are included, such as the ability to perform Shrinkit oper- ations on files stored on disk and place the extracted files directly onto your AppleWorks desktop. * TimeOut Statistics by Doug Gum is a TimeOut-driven pack- age for working with statistical information. All of the most common statistical functions are included in these TimeOut modules. All of the above AppleWorks add-on programs are available from Shareware Solutions II on a 3.5" entitled “AppleWorks Add-on Disk” for $5. Signature GS Originally costing $29.95 when it was released in 1991, Sig- nature GS is a collection of four different desktop enhancers which can help IIGS users to Pre-KansasF est, 1999 customize their desktop en- vironment with some fun and useful add-ons. Phantasm, Sonics, Graffiti and Boot Master are each Control Panel devices which can be con- figured, customized and control- led from the Apple Pull Down menu displayed in most GS/OS programs, including the Finder. Phantasm is a collection of sev- en different screen blankers which automatically activate, after a one to 60 minute user- defined period of keyboard in- activity, and each exhibits a mind boggling and eye popping animated display. Phantasm prevents your IIGS monitor from developing phosphor burn, a condition which develops when the exact same static screen is displayed for long periods of time. Many of Phantasm’s blankers are so beautiful that you may find yourself activating them just for the kinetic art show. Each of the blankers offer dif- ferent user defined options; some allow you to change the size, frequency and color of the display, while others allow you to enter your own text messages that will bounce around the screen during inactive periods. Graffiti can be lots of fun for those who don’t like the light blue color of the IIGS desktop. With Graffiti, you can easily change the blue color to any of 15 other colors including black, white, orange, yellow or green. Or if you want a really wild looking pop art desktop, you can display a number of different pre-designed graphic patterns, or you can create your own geo- metric patterns by combining different colors. With some cre- ativity, you can easily produce Volume 4, Issue 4 optical illusions and three dimensional Finder desktops. Sonics adds speech and digi- tized sound effects to your desk- top by allowing you to assign specific sounds to routine desk- top operations. Using Sonics and the included library of digi- tized sounds, you can have The Big Bopper greet you with “Hello Baby” as your thermom- eter bar fills, can have Finder windows whoosh open and clang shut, can have your trashcan emitting burping noises, or can even have an evil sounding laugh play when your system crashes. Unlike the Sound Control Panel supplied with System 6.0.1, which can only play back digi- tized sounds that are in rSound format, Sonics can play back any digitized sound in any IIGS sound format, as well as let you change the pitch and volume of the sounds. Boot Master is a useful utility which allows you to have greater control over files in your System folder. With Boot Master, you can activate or deactivate, as needed, Classic Desk Acces- sories, New Desk Accessories, File System Translators, Per- manent and Temporary Initial- ization files, and Control Panel devices. All are controlled from pop-up menus and Boot Master lets you easily toggle between active and inactive status. All of these types of System files use up available RAM memory, and if they’re not going to be needed, Boot Master will let your appli- cation programs use that valu- able RAM memory instead. Signature is supplied on a single non-bootable 3.5" disk. Actually, it’s supplied on two different disks; one for use with hard drives and one for use if booting your system from 3.5" floppy. The hard drive version is pre-configured so that all com- ponents in all modules are available for use after using the supplied installer, which copies files from the Signature disk to your startup disk. The floppy disk version of Signa- ture is minimally configured, so that after installation, each module has only one or two en- hancements installed. Since all of Signature’s enhancement modules take up space on your System disk, and there’s not a lot of free space on the 3.5" version of the IIGS System disk to begin with, you may have to delete certain unneeded files, such as unused fonts, in order to add more blanker files or sound files. It’s for this reason that Qlabs did recommend a hard disk drive, although it really isn’t a requirement. It just makes it easier to use all of Signature’s options; likewise, a hard drive makes everything on the IIGS easier and faster. Signature GS is available from Shareware Solutions II, on two 3.5" disks for $5. Six Pack Six Pack by Bill Tudor is a remarkable collection of five New Desk Accessories and 13 Finder Extras, many of which will change the way you perform certain routine tasks on your TIGS. Alarm Clock places a clock with alarm functions into the IIGS Finder’s menu bar. Button Bar adds a “button bar” to the Finder desktop, providing you with the ability to click on up to 17 different buttons which Shareware Solutions IT 19 can be set up to perform up to 40 different common Finder functions. CDev.Alias is a wonderful utility which allows you to access your Control Panels directly from the Apple Pull Down menu. MoreInfo allows you to easily lock or unlock files on disk or change creation and modifica- tion dates. If you already have a Finder Extra installed which will, for example, let you listen to SynthLAB song files by double- clicking on the song files, OpenSesame will let you listen to the songs from within any program. LaunchList allows you to keep a list of your favorite applications in an on screen window so you can launch any of that software quickly. Memory Use shows you how much RAM memory you are currently using. XtraSounds adds extra sounds to the Finder. FilePeeker allows you to look at the contents of any file. Catalog will let you catalog any disk and to save the catalog to a file or to print out the catalog listing. SizeUp lets you select a group of Icons, and the number and size of files and/or folders in the selected group are counted. In addition, SizeUp will check to make sure that your selection will fit on a destination disk when you perform a Finder copy. SuperDataPath allows you to set up a default pathname to in- dicate to any application pro- gram the location where the pro- gram should always save its data files. HotKeys allows you to perform numerous Finder functions from your keyboard. Six Pack is available from Shareware Solutions II for $5. Please note that all orders for any of the Qlabs disks listed above will be mailed with a free bonus disk which includes Qlabs “First Aid With Reddy,” a remarkable ProDOS-8 animated educational program which teaches youngsters about First Aid techniques. @ Joe Kohn Shareware Solutions II 166 Alpine Street San Rafael, CA 94901-1008 FIRST CLASS - AIR MAIL