A2 News and Notes August, 2006

INDEX
* Old Computer, New Clone
* Phoenix Wings
* Solid-State Work
* Another Anniversary
* We're Number 1!
* Prairie Home Changeover
* Plug In, Tune Out?
* Hacking Around
* File Storage
* Software News 
* Emulation News
* SignOff 


-- Cloning old computers seems to becoming popular.  Along with Vince 
Briel's Replica 1 featured in last month's A2 News and Notes, a European 
version has surfaced, made by Achatz Electronics located in the 
Netherlands.  Pricing is in Euros, and start at E79.  More information can 
be found at:  http://www.achatz.nl/


-- A half-second to AppleWorks?  Seems that might be the case.  Mark Munz 
has been keeping everyone apprised of the ongoing work to get Deja IIx 
(note the new name setup) functional.  One of his tests had his work 
loading so fast that the Main Menu screen came up before the a2.inits and 
TimeOut screens had a chance to be drawn!  Mark has released and alpha 
version of the as-yet-unfinished software at:   
http://phoenixrebirth.blogspot.com  While issues remain to be corrected, 
this version is functional.  (and make sure to follow the instructions in 
the readme file!)


-- Rich Dreher has announced that he has sold out of the current batch of 
his CompactFlash for Apple II interface card.  Demand has been so good 
that Rich has ordered a 5th run of cards, so if you haven't as yet gotten 
one for your slotted Apple II you still have a chance. More information 
can be found at:  http://dreher.net/CFforAppleII


-- In 1981, IBM decided to enter the personal computer market. Apple even 
ran an ad that said "Welcome, IBM....Really!"  Computer historians might 
be interested in PC World's take on this momentous occasion: 
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,126671/article.html


-- PC World also did a ranking of the "25 Greatest PCs of All Time."  
Guess which ranked as their Number One pick? Nice of them to acknowledge 
it, but then WE already knew that, didn't we?  Their rankings can be found 
at: http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,126692-page,1-c,systems/article.html


-- In order to concentrate on his growing Apple II empire, as well as his 
daytime job, Eric Shepherd has announced that A2Central.com (the home of 
this publication) will be taken over by long-time Apple II user Sean 
Fahey.  Sean has announced that the physical home of the service will 
transition in the near future from Syndicomm's servers to one closer to 
his Prairie Home.  A2Central.com is the premier site for news of the 
Apple II world.


-- The Apple II meets the iPod!  As announced at KFest, Ryan Suenaga has 
started doing podcasts of news of the Apple II world.  To date, two 
episodes have been released, with more to come.  Give a listen at:  
http://www.a2unplugged.com/


-- Even Woz was known to do it--some called it a scourge, some called it 
an addiction.  Any way you looked at it hacking (not the malicious version 
known today--well, originally not TOO often) helped would-be developers 
hone their hardware and software skills.  If you're online and can view 
streaming videos, check out:  
http://www.jonhs.net/freemovies/secret_history_of_hacking.htm


-- It's been offline for a while, but the Trenco FTP site of freeware and 
public domain software is again available while work on its servers 
continue.  Trenco makes sure that no un authorized versions or pirated 
works are available for download.  Check out the offerings at:  
ftp://ftp.gno.org/pub/apple2-old/



--Software News
  
 - Trying to transfer Apple II files from a "Big Blue" based computer to 
your Apple II?  Many people have used ADT (Apple Disk Transfer) over the 
years, but were put off by it's somewhat slow speed, and it's DOS 3.3 
format (even though this didn't affect the final disk format).  Now David 
Schmidt has released a beta of a ProDOS version that boasts speeds up to 
115,200 BPS using the IIGS serial port as well as the SSC in slotted 
ProDOS-compatible machines.  Download information can be found at:  
http://adtpro.sourceforge.net/


--Emulation News

 - Work continues on Eric Shepherd's new IIGS emulator which runs under Mac 
OS X.  Sheppy has just released version 1.7.2   which fixes a bug that 
prevented the program from  writing to 5.25" disk images, and also  lets 
the user mount multiple disks at a time by dragging a number of images at 
once into the Disks window. Check it out at:  
http://www.sheppyware.net/software-mac/sweet16/index.html

 
 - Gerald Putter continues to work on his Virtual ][ emulation program, 
which lets the user run 8-bit software on a Mac running newer versions of 
OS X.  Version 5.4 includes such features as ThunderClock emulation, 
support for international keyboards, and user configuration of the 
"virtual RamWorks" card.  More information can be found at:  
http://www.xs4all.nl/~gp/VirtualII/



* 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 2006 by Ryan M. Suenaga, M.S.W. and 
edited by Howard Katz. All rights reserved.  Contact the editor at 
a2.tester@gmail.com

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