A2 News and Notes
July, 2005

 INDEX
* Summer Camp for Geeks 
* Hearing an Apple II
* The Return of GS+
* Apple II Ideas
* Hardware News
* Software News
* SignOff


-- Kfest 2005 was a success, according to the people attending this year.  
Held at its new venue of Rockhurst University in Kansas City, the event 
covered topics as diverse as gaming to protecting personal information.  A 
daily synopsis of the event was posted by Sean Fahey on A2Central.com.  
Day One's report can be found at:  
http://www.a2central.com/article.php?story=20050719192547804

Additionally, the Kfest Committee, headed by Tony Diaz, has announced that 
Kfest 2006 take place from July 18th through July 23rd at Rockhurst 
University.


--Adaptive software always made the Apple II and its software accessible 
to people with various disabilities.  Sight-impaired users made heavy use 
of the Echo or Doubletalk speech synthesizers - and some still do. Jayson 
Smith has created a mail list for people interested in discussing the use 
of Apple II's for the visually impaired.  You can sign up for the list by 
sending an email to:  blindapple-subscribe@jaybird.no-ip.info


--Remember GS+?  The magazine for IIGS users is available again, as 
reprints of the first 6 issues, on a CD-ROM.  The Definitive GS+ contains 
PDF's of the issues as well as six disks that accompanied the magazine in 
Disk Copy 4.2, Disk Copy 6, and ShrinkIt Disk Archive formats.  More 
information as well as ordering instructions can be found at:  
http://store.syndicomm.com/product_info.php?products_id=238


--Many people have brainstormed new ideas for hardware and software for 
the Apple IIin recent years, but until now, there hasn't been a "home" for 
such discussions.  Bill Garber and Henry Courb have decided to provide a 
site where people can bring their ideas for review.  Due to launch in 
early September, the site can be reached at:  
http://www.gse-reactive.com/


--Hardware News:

 - Many //e users know that their machine contains two sets of displayable 
characters: "standard," which includes normal ASCII, and mousetext, which 
is an ASCII-type graphic specific to the Apple II.  Bill Garber has 
developed an add-on switch which easily allows the user to flip between 
the two sets.  More information and ordering information can be found at:
http://garberstreet.netfirms.com/Dual%20Character%20Generator.html

 - Hardware hackers interested in developing new interface cards for the 
Apple II will want to check out Hans Franke's new BastelCard, prototyping 
board.  Besides allowing the developer to create their  own circuit 
design, the card also is available with on-board support logic and flash 
storage for ROM-resident driver software. The BastelCard is due in 
mid-August, with a starting price of $65.   More information can be found 
at:  http://www.a2central.com/article.php?story=20050721060311361
 
 - NadaNet, Michael McMahon's project for using multiple Apple II 
computers for parallel processing, has gotten a software upgrade.  
Boasting a speed increase of 11%, the AppleCrate ROM allows for additional 
signaling between machines as well as a few bug-fixes.  More information 
can be found on Michael's website:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/ 

 - USB support for the Apple II inches closer with the development work 
done by the folks who brought you the UtherNet card.  Based on an USB 
adapter for the Atari XL, an adapter has been made that preliminary tests 
show will work in a slotted Apple II..  More information about the 
development of this card can be found at:  
http://www.a2retrosystems.com/workbench.htm#usb



--Software News:

  - After reports of a bug in Silvern Castle which could cause the program 
to hang after a combat scenario, author Jeff Fink has released a software 
patch to correct the problem.  If you're running version 8.3, download the 
patch at:  http://www.a2central.com/filemgmt/singlefile.php?lid=28

  - An outgrowth of the 2004 HackFest (a Kfest tradition) was a IIGS 
program by that year's winner, Eric Shepherd.  Called SideClick, the 
program is a contextual menu manager.  Now comes the first 3rd-party 
add-on to SideClick: Ryan Suenaga has developed the  ClickIP module which 
displays the IP address assigned to your Apple IIGS when it's hooked to a 
network LAN.  In beta-testing, the program can be freely downloaded at:  
http://lamp.a2central.com/ryans_software/ClickIP/



* Sign Off
A2 News and Notes is produced with real or emulated Apple II computers
using AppleWorks 5.1. Apple II Forever!

A2 News and Notes is (c) copyright 2005 by Ryan M. Suenaga, M.S.W. and
edited by Howard Katz. All rights reserved.

Opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors and do not
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